I forgot to tell you about the warm up run with the long distance runners. I thought I had forgotten my shoes, but not wanting to disappoint my daughter, decided to go ahead and try the partially unknown and partially known to be rough asphalt route. I thought I'd probably be slower than everyone, so decided to get a head start when I saw all the girls hanging out in the building for an undetermined length of time. (daughter was being a good team mate and tryong to wait for them, albeit not so happy with their dawdling, she was also concerned I might get lost by myself. So cute) The boys mostly caught up to me pretty quickly, but didn't all pass me. When I was on smooth asphalt again I caught up to one of them and said hello. He made an obvious effort to run with me, so I chatted with him some, finding out he had moved from Mexico and learned English 6 years ago. He was naturally curious as to why I would run without shoes. I tried to explain and thought it had been adequate. Then, we came to some very sharp road and gravel "options," so I told him to go on ahead, I didn't need to slow him down. He practically took off a shoe mid-stride, adamantly offering me his shoes over and over , despite my telling him I preferred to be barefoot. He finally believed me and we also got to better ground. We finished the warm up run together, then I waited for my daughter to do her speed workout with her. To top it all off, he seemed to be interested in running with me for the cool down. I guess he was very comfortable with my chatty motherly presence! It was a little sad to tell when I told him my feet were done with rough surfaces for the day. But wasn't his reaction so very kind, to give me the shoes right off of his own feet, knowing he would then be on the same rough surface?!