Keeping Pace

Keeping Pace

Archives for June 19, 2006

Football Mom!

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First off, let me just say that allergy medicine does not help the common cold or sinus infections. It does nothing at all, except maybe keep you awake and dry out your throat. So, after spending the past five days thinking I am NOT sick (this is just allergies), not getting a wink of sleep, and sucking on throat lozenges like crazy, I now KNOW that I am sick.

On the positive side, my muscles are hardly sore at all. It’s amazing. I’ve been able to go up and down stairs without a problem. I feel like I could even run today if I wanted to…which I don’t. Really. Do I sound like I am trying to convince myself of this? It’s true; I already have the urge for a run.

Instead of running, I let myself dig into work a bit. I even enjoyed working today. It isn’t that I don’t like my job, it is just that I have been going crazy with the impending race. I was really having a hard time concentrating on it. I am happy to be back in my world – where there is work, kid shuttling to and fro, a not so short commute, and too much to do.

After barely getting YaYa picked up on time from soccer camp, we headed to get BoBo at his first day of *high school* football practice. Football! After years of protecting my boy from this contact sport, I am finally letting him play. DD played HS football, so it is only fair. He is enthusiastic about working out, lifting weights, running, and even eating better. There is nothing wrong with that. If he can run fast enough, they won’t be able to crush him. Okay, I said he is enthusiastic about this football thing; I will be an enthusiastic and supportive Football Mom.

After shocks

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Now that the marathon is all done, I am experiencing a few aftershocks. After training for six months, the expense for travel, lodging, food, etc. my marathon day came down to a learning experience. In this marathon, I was forced me to examine my priorities. Have I been so focused on this BQ goal that I have forgotten the things that matter so much to me? Perhaps, it isn’t that extreme. I would like to think that I did a good job of balancing out my family, work and running in these past many months. But what about the other things? The regard for others?

It’s been 2 days since the marathon and I can’t shake the image of the girl who was having a seizure on the side of the road. I suppose that is normal. I can’t help but wonder if there really wasn’t something else that I could have offered in help. I am a inactive nurse, but a nurse none the less. On race day, I came upon the scene, stopped briefly, determined that everyone helping out was doing everything that I could think to do in this situation, and then continued running. But was that selfish? It was. Was there anything further that I could have done? Probably not. So why am I so disturbed? I have to ask myself, if there wasn’t enough help, or if they weren’t doing the right thing, would I have not wanted to stop? I know that I *would* have stopped. But would I have not *wanted* to stop? On this race day, there was no doubt that it would not be my day to qualify, but what about the next race. At Grandma?s everyone out there was just lucky to survive.

That brings on the next question: Is this stress that I repeated put on my body too much? Is it insane to push through the pain towards my BQ? Okay, maybe I am going overboard. But really, I went to Duluth with high hopes of a BQ. By traveling far from home, I was forced to leave my family behind. On race day, I was missing them. I was missing them as I made a point to give the little kids high-fives because they were there, and it was HOT, and they were out there for us…for me…anyways. But I wished it had been YaYa and BoBo. And I wanted to see Tom. At the same time I thought how good it was for them not to have to sit in the heat, just waiting for me. Is it selfish for me to have wanted them there? Is it selfish for me to ask them to drop everything that they are doing to sit on the sidelines and wait for me to run past? It is. But I need them. And this race will certainly not be the last.

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