Climbing back

I am almost back to normal after a couple weeks of coughing, sneezing, voice-losing, achy, feverish, exhausted ickiness. I spent much of last week in bed, when I wasn't croaking out instructions to my class participants.

I eventually made my way to the doctor when my ear started to hurt, and he put me on antibiotics. Evidently, I had a sinus infection that sort of spread willy nilly. The boys so far seem to be staying fairly healthy. I am just glad to have some energy again. It is so hard to parent when you feel like crap. It makes you miss the days of childlessness when you could just hole up in bed for a week and tune out the world. T was a big help coming home early from work one day and taking Q with him for a few hours another day. Sick single parents have it even worse.

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This last weekend was a fun mix of the past and present. We had a mini-reunion of my high school cross country team. We were a tight-knit group with wacky traditions and warm memories. A motley group met up in the cold this Saturday for a casual run and a little barbecue. I have been in touch with several of these people, more so since I moved back home, but most I haven't seen in at least 11 years. Amazingly, we slipped right back into familiarity, talking about our favorite race courses and reminiscing about high school exploits. I almost felt like I was an eager 17-year-old again until my 18-month-old toddled over, and I was thrust into reality once again.

It felt so uplifting to bond with my old teammates. It made me appreciate being introduced to running at a young age. It is a passion that has stuck with me and served me well. It also made me appreciate good friends and happy memories of high school. At the time, my high school days often seemed full of stress and drama. But in retrospect, I had a rich experience that boosted the rest of my life.

The next morning, a handful of us run a 5K in downtown Milwaukee. I felt good and got a personal record of 23:45. To my great surprise, I got first in my age group of 30-34. What?! I never win. There were only 1,000 entrants, but still I must say I was pretty darn proud of myself.

Back in high school I was an average runner at best, often occupying the last position on varsity or even being edged to JV. But now, more than ten years later, I sped by my once much-faster former teammates and walked away with a quirky little trophy.

Who would have thought.

--MM