A Runners Reflection
A few weeks back, an old friend of ours (and blanket recipient), Carrie suggested that we participate in the “For Pete’s Sake Run to MaGerks 5k” Being that Nicole already had her own intense sporting event scheduled for the day, I was the lucky nominee to participate. I thought to myself, "They’re a great organization fighting for the same cause, It’s been about 2 years (and about 20 lbs.) since participating in my last 5K, and the venue was about a mile from our house. How can I possibly pass it up?"
Immediately following the registration, I set out to find the loudest, brightest pink sneakers that I could find. I also settled on the light pink “Pink Warrior” Tee following an epic failure in attempting to create my own Pink Warriors Under Armour shirt. If I was going to do this, I was going to do it right by the Pink Warriors.
Race day came and we set off to the event. I spent the entire hour before the race covered up in my sweats, self conscious about my pink attire. Nobody else stood out from the crowd, or seemed to be thinking about why they were supposed to be there.
About 10 minutes before race time, Nik finally pressured me into ditching the sweats. I reluctantly did so and as soon as I exited the car, I received my first “I love your shoes!”
As I walked to the starting line, I could feel the eyes on me. Instead of feeling self conscious, I felt proud. I couldn’t stop thinking about how I could be the one individual in the crowd reminding everyone of why we were there. We weren’t there to just get a good workout in, we were there to think about and support those who are suffering with cancer.
The race began with an easy sprint downhill, followed by an eternity of up hill running. For the first time that I could EVER remember in a run, I wanted to give up. The hill was too steep. I couldn’t breathe. My entire body hurt … and then I remembered. I remembered all of the pain and suffering that I saw my mother-in-law, Marianne Dow (MaMar), go through. I thought about all of the pain that those fighting cancer have to deal with. How could I stop when folks fight uphill battles that are a million times harder than this every single day!
I continued pushing for the remainder of the run while focusing on MaMar along with all of our Ultimate Warriors. I chose not to wear headphones for that exact purpose and it was one of the greatest times of reflection that I’ve had in my life. I am so grateful for that brief 25 min of solitary, non-interrupted, running for a cause.
As I approached the last hill, I was in an opening by myself, covered in pink for the entire crowd to (hopefully) see my message. I then saw my beautiful wife and daughter cheering me on as I neared the finish line. At that moment, I never felt more proud to be a Pink Warrior.
