Next Stop, KDF Marathon!

Well, I've survived my training. I logged the final long run, 8.5 miles, today. While Jina worked out at the "Y", I headed out from the parking lot. Dodging traffic on a busy two lane, turning onto a less busy busy back road laced with rolling hills. Not what I had originally planned for this last run. My decision to make another left hand turn takes me alongside a local golf course, and thankfully a port-a-pot. A brief run on the cart path as it parallels the road then I'm back onto the back road that leads north from Jeffersonville to Sellersburg. I'm running beside a railroad track and decide to run on the track bed on my return route. As I approach my mid-way point I'm presented the opportunity to pick up the rail bed further out and run on it longer. This decision costs me a little time as I have to pick my way across a tressel that crosses a sizable creek, but it's a fun diversion, and causing me to remember the scene from Stand By Me. The tracks lead back along the golf course and I jump off onto a cart path that parallels the tracks, then back onto the tracks before returning to the road for the last 2 miles back to the "Y". I'm having fun, my time is stronger than I planned or expected, the varied course has been a great distraction from my weeks of training and worrying about conditioning, times, endurance levels, etc. and then as I approach the "Y", the field next to the parking lot is dotted with yellow dandelions. They unlock a childish desire in my mind and as I draw even with the leading edge of the field, I leap across the muddy ditch, into the field and end this final training run cruising through the grass and dandelions.

My fun run was then followed by team pictures with the T-ball team I volunteered to coach, when the other coach backed out in the 9th hour. (Well, me and 4 or 5 other dads who have been great to work with, but who didn't want to be the "Head Coach"). Back home after pictures, a ball game that started nearly an hour late, a couple of B-day parties and a very late dinner at the Golden Corral. I'm picking up the den while Jina takes care of the baths, when I pause to look at the shadow box which holds the medals I've accumulated from my races. The first is the '06 KDF Mini finisher's medal hanging against a background made up of a picture of Scotty and I prior to the start. Next is a 1st in age division medal from a small 5k against the backdrop of Jina and I, both with medals, after running the race. The next medal in the frame is the biggest, a large round chunk of finisher's medal from the Akron Marathon, once again set against a back drop of Scotty and I, this time running stride for stride through a state park, mid-race, flashing smiles for the camera man. The last medal to have been placed in the box is from the '07 KDF Mini, but more important is the picture of Jina, Alicia, Tammy, and I side by side in the pre-dawn dark ready for the 13.1 miles ahead.

Why is this such a big deal? Because I realize at that moment, that unlike the past races, this one I'm running alone. Yes we ran different paces in the past races. Yes, Scotty ran only 15 miles of the Marathon with me, (He was the long leg of a 2 person relay) but there was a connection I had with each runner, with each friend, on race day. This year life and other commitments have made it hard to meet up for group training runs. This year, everyone from last year, except for Jina (Mom's stroke eliminated our early morning race day child care), will return. We will also, on last count, add three more of our church members to the list of race participants. While no formal pre-race plans exist yet, I'm sure we will meet up prior to the race to hang out, and laugh, and joke, and pray. Even so, for some reason I feel kind of empty. I've missed running with my friends on long runs. I miss the days Scotty and I spent our long runs discussing everything; family, church, running, theology, politics and everything in between. I miss having Jina run races with me, and I miss having my mom and dad able to watch the kids. Not because it puts a crimp in our lifestyle, but because of the crimp it puts in theirs and the knowledge that it will never be the same again.

In the end, I fully expect to complete next weekend's marathon, but in doing so I will miss seeing Tammy and Frank, and Cara and David cross the finish line. I won't see Alicia come across the finish line with the training partner she will have been carrying for 17 weeks come race day. I will also miss seeing Donna complete her first Mini, a goal she set for herself last fall. Some victories are bittersweet, and this will fit that category, but if I can convince a few of them to join me at Wick's Pizza afterward to see how much pizza I can cram down my throat, then all bitterness will be forgotten, replaced by the sweetness of friendship and accomplishment.

Good luck to all who plan to run next Saturday!