A Flyer and Two Strangers Who Don't Know What They Started

I wasn't going to write about this. It felt too small, the kind of thing that doesn't earn a post. But here's what happened: I took a photo of a flyer. That's it. A community 5K flyer taped to the door of a coffee shop I've walked past probably forty times. I photographed it the way you photograph something you think is mildly funny and then forget about. And then I put it at the bottom of a post almost as an afterthought, 'there's a 5K happening in August, maybe', and moved on.

Except two people left comments. Not sarcastic ones. Not 'haha sure, Elena' comments. Just, actual encouragement. One said she'd done a community 5K two summers ago and it was 'the least intimidating thing I've ever signed up for.' The other said something like 'you've been running anyway, just put a date on it.' I read both of them last night in the dark with my screen brightness way down, which is how I know I wasn't ready for them to feel real yet.

the smile before you decide to smile

The morning club has kind of dissolved for the summer, everyone's schedules scattered once the weather warmed up, and I've been running alone, which is fine but also means there's no accountability except myself. The 5K is in August. I haven't signed up for anything. I'm not saying I will. But I also didn't delete the photo of the flyer from my phone, which maybe says more than this entire post does.

exhibit A, the flyer I photographed 'as a joke'