monkeying around

sweet baby james is coming to run my marathon. well, not like i own the marathon and not like he is running in my place or something. but, this is the 4th year for this marathon, and i've run it every year so far, and i am personally acquainted with the race director, so it's as mine as it gets.

the event is delightful. you get a bib and a shirt with your name on them. you can get a cool hatch show print poster. there are special stickers for your car and last year there were temporary tattoos. the running is through the woods on paved trails up & down hills amongst trees. it's really the most fabulous fun you can have for 26.2 miles. the night before, there's a passgetti dinner. after completing the race, you get a medal and a door prize and there's a potluck of food and a couple kegs of local brew. as far as marthons go, this one is the best.

sweet baby james has been training diligently for months - doing his long runs and his short runs and his in-between runs. he's been running fast and nearly never walking and going up hills and down hills and fitting in his runs between work and family and running early in the morning and running late at night and running running running.

in the moments when i can put aside the all-consuming envy i feel for all things running... in the moments when i can take a deep breath and maturely recognize that this summer was my summer to be injured, making this fall not my fall to train, but that there will be another summer and another fall, and i can choose to do things differently then... in the moments when i can make that extra effort not to think about myself... in those moments i am filled with happiness for sweet baby james and his enjoyment of his glorious training cycle and i swell with pride that this is my sweet baby brother -- who before he could walk, slept with his wee tiny pigeon-toed feet strapped together at the heels in hopes that one day he would "walk right" -- that is now preparing to come to my park and run my marathon.

but then the moment passes, and i just want to sit on him and tickle him till he begs for mercy.