Chris, left, with Dave Almand of the Shenipsit Striders running club and Skip Weisenburger, right, my aid station cohort.

On Saturday, May 18, my husband, Nat and I joined some friends from our church to run in the Bishop’s 5K for Kids, a road race in West Hartford. I have made this a priority the past two years because it raises money for a fund that helps needy children in Connecticut’s cities. The Bishop’s Fund for Children was started in the 1990s by former Episcopal Bishop of Connecticut Clarence Coleridge. He was there, walking the course.

On Sunday, our friend Skip Weisenburger joined me in handing out water and recording runners’ numbers at the third aid station at the Soapstone Mountain 14-plus-mile trail race in the Shenipsit State Forest in Stafford Springs, Connecticut. I have run this race three or four times and love the people who take part. Sunny and dry weather seemed to make more runners push themselves, and more of them were injured than in last year’s monsoon-like weather. Trail runners are very thoughtful athletes. They ask permission to pass on the trails, usually. They thank the aid station volunteers, too.

In between the race I ran and the one I helped, I drove to Kennedy Airport in New York and collected our daughter, Annie, who returned to the United States after nine months in Scotland. Welcome home, Annie! All in all, a very good weekend.

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