It is a very snowy Sunday morning here, and I am sitting here looking at the window while enjoying a cup of coffee. We are settling back into our family routines after a very special and happy visit with family. We all had a great week filled with a lot of laughs. I am so grateful for my family, and proud of the strength of our bond. Our parents always taught us from a very young age that we are to take care of each other, and protect each other, and to always stick together. There was a time when this meant we had each others back on the soccer field or if someone was mean on the playground, but it is a lesson that has continued on into adulthood. We still have each others backs, and pick each other up when we are down. We've stuck it out the past few years, and I believe we have come though stronger as a family. Having the perspective we have allows us the time to truly relish the fun we have together. This year it was a treat to be able to celebrate the holidays together.
My thinking has been all over the place this morning, and I originally started to write this post about how happy I was that this past decade was over, and was prepared to take some time to complain about the difficulties and sadness. Despite some very happy times, the year 2000 was the year that cancer began to invade our family and the past 10 years have been long. I couldn't come up with much more to say than the past 10 years were junk, so I abandoned that idea. I kept coming back to what the future holds instead, and focusing on moving forward from where we are now. There are so many stories of people who have had experiences such as ours that have changed their lives. How do we take our experiences and make changes for the better? For me, right now, it is running a marathon to raise money for cancer research. I am sure that when the Dana-Farber Marathon Challenge started 25 years ago, they had no idea that this group would become the largest charity represented in the Boston Marathon each year, providing over $4 million dollars last year along directly to cutting edge cancer research. I don't know what changes the future will hold, but I hope it will be more. That I will be able to do more to make a difference.
As far as training goes, I've had an up and down couple of weeks. On Christmas Eve, I pulled something in my hip trying to, of all things, jump onto a step. That was definitely an impressive showing of agility and strength! As a I missed the weekend long run and rested for a few days until the pain was gone. I got in a couple of rides on the stationary bike, and did a 5 mile run on the treadmill with no pain. I also managed to ice skate and bowl without any further injury, and am chalking both of those activities up to cross-training workouts! On Friday, I got an 11 mile run in before the snow (it's been falling for 36 hours so far). That was supposed to be the long run last weekend, and this weekend was to be a "step-back" run of 8 miles, but I reworked it due to "injury." My hip feels fine, but my knee hurts now. I think it is just tired, so my training should be back on schedule this week. It looks like there will be more inside runs than I'd like due to weather, but it is better than nothing!
I am almost halfway to my fundraising goal of $8500 with $3800 contributed so far. Your kindness and generosity is very much appreciated.
Wishing you a very happy and healthy 2010!
Be good. Be strong.
Keep up the great work Jennie - and cross train to your heart's content (especially on the elliptical machines or better yet, the Cybex Arc Trainer). Unfortunately, bowling doesn't count as a cross training workout - but don't give it up because of that - it is still fun:)
ReplyDeletejack