I had eluded in my last post that my dad had given me something "extra special" for Christmas. Besides a brand new Mr. Coffee that has the "auto pause feature" (yes!) my wonderful New Jersey Dad . . . who I will call Jersey Dad sent me a card and in that card was a check and a note. The note said "to replace your hydration vest." If you don't remember please review Black Cloud #4 of this post. Oy. What a sad day that was. I was almost in tears reading Jersey Dad's card. Partially due to the enormous generosity he showed by sending me such a thing but mostly by the fact he acknowledged my running AND may read my blog to understand my sadness in losing that wonderful hydration vest. You see, I run because of my father.
Let me take you back in time to New Jersey circa the 1980s when I was a little girl and my dad would pull the car into the garage. On the garage wall would hang his race bibs. I used to oogle at them and think "wow my dad ran races!" I vowed to myself as a child that I too would run races and hang my race bibs on my garage wall some day. Well fast forward many (many) years later and my garage wall is so full that I now have resorted to placing my bibs on a binder ring. I keep every single one of them and I detail the race specifics on the back.
I don't remember when exactly, perhaps after my first ever marathon (CIM 2004) when I called my dad to tell him "I survived" and how much fun I had during the race that I had revealed to him that I was running because of him! Well, he said to me, "if you read those race bibs I hung in the garage, you'd notice they were only 5Ks!" ha! Whoops. Here I thought my dad was running marathons and he was running 5Ks! I chuckle at that now, especially as I am training for my first ever 50K trail race but regardless, I run because of him. I was inspired BY him and now . . . I will be hydrated again because of him! :-) Thanks Jersey Dad! I love you!
PS: I have to add, my dad has beaten me in every single sprint race "to the car" in every parking lot race we've ever attempted. He showed no mercy to a 12 year by letting me win . . . and if he had not recently broken his knee in an ATV ride (yes, you read that right), I am sure he'd STILL beat me!
Half of my race wall . . .
My new method
Me & the peanut
That is the cutest story about your dad and the 5ks! Really sweet. I am so bummed that Netflix doesn't have either of the movies you recommended! Do they ever come on TV?
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