I've struggled to know how to write this entry for about a week now. I don't know how to adequately portray and describe something that happened last week without either over or underexaggerating it's impact on me.
Last Thursday, I was at work feeling sorry for myself because I was working on my day off. Sometimes, when I'm not loving my job, I obsessively check my Blackberry for any type of contact/inspiration from the outside world--a text, an email, a BBM. Anything to bring me hope. Some things are better than others. SPAM email--momentary hope. BBM--exciting inspiration from those closest to me. What I received was better than all of those things combined.
In between patients, I arrived at my pseudo-momentary resting place at the office to take a "mental" break between patients and found my Blackberry happily blinking it's cool red light indicating I had 1 text message and 12 emails. Eureka!!! I'd hit the motherload.
Upon examination of my inbox, I realized that all the messages were from my brother, Kevin.
Kevin, my amazing brother Kevin, has been running too!!!!!!!!!!! He has been secretly training with me and finally reached the point in the training where he revealed to me his plan. After each run, he had been recording his comments and thoughts about the run in a journal entry. He forwarded all of these entries to me in a lump with the instructions, "Start reading with Run 1" so that I'd know where to begin.
As soon as I saw the titles of the messages, I knew what it was. I had to wait until I was done with work to really read all the entries but knowing what they contained made me "float" through the rest of my non-day-off work day.
Why the secrecy? I think I'll let Kevin's explanation of this in his journal entry speak for itself:
"My sister is running the PF Changs rock and roll marathon in Jan of 2010, and I admire her dearly. She, like me, is not a natural runner and this will no doubt be the hardest thing she (and with any luck I) have done. When she announced she was doing this effort, I immediately wanted to join in the fun. But, knowing myself and the aforementioned medical weirdness, I really didn’t want to get some group momentum under way only to have to drop out at a later time. I’d feel like I was dragging down her resolve by failing ‘the group.’ Besides, part of this achievement that’s going to be important for her is to get it done by your own steely awesome resolve. Of which, mine is in serious question."
Kevin is running. Kevin is running. Kevin is running. And he's doing soooooo great! And now that I know, we've spent all week BBMing about our running and our motivation and our sore legs, and it is wonderful to have a companion.
And it's not just any companion . . . . it is a companion who is uber-similar to me in motivation, sometimes lack there of, struggles with healthy eating and most of all, our resolve to do this cause we've wanted it for so long. Kevin MAY want to run the half and not the full marathon depending on how his exercise-induced migraines are doing, but either way, I have someone to chat about running with!
If you look at my mileage from last week, you'll notice that it was NOT STELLAR. I had made it past the "What's the Point" hurdle, but I was still struggling to feel "great" due to my sciatica or whatever it was issue. And I can honestly say that after finding out Kevin is running too, I have a renewed sense of motivation, focus and even a little bit of healthy competition to help me along.
Kevin is a lot faster than me, so we won't be "actually" running together, but we have talked about being able to meet halfway on some of the long runs to come.
And like I said before, since I found out, I've felt FOCUSED and determined and really just a new resolve to do this! It couldn't have come at a better time. I am so thankful for his timing because I am getting ready to start OFFICIAL Week 1, and I feel great!
Thanks Kevin--I can't tell you how excited I am!
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