Today I ran 18 miles with a runner who has never run that far before ever in his life. It is nice to witness someone accomplish something they are not 100% sure they can do. We negative split our run and finished with a tremendous sense of pride!
He is training for the NJ Full marathon for Team in Training as a way to do something to help those with leukemia, like his little girl. C. is amazing. He is always in a good mood and has a great sense of humor, which is important when running with someone, side-by-side, stride-for-stride for just about 3 hours. He also underestimates his ability to tolerate things that most people find very hard. For example, he mentioned causally that he does his mid-week runs, buy jogging over to the high school track, running 40 laps then running home. That is simply amazing.
I can honestly say that if not for C. being there, looking for someone to keep him focused or distracted, and on a reasonable pace (which today was about a 9:30 pace), I would have been unlikely to drag myself out into the cold for a 3 hour run. However, I find running with people like C, tremendously inspiring and I know that as much as he thinks I am there to help him, he is also helping me in the same way.
Now off to run a few more miles with my dog, Enzo, so that he doesn't feel neglected.
Shannon, I loved reading your blog! What a life you have packed into your years-- a whole lot of good and a big handful of bad but all in all you are now ON TOP!! I'll keep reading!
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