Have you ever watched everyone around you excel while you grow more frustrated? Well, welcome to my life! There are days I don't even want to look at my running shoes. Most weekends, particularly at this time of year, my family participates in one running race or another. Every year my husband gets faster. Every year my daughter gets faster. Every year I don't!
To add to my running frustration, I loved to see my students (and former students) excel, not just in school but also in extra-curricular activities that make them well-rounded. Many of these activities involve running - I must be sadistic. I am amazed by their speed! I am so happy for them. I am so proud of them. But, why, oh why, can't I have just some of their speed and strong lungs??
Whenever I think I am going to give up running to spare my lungs (and my nerves), I "run" across the moments that push me on. Today was the third such moment in just the last month (somebody must really think I need them right now...and they would be right). Let me take a minute to share these moments with you....
Today at the duathlon my husband was in, I decided to volunteer to assist on the course. The most amazing 80 year old man was participating in the race. Despite requiring more than 30 minutes to complete his first 2-mile run and then falling off this bike, he insisted on completing his second run. When we were all convinced he must have given up on his run, I offered to jog the course to find him. When I found him, he was happily jogging along, not wanting my help and not caring how long it took to finish. What will we all be doing at 80????? I hope I am pushing forward like he was.
A few weeks again, I ran with my daughter for her first 10k race. By the end I wanted someone to put me out of my misery....then the one participant in a wheelchair came across the finish line. Everyone applauded. Even the first place finisher went over to congratulate him. He looked so happy to have finished! I immediately told myself to stop complaining since I had been able to start and finish it on my own two feet!!
The third event (or actually the first chronologically) happened on Labor Day weekend and as soon as I saw it I knew it was a memory that would stay with me. As my daughter and I waited after our run for my husband to finish his much longer run, a man came across the finish line carrying a flag. I don't mean a little flag the size of an index card or a flag draped across his shoulders. This was a full size flag on a pole. He had run 20k (more than 12miles if you need help with the conversion) carrying this flag on the hottest, most humid day ever. When he crossed the finish line, he dropped to his knees and started praying aloud. In this prayer, he named all those who had died in service of our country that he was running in remembrance of.
During my tough runs and days I don't even want to try, I hear these memories calling out to me, saying, "Lauren, shut up and run...."
