My Amazing Wife
This morning, we all got up early and drove out to EC Glass High School. Lyn, dressed (uncharacteristically) in spandex and lubed up with Vaseline, was preparing to run the Virginia Ten Miler. The morning was overcast and very humid. And the raceway was packed.
Mack, Tim and I cheered as Lyn ran past us with the starting stampede (there were a lot of others), pounding the pavement with her feet. I think that she had a bit of nerves before starting the race; she seemed less at ease in the car as we drove over. But starting, those were gone and replaced with her tenacity.
With the race started, the we left the start/finish line ... she told me that she would be back sometime after 110 minutes. We mostly goofed off. Tim asked lots of questions about her and wondered if she’d “win”. Tim is big into winning.
I tried my best to answer his questions: tried to explain that winning and losing didn’t really apply here. This was more about besting yourself and the course (despite the fact that they had a timer and one her friends wouldn’t run the 10 mile race because she didn’t think she’d finish fast enough ... maybe it is more about winning than I let on). “Besting yourself” didn’t sound all that great to the boy.
We wandered back to the start/finish line at about the 1 hour 40 mark to watch for her and cheer on those who were finishing. Dressed in pink, we knew that we’d see her as she approached (up a long hill). Every form that came up the hill in pink made Tim say: Dad! That’s her!
But, it wasn’t really her. Tim and I (and Mack too) watched with the hope that the next pink-clad runner would be Lyn. Finally, we saw her (and unlike the time that Tim thought that a 9-year old girl looked like his mom: it really was her). She looked pretty spent, but had a smile on her face.
She was also locked in a duel with a 80 year-old man. He tired to press her on the left, but she would not be passed. He tried again; but she forced herself faster. I could tell that there was no way he was going to beat her. Finally, she put him behind her for good, breaking into an even bigger smile as she plowed on toward the finish line.
We started cheering as soon as she was within ear shot. Mack started calling “Mommmmmiiiiieeee!!!!” while Tim and I waved madly. I wish that I had been standing behind the finish line so I could have seen her face as she crossed. Lyn pounded ten miles of Lynchburg streets and paths into submission today and I couldn’t have been prouder. She even out-paced her Octogenarian nemesis.
I don’t think that she was very happy with her time: it was the slowest she’s ever run this course before (she ran it several times in practice). But, I can’t really bring myself to care about the time. She went out and raced: beating the humidity, her legs and the miles into submission.
She did it!
Mack, Tim and I cheered as Lyn ran past us with the starting stampede (there were a lot of others), pounding the pavement with her feet. I think that she had a bit of nerves before starting the race; she seemed less at ease in the car as we drove over. But starting, those were gone and replaced with her tenacity.
With the race started, the we left the start/finish line ... she told me that she would be back sometime after 110 minutes. We mostly goofed off. Tim asked lots of questions about her and wondered if she’d “win”. Tim is big into winning.
I tried my best to answer his questions: tried to explain that winning and losing didn’t really apply here. This was more about besting yourself and the course (despite the fact that they had a timer and one her friends wouldn’t run the 10 mile race because she didn’t think she’d finish fast enough ... maybe it is more about winning than I let on). “Besting yourself” didn’t sound all that great to the boy.
We wandered back to the start/finish line at about the 1 hour 40 mark to watch for her and cheer on those who were finishing. Dressed in pink, we knew that we’d see her as she approached (up a long hill). Every form that came up the hill in pink made Tim say: Dad! That’s her!
But, it wasn’t really her. Tim and I (and Mack too) watched with the hope that the next pink-clad runner would be Lyn. Finally, we saw her (and unlike the time that Tim thought that a 9-year old girl looked like his mom: it really was her). She looked pretty spent, but had a smile on her face.
She was also locked in a duel with a 80 year-old man. He tired to press her on the left, but she would not be passed. He tried again; but she forced herself faster. I could tell that there was no way he was going to beat her. Finally, she put him behind her for good, breaking into an even bigger smile as she plowed on toward the finish line.
We started cheering as soon as she was within ear shot. Mack started calling “Mommmmmiiiiieeee!!!!” while Tim and I waved madly. I wish that I had been standing behind the finish line so I could have seen her face as she crossed. Lyn pounded ten miles of Lynchburg streets and paths into submission today and I couldn’t have been prouder. She even out-paced her Octogenarian nemesis.
I don’t think that she was very happy with her time: it was the slowest she’s ever run this course before (she ran it several times in practice). But, I can’t really bring myself to care about the time. She went out and raced: beating the humidity, her legs and the miles into submission.
She did it!
posted by AndyM at 11:32 PM
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