Today was a gloriously sunny day and I woke up early to get my butt over to the Pacific Road Runners First Half 1/2 marathon. I have ran this race 3 years in a row, but this year, I went to cheer on someone special, my step-dad Jim.
Two years ago, my mom and Jim also ran this race but I got so caught up in my own race, I completely forgot to cheer them on into the finish. I felt horrible and they were a little disappointed. This year, I made sure I was all over the course to cheer on my Dad, especially the finish. My step-dad is a postman over in Powell River and he does a lot of walking. He had injured his hamstring somehow and was off running for about 4 weeks though he still walked (with a limp) 5 days a week for his job. His hammy started to feel better and slowly built back up his mileage. A lot of people may use an injury as an excuse to just drop the race all together. I was proud of him for taking it easy, recovering, and coming out on race day all smiles. In races, he usually goes out way too hard and ends up pulling or tweaking something. But today he ran smart, kept at a comfortable pace, and picked it up in the second half. Today he finished strong with a time of 1:53!!!!
A lot of people were curious as to why I was not running today. I just kept telling them I was here for my dad. I guess I could have ran it and watched him at the end but it was really nice to see him multiple times along the course. He is always out there cheering me on in my races and considering he races about 1 race every 2 years, it was my chance I do that for him. Now I am working on getting him to run his second Marathon. He did Vancouver way back in the day when all people drank was water and Gatorade and wore the same pair of shoes for 10 years. He is just getting used to the idea of taking "energy gels", wearing a "watch" and replacing your shoes every 6 months.
He could most definitely qualify for Boston and I would love to go there with him someday. He is crazy about Baseball and has already looked to make sure they are in season when that Marathon takes place.
Awesome work dad!!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment