New Running Buddy?

Monday Nights my son has his choir practice for the Maryland State Boychoir up in Baltimore.  Its not too bad of a hike from Crofton

[caption id="attachment_1971" align="alignright" width="278"] Bryce in his Choir Robes[/caption]

(where I live),just about a 40 minute drive (in the 5:30 traffic.)  I spend the two hours that he is practicing, hanging  out in a comfy room with couches and I get to read for 2 hours.  I have tossed around the idea of going running during this weekly block of time, but I don't know Baltimore.  This becomes VERY important due to an interesting quality that the city has.  You can be in a fantastic neighborhood, nice houses, nice cars, etc, yet when you walk two blocks you can find yourself in a neighborhood where you fear to stop for a red light, let alone travel through on foot in the dark!

I would like to keep "not being mugged" on my bucket list, so this has kept my Monday runs to being a nice morning run, rather than using my evening time

In a seemingly un-related story, two weeks ago a new child joined the choir.  I should come as no suprise, that this brought their parent along to the comfy room with the couch!  Now this part might be a surprise to you - but I am not a shy person.  Tie this in with the idea that I don't like people to have to go through the same difficulties I did, if I can prevent it (When our family became part of the MSB family, we found a severe lack of information.) In the waiting room the "business as usual" was for everyone to sit there quietly and avoid talking (or even acknowledging really) to each other (common in a big city I suppose.)  Well this new-to-the-choir parent introduced herself, and just a wee bit of time later - I  began sharing the things I HAD figured out, so that she would not have the same issues I had.  This had the marvelous side-effect of getting everyone there talking and introducing themselves.  Last night, I am pleased to say, continued that trend of chatting (though no longer limited to the choir.)

At one point in the evening's conversation I mentioned driving in Woodbridge, Va during rush hour, and that I could have run the distance to my meeting faster than my car went. (seriously.. Driving was a 14 minute mile..  My pace is usually 8-10 minutes..)  This obviously brought up the fact that I was a runner.  Now after those that recognized me as the "Once and Future Runner" got autographs, the conversation moved on to other things.   Yet, as we were leaving - one of the other parents mentioned that she would be interested in going running during practice with me, once it was light out during practice-time.

I'm kind of excited to have a potential running partner, even for one day a week!