Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Running

I believe that running has saved my life.
Not because I'm 300lbs and running
helped me lose weight, no I love to eat
too much to lose any weight from running.
It saved me because it gave me a focus,
an outlet for my grief.
A year and a half ago, when my Mom was diagnosed
with cancer, I quit running. I just couldn't get motivated.
I was traveling so much to help her, and I was dealing
so much with my own shock that I just
couldn't find the time to run.
Shortly after she died, I started running again.
All of the grief literature talked about the importance of
exercise. The literature was right.
Every morning I would lace up my shoes and
run. Gradually I increased my distance.
Sunday I finished a 15k road race.
It was the tenth time that I've run that race.
It was the first time that I ran it without my Mom.
Without my Mom cheering me on at the finish line, or waiting
for me at home. It was the first time I couldn't share with
her how much fun I had. I was able to share the joy of my race
with my husband and children.
Cheryl brought our four children to the race course.
She waited with them for over an hour so that I could
see them for only a minute. She waited with them
so that I could hug them, kiss them, love on them.
She waited with them so that they could see me run,
so that at the end of the day, when they asked me what my favorite
part of the whole race was, I could say, "Seeing you guys. Hugging and
kissing you guys. Having you guys there to cheer me on."
That was my favorite part of the whole race.
Thank you Cheryl. Thank you so much.

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