I'm providing this definition because if you would have asked me what it meant a couple years ago (before I was a consistent runner) I would have no idea what it meant.
Like I mentioned in my last post, I ran the Canton Half Marathon on Fathers Day and I finished with a P.R. of 2:20:22. Crushing my Columbus Half Marathon time by an entire minute. I'm OK with being an average to slower runner. As a matter of fact, when I talk about running with fellow runners I always mention that I don't care too much about my pace. I've even set my watch to not tell me the pace I'm running.
I have to make a confession to everyone, I'm telling a lie. In February I purchased my first running watch, and for the first couple weeks I was consumed with my pace. During those two weeks I ran horribly so I changed the settings on my watch and never looked back. So, it's not that I don't care about my pace. The truth is I care too much so I ignore it. Ignorance is bliss.
Until yesterday.
Yesterday, Saturday August 11th, started early. I woke up at 4:30 to go on a training run (for the Chicago Marathon if you're new to the blog). After I rolled out of bed I started my pre-run routine, with one exception. I decided to eat something before this run, with a Clif bar being my choice of foods. After a fierce Canton traffic jam, my pal Bryce York and I set out for what would be my fastest 13.1 ever. Bryce was on board for the first five miles since he's training for his first half marathon (my constant prodding about running actually worked on someone!).
From the get go he kept saying that we should slow down. I verbally agreed but my body didn't get the memo. About 4 miles in, during our final moments running together, I told him I should probably slow down, which I did. But not by much. From this point the run got a little interesting.
Before every run I map the course online. For yesterday's run I added a neighborhood that I was familiar with, but had never run in before. I haven't been in this neighborhood since my sister lived there almost ten years ago. Maybe I was feeling nostalgic. On the street leading to this neighborhood my mind went back to a day that I don't always think about, but I'll never forget.
I don't talk too much about my dad. Mostly with family or with people who ask about him, and even then it's not too specific. He had a lot of medical issues. Fell off of a military oil truck in the winter and broke a lot of bones, which caused him to retire early for medical reasons. He caught bacterial meningitis and was pretty much dead. I mean called-in-our-priest-for-his-last-rights dead. Miraculously he recovered from it. From this point on he would be in the hospital every few months or so for years to come. My dad wasn't perfect, and neither is anyone on this earth. I look back now and see that he was fighting a lot of demons throughout his life and didn't handle it great all the time. Being a teenager I also probably wasn't the best support group. Hindsight's twenty-twenty, I guess.
Anyway, back to my trip back in time.
The day before my mom, sister, and I were up seeing my dad at the Cleveland clinic and something was a bit off. He was in with complications from a past trip to the Cleveland clinic. Under pressure situations, even when he had his first symptoms of meningitis, he always kept his cool. He would speak to the paramedics picking him up like there was nothing wrong with him. That night he was talking really loud and seemed a bit out of it. After a while we left and headed back to Canton.
The next day I went from my junior intro to psych class to Mr. Bolton's English class. As class began the phone rang and I had a sinking feeling. "Thomas, you need to go to the office". Heading to the office I saw my sister standing in the hallway and the feeling completely sunk. Before going up to see my dad for the last time we stopped at my sisters place in this neighborhood.
I'm not going to go into the events that followed the next couple of days. Maybe at another time and not on a blog.
It's now 2012 and I'm running through the neighborhood again and I was balling my eyes out mid stride playing those days in my head like a movie.
Running can be a very zen like experience. A moment of meditation. But this was a little ridiculous.
I don't know if it was this moment of extreme emotion, training, the planets aligning, or really good weather, but I eventually finished the run 14 minutes faster than any of the past three 13.1 runs I've completed.
While I was, and still am, very excited about this accomplishment, one day that P.R. will change but I don't think I'll soon forget this run.
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Fund-raising update:
Thanks to a friend's donation our hotel plans have changed. Instead of spending around $350 for a hotel room we were given hotel perks and now only have to pay $120! With those savings we were able to donate to Active:Water plus towards the expenses involved with the trip.
Thanks to that donation, plus donations from other friends, and we're now at $290 raised out of the goal of $1500.
Sometimes I feel like I'm nagging when I ask for people's money but knowing how much people need our help keeps me motivated. The Lord calls us to help those in need across the globe. You don't have to run to do it either!
Here's the link to my page:
ActiveWater: Asia Project
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Finally, I wanted to throw something out there that I failed to mention on my last post and another news event that I'm really excited about.
On my last post I didn't talk about the Pro Football Hall of Fame 2 & 5 mile run. It was my friend Jermaine's first race! I've been pushing him to do a race for years and he finally broke.
My friends, and running partners, Scott and Shannon have been pursuing a domestic adoption for the past two and a half years and on Friday they signed the paperwork to have their little boy Elijah! A very deserving bunch of people. Elijah is a very lucky kid! A big congratulations to them!
Thanks for reading everyone!
Miles Ran Today: 4
Miles Ran This Week: 32
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