Russia 101: 3 decades over 3 miles

This week, for several days in a row, I’ve been running with other people, which is unusual for me. I like running alone. But the experience has been lovely — getting to know new people over a run, sharing life stories, and the love of running.

This morning Cole, my running companion for the last couple of days, asked me to tell him about Russia. “When did the Soviet Union fall? I am fascinated”, he asked.

Cole is a special running buddy, by the way. Even though we got to know each other closely only this week, we formed a special kind of bond earlier in the year when we ran the OC marathon in Southern California. We were total strangers but ran most of the race next to each other. I even have a picture captured by a professional photographer (Cole is in front of me):

We did interact briefly after the finish, and then later in the year, we met again in two other races — ten miles and a 10k Turkey Trot. Cole was super fast both times, having shown an incredible improvement. After the last race, we exchanged numbers, and this week, we finally arranged to run together. It turned out we live close to each other. We are running again tomorrow.

So I told Cole about Russia. At some point, I felt like I was talking too much and tried asking him about his life journey, but he insisted I continue. His interest was…