The Reality of the Run…

So, last Saturday Bridger and I had a breakthrough run. 5 miles. It was great. It was cold but not raining, I was nervous but we took it slow and eventually achieved our goal…

And They Ran…

As exhilerating as it was to tick off another milestone on my road to a half marathon as with all things the photo soooo does not depict the reality of the situation. So let’s add a little perspective to the situation… See those little bushes in the background? Those are sticker bushes. Bridger, being 10, had a hard time staying on the road in mile one and thought it would be more fun to run on the side. That is until one of those bushes caught him in the thigh and scratched up his leg, through his shorts mind you. I being the overly protective and compassionate mom that I am said, “suck it up Bridge, we have a long ways to go, please stay on the road from here on out.” (I felt more sympathy when we were done and I actually looked at his leg and saw that indeed there was a bit of blood… I told him neosporin should do the trick. )

These words of kindness and concern came through clenched teeth because when we hit 4.5 miles my intestines began to take over my whole body and threaten to unleash right there on the side of the road. This victory photo is an absolute miracle that it even happened. I only had time for one shot because I needed to get in the car quickly and race home as fast as possible. We were only about a mile from home and all I kept saying the whole way was “oh Jesus please let me make it.” Over and over and over again. Bridger was looking at me through the corner of his eye wondering if I had gone completely mad. I did manage to squeak in, “please do not tell anyone about this.” His response? “Don’t worry mom, I have no desire to tell anyone about this.”

As we approached the house I told  him that as soon as I stopped the car that he was to jump out and run open all the doors so that I would have an unobstructed path to get to the bathroom. I made it. Boy was I glad and it took a bit of recovery time before I was able to post my victory photo. I was soo thankful that it wasn’t blurry.

There is not one part of any persons life that is not messy. The victory photos are awesome for the victor because only she truly knows what it took to get to that moment. For the casual observer however there can be the tendency to look at the victory and then look at their own life and assume that it just comes easier or more naturally for others. There are very few things in life that come easily or naturally (except intestinal issues). The truth is that I am almost 46, my physical body is still healing from chemo, my right hip is starting to hurt which has never happened before, my miles were run at around 10:59’s and my 10 year old son, who hasn’t run in quite some time and has never run 5 miles totally kicked me to the curb.

Even with the mess, it was a great run with my son and one more milestone on the path to race day. I have a lot of miles to cover before then and I already know that there will be issues along the way. I will continue to take victory photos because they remind me of what I have accomplished and how far I have come.

Don’t forget to celebrate the moment…

Have a great day, All!