stay strong
I ran 18 miles Saturday morning. As Mom said, "girl, you're burnin pavement!". It wasn't always this way.
Mom remembers me as a couch potato kid. It's an accurate memory. I wasn't athletic. Could have been due to my poor vision, my bad hand-eye coordination, my general geekiness awkwardness.
I was signed up for softball one summer. I gave it my best shot. I had private batting lessons with the coach, Dad spent hours helping me learn to catch. There was just something I couldn't grasp, depth perception, gauging distance, I just couldn't make contact with the damn ball.
My position, of course, was right fielder and you know what happens there...not a damn thing. I spent my time at practice avoiding the mean girls and watching ant hills back in right field.
Finally I got up the nerve to tell my Dad I wanted to quit. I remember he told me, "If you quit, you'll be a quitter." I told him, "no, I'm just not a softball player."
I wasn't good at organized sports, the pressure was too intense and there were those damn mean girls. I did like to run. I liked to ride my bike. I l liked to play "ghost ball" and HORSE and I loved to read.
(The next year I started wearing glasses. It turned out I was very very nearsighted and I'm lucky I didn't stand in front of speeding balls. But, that was the 70's and parents weren't big on getting kids tested for things as they are now.)
I didn't play softball again until many years later when I was in an intramural softball league at the publishing company where i worked. It was fun. We were a bunch of editors playing teams of accountants and bankers. We won a few games, too. There was no pressure.
When Annalise was little, running always seemed to big to wrangle. I had to find a sitter, buy good shoes, etc. So, we walked, we hiked the Alpine Lake trails, Mount SI, Mount Ranier, Dungeness Spit, Hurricane Ridge, all within a few hours of Seattle. We'd walk almost everywhere around our neighborhood, or I'd walk and she'd Big Wheel.
Skiing was always a bit much for my budget, but Annalise's school in Seattle let the kids go skiing every Friday in the winter and needed chaperones. I signed up to be a chaperone and they put me with the 5th grade boys who wanted to learn snowboarding. So, I learned to snowboard.
It just seems like the right time to learn to run. I'm on a team, but there aren't any mean girls and there's not any time spent in the place where nothing happens, like right field. We all hit the trail together and go at our pace and look out for each other. Yesterday when Nevie was feeling funny at mile 13, Kristina and I looked out for her and at mile 14 when my leg seemed to be stuck in on one position, Nevie and Kristina waited for me to get the leg all stretched and moving again, and we all continued.
18 miles is a long way. It's crazy, it's insane, and sometimes, that's exactly what is called for.
I'm proud of us.
file under: running
Mom remembers me as a couch potato kid. It's an accurate memory. I wasn't athletic. Could have been due to my poor vision, my bad hand-eye coordination, my general geekiness awkwardness.
I was signed up for softball one summer. I gave it my best shot. I had private batting lessons with the coach, Dad spent hours helping me learn to catch. There was just something I couldn't grasp, depth perception, gauging distance, I just couldn't make contact with the damn ball.
My position, of course, was right fielder and you know what happens there...not a damn thing. I spent my time at practice avoiding the mean girls and watching ant hills back in right field.
Finally I got up the nerve to tell my Dad I wanted to quit. I remember he told me, "If you quit, you'll be a quitter." I told him, "no, I'm just not a softball player."
I wasn't good at organized sports, the pressure was too intense and there were those damn mean girls. I did like to run. I liked to ride my bike. I l liked to play "ghost ball" and HORSE and I loved to read.
(The next year I started wearing glasses. It turned out I was very very nearsighted and I'm lucky I didn't stand in front of speeding balls. But, that was the 70's and parents weren't big on getting kids tested for things as they are now.)
I didn't play softball again until many years later when I was in an intramural softball league at the publishing company where i worked. It was fun. We were a bunch of editors playing teams of accountants and bankers. We won a few games, too. There was no pressure.
When Annalise was little, running always seemed to big to wrangle. I had to find a sitter, buy good shoes, etc. So, we walked, we hiked the Alpine Lake trails, Mount SI, Mount Ranier, Dungeness Spit, Hurricane Ridge, all within a few hours of Seattle. We'd walk almost everywhere around our neighborhood, or I'd walk and she'd Big Wheel.
Skiing was always a bit much for my budget, but Annalise's school in Seattle let the kids go skiing every Friday in the winter and needed chaperones. I signed up to be a chaperone and they put me with the 5th grade boys who wanted to learn snowboarding. So, I learned to snowboard.
It just seems like the right time to learn to run. I'm on a team, but there aren't any mean girls and there's not any time spent in the place where nothing happens, like right field. We all hit the trail together and go at our pace and look out for each other. Yesterday when Nevie was feeling funny at mile 13, Kristina and I looked out for her and at mile 14 when my leg seemed to be stuck in on one position, Nevie and Kristina waited for me to get the leg all stretched and moving again, and we all continued.
18 miles is a long way. It's crazy, it's insane, and sometimes, that's exactly what is called for.
I'm proud of us.
file under: running
Labels: running
3 Comments:
Just surfed in..18 miles..your mom is right...:)
I tried to play tee-ball in second grade, but I, too, was always in the outfield where nothing happened. Especially in 2nd grade tee-ball. I always got really bored and would repeatedly toss my glove up in the air and catch it again, and my coach was constantly telling me, "Ryan, you need to keep your glove on." But I never would, because nothing ever came out there. So much for my athletic career.
I'm so proud of you too! Wishing I could still be there with you all, chatting as we run. I miss it. I can't wait to be there cheering you guys across the finish.
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