Many years ago i remember watching my mom run round and round the sports arena in our town during the winters. I know she ran outside a lot too but i suppose the reason this sticks out to me is because i started running round and round too. I don't even think i was wearing tennis shoes and was still wearing my school clothes but i remember seeing how fast i could go around.
My mom has always run and if i remember correctly, she ran the night before she had her first baby! So i guess you could say that the love of running was in the genes!
About 5 years ago my mom decided that for her 65th birthday she wanted to run her first half marathon with her girls. She trained very well but during training started having some pain in her leg. By half marathon day she was having pretty consistent pain but if you know my mom, there was nothing going to be stopping her from running that race!
We all had signs on our back and wrote on our legs so that people passing us could cheer her on. She had SO many cheers and i think that alot of what kept her going. She was in a lot of pain throughout the run but as no surprise finished!!
When she had her leg checked out after the run (she had it checked before too and had been given the go ahead by a dr) she had a full blown stress fracture in her tibia! It was a memorable day and i admire her for fulfilling that dream even with so much pain!
Her dreams didn't stop there though! Fast forward 5 years...she had a new dream! She had gotten back in to running and had been running ever since she healed up from the stress fracture. My dad was also doing a lot of running after he had come back from knee surgery. She decided that she wanted to have another try at the half marathon and this time it was going to be my dad and mom and all 6 kids to celebrate their 70th birthdays!
We had to do some talking to the boys and i think there might have been a threat thrown out there by one of the sisters that if they didn't do it we would just drag a dummy along with their name on it? It must have worked! :)
My mom started having a lot of problems with her sciatic while training for this race. She has a couple of slightly bulging discs and stenosis. It got so bad that she had to have several injections just to help her with the everyday pain!
But again, when my mom sets her mind to something...
She was in a lot of pain once again this entire 13.1 miles. Both Dad and Mom did so great though. My dad has diabetes and often struggles with low blood sugar. My sisters and i were prepared with anything he might need in case of a drop of sugars but i don't think he used hardly anything!
We had so much fun along the way (i don't know that i can speak for my mom on the fun part)! But in spite of the pain that she was in i think i can speak for her that she was having fun out there with her husband and 6 kids all fulfilling a dream of hers together!
I'm pretty sure that i wasn't the only sibling fighting back tears as we crossed the finish line together!
Thank you Dad and Mom for being a great example in many many ways throughout life but in this instance for making staying physically fit fun and always an adventure! Watching your determination has made me more determined to continue to try to accomplish some of my own dreams!
This will be a memory that i know all of us will treasure forever!!
4 comments:
You are such a fine blogger! Thanks for taking time to do it.
What a nice blog Elisa. You do such a great job of writing and what fun we have had with the memories. Love you! RUN,GIRL,RUN!
Wow! That is really neat. I need to meet your mom sometime. She sounds like an awesome lady!
Wow, what determination!!! Your Mom is an excellent example of persevering through pain.
I didn't know you had 5 siblings. You and one of your sisters look like twins :-)
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