My little one does the Mom's day fun run

My 5 year old Dahlia started saying she wanted to do a race.  And after the 1^st LOST swimming Board meeting, Joanne gave me flyer for a Mother’s Day fun run that the IronDames were putting on.  Dahlia saw the flyer and was sold.  She took the flyer to kindergarten to show her teachers and class mates the race she was going to do.   She could hardly wait, finally the race was here, it was brutally cold for mid-May, we had to dig out the hats and mitts, and huddle together before the race.  Finally we start, she is running a good steady strong pace not too fast.  We make the turn-around she starts passing some who are fading, I’m wondering if she can keep it going til the end, then it hits “the wall” and she starts to complain her back hurts, “there’s the finish can you make it?  Do you want to walk a bit”  She doesn’t answer, she keeps going, but she starts to cry.  She pushed herself along and crossed the line crying and I feel like everyone is looking at me like I’m this awful parent who pushed their kid to do something painful, I honestly was not, this was something she showed the initial interest in, I would have gladly walked if she said she wanted to… 
And I only wish everyone saw her just a few minutes after the race was over and she said this was the best day ever!  I really find this raw emotions interesting, I’ve felt like crying at times in races, I sometime wonder when we feel pain what it is that makes us want to stop the finish line keeps us moving til we are there and then how after that we can say that was awesome, when is the next one?
Dahlia is a doll, who is really passionate, this will likely make her a good athlete one day, she already displayed determination and ability.

P.S. The chocolate medal only lasted long enough to show dad.

the devil made me do it

I rarely talk about religion, I’m an atheist. 
But there are times when unexplainable things happen, and when people do things that defy logic, it can be possible to believe that something has possessed that person.  I’ve witnessed and experienced this sort of possession and it least when it comes from athletic competitors no one really gets hurt except for maybe that individual. 
I had signed up for the Mississauga Marathon taking place the 1^st weekend in May, I had been doing lots of training, but I knew I had a problem with my hamstring/hip/glute, which I was trying to ignore and train through and of course it all blew up on me, so that I really was unable to run after the Around the Bay 30k at the end of March.  This injury hurt me even while I swam, so swimming for recovery wasn’t even really working for me.  Anyways I hate dropping a race I’ve signed up for, but I knew the marathon was not an option, at least I could listen to that much logic.  Then one day at swim practice, my friend Stacy said she was going to do the half with my massage therapist, Julie to pace her for 2 hours.  That seemed possible??? – well not really, but it seemed desirable…  I went and picked up my race kit the day before still undecided, I get my race number 666, a number associated with the devil, so I’m claiming the devil possessed me into doing the half.  Well 2 hours wasn’t possible.  And I finished a half for the 1^st time in over 2 hours.  Sometimes something possesses us to do unexplainable illogical things like run a half marathon with an injury, at least that’s the worst the devil “made” me do…

 

And yes I felt like hell afterwards.