In October I knew Humbled
would be the title of my next entry - it has been the theme of my first few
months back. I just didn’t realize the
full impact of it until this week. Bear with me, I promise this all comes back
to triathlon.
We aren’t doing Christmas this year. No decorations and no
presents. We’re not being the Grinch, we
just don’t have the energy. We didn’t really do Christmas last year because I
had just had my surgery and wasn’t working. We didn’t really do Christmas the
year before because ML’s trigeminal neuralgia was an issue and she was getting
ready to have surgery at Hopkins and I was flying back and forth to Denver and
the new job. Yes, it’s been a tough
year, but we have always known that there are so many people way worse
off than we are and do our best to focus on the positive and being grateful. We are healthy, safe, and have some of the
best family and friends in the world.
There are new babies in the family! And, this is a biggie, a PhD
in the family!!
Still, some days are hard. Last week was hard. In November
we came very close to losing my 94-year-old mother-in-law. Family members flew
in, arrangements were discussed, and a lot of tears shed. Miraculously, she
rallied! She is in a rehab center and one of us was getting there every day to oversee
her recovery. Last Tuesday the place was “in isolation.” A stomach bug was
raging through the population and they asked people to stay away for a couple
of days. Too late…. three days later it raged through our house. You know how you have that one time in your
life when you were so sick you will never forget it? Mine was January of
1988 when I was living in Madison on Warren Street. Well, it was, until last
week. Right in the middle of all this I learned that I would not move forward
in a search I was more excited about than anything I’ve looked at. (wow you
can’t make this stuff up! It sounds worse than it is… We are healthy, safe, and have some of the
best family and friends in the world!)
I hadn’t really shared this, but my ultimate goal for this
first segment of “training” was to prove to myself that I could walk 26.2
miles. It is a deal breaker – if I can’t do that, I can’t do an IM. I dug out
my training schedule from my first marathon (Disney 2011) and put it all in my
inspiration journal and got to work. (Surprise, 26.2 landed on the Disney
Marathon weekend.) I did 100 miles in November and was all set for the long
walks in December. Last week I had an 18 miler scheduled. It didn’t happen. Suffice it to say, the
events of the month, 4 days of inactivity and missing the most important
mileage week of the training, I was at that
door- the one you walk through when you're done. Five days, then six days, went by and I was still not moving. I was on FB
and I saw the runDisney post “One month
from today! Are you ready?” On a whim, I wrote something about what I’d
been up to thinking maybe it would help me be accountable and get me out on
that 18 miler. This is what I wrote….
“Tough year - fought cancer, no work. But
I'm a fighter. Ran Disney 2011,12, &13 and loved it. I can't afford Florida
this year but have been training to walk/run with all of you virtually on the
13th!! 18 miler this weekend. (I'm in CO so you will be warmer than me!! lol)
ENJOY the magic!”
There were several very nice
comments. Still I didn’t move. Then this….
“Deb Armstrong...This really moved me... and
I see we have a mutual friend, I would like to speak with you. You should be in
Florida with us and I want to see if I can help make that happen. Please PM
me!”
Let me add a few other
coincidences in here: the mutual FB
friend was one of the 5 team-in-training angels from my first marathon (see
previous blogs), that angel just happened to be this guy’s TNT coach, and this
guy just happen to be on FB to see my post among the thousands of other
comments. And oh ya, TNT just happen to be where endurance sports all started
for me…hmmmmm.
I pm’d him (let’s call him
Charlie.) I acknowledged his offer to help and politely declined. Well, Charlie
is a top fundraiser for TNT and it is not hard to see why – he was not taking
no for an answer. I got this response with a link to his fundraising video….
“Hi Deb. I totally understand your
hesitation. BUT, I’d love for you to think about it. [A group of my friends and
I have] already discussed. If you want to race, you should race. We have
confirmed an entry into the marathon for you or if you prefer, the half. We
will take care of everything. Airfare, hotel and race entry. Your post moved us
all. The fact that you were training virtually is amazing dedication and we
want you to be part of the team with us, no strings attached. This is why we do
this!!! I get the fear of being swept, but everyone needs a balloon lady story
anyway!! Please consider!! This is
purely us reading your story, being moved and wanting to do something special
for someone. You don’t have to share anything you don’t want to. Just come have
a great weekend with a bunch of runners and cancer fighters. Watch this and
then try to say no!”
When it comes to this sport, many people
have applauded me for never giving up and thanked me for being their
inspiration. The truth is, I want to give up ALL. THE. TIME. I HAVE given up many times… This is me! Then, some angels come along and inspire me, this time in a way that was
beyond my wildest dreams. Some of those angels from 2011 I know well. This one
I knew for 15 minutes, eight years ago. If not for being FB friends, I probably
wouldn’t have responded to Charlie.
I think I’m supposed to do this. So, I’m
going to Disney! I wasn’t training for a race with time requirements, so I might
do the half, or maybe meet the balloon lady personally this time. Either way, I am so humbled and grateful. I
can’t wait to meet my new angels and tell you all about them! I have to go for a walk now!
Merry Christmas!
