I sit before my computer several hours after I ran my very first half marathon. In fact, a mere 14 hours ago, I was in the car, on my way to Detroit. The half marathon was the third road race in which I participated.
When it is just you and the road before you and a lot of miles, there is a lot to think about. Today I realized that one of the things that I like about running is that it is a time when I explicitly feel thankful. Especially when I am running in a race. I can’t tell you how many things I thought about today and felt thankful for. Like my health. Without my health, this accomplishment would have been impossible. When I run, I don’t take it for granted. I was grateful to have parents who allowed me to become who I am. Grateful to have the wonderful son that I have. Grateful for my job. And believe it or not, I had a moment when I felt grateful for my country. My country!! Now that, I have to admit, that’s something I regularly take for granted. But when I heard the national anthem followed by “Oh Canada” it made me think about what opportunities that being raised here, under the circumstances that I have been raised, have afforded me, the opportunities Alex will inherit. It feels good to me to think about those things and take the time to really feel grateful. Maybe I run to chase that feeling.
Now, if you know me well, you know that it would be insincere of me to pretend that I only thought these good, wholesome, grateful thoughts. There were plenty of not so great thoughts in there too. Not bad thoughts, but just observations. I spent a good quarter mile thinking about the woman in the brown pants who had liberally powdered her thong panties. How would I know that? I could see the powder outline through her pants. Then there was the woman with the “mission marathon” shirt. I was going to read the rest of the shirt, but much of the text was hidden as the shirt crept into her numerous rolls and folds. (Hey, I’m not dissing the rolls and folds, but seriously, next size up.) And then there are all the butts. When you’re running that long, you see a lot of them. And upon watching all of that bouncing and jiggling, and jangling and, I don’t know, kersplankering, I was grateful for the one I have. It is by no means perfect, but I decided today to stop hating on it. Maybe I ran to chase that feeling.
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