The Marathon as a Metaphor for Life

This past week felt like the longest, hardest race I've ever run.

And I thought Big Sur was tough.

Complete with injury, uphills and downhills, pooping, and yes, even "the wall", not all of which involved me, taking an unscheduled week off work to care for my injured son was tougher running any race. In case you missed it, last weekend, my youngest son fractured his tibia while playing rugby. Even though I was well trained for this event (I am a nurse practitioner), I had no idea the extent of pain he would suffer nor the amount of care he would need while he recovered. This was a bad break both literally and figuratively. The orthopedic surgeon told him he was thisclose to needing surgery.

But he didn't need surgery. Silver lining, right? Things could always be worse.

And because timing is everything, we also welcomed a new puppy into our home, something that was planned well in advance. It wasn't like we could back out of that at this point. Ok then.

Why would I do it any differently?

"If the road is easy, you're likely going the wrong way." -Terry Goodkind

Exhausted from that first night spent in the hospital after Matthew broke his leg, it would be several nights before I got a decent night's sleep. We had Matthew on the family room couch and he called me throughout the first night for repositioning, medication, and trips to the bathroom. As the week went on, those calls became less frequent. Matthew and I mastered the art of bathing him from the sink and I got his hair squeaky clean. We went back to see the ortho on Wednesday and his leg was placed in a cast, which made him feel much more secure than he did with the splint they put on at the hospital. Until it didn't. Thursday night he fell trying to get up by himself to the bathroom.

Happy to be in the security of a cast

He didn't want to "bother me". Sigh. There was another trip to the ER to make sure he was ok. He was in so much pain. It's really hard to see that.

"It's a marathon, not a sprint." -Dr Phil

Good thing I took the week off work, although there was plenty of guilt to go along with that. It didn't help to get a text from my office manager asking if I could come in for a couple of hours to see patients. Sorry, I told her, but right now my only patient is my son. Of course, that doesn't alleviate the guilt I feel about missing work and saying no to her request.

However, receiving that text from my manager was when I first hit the proverbial wall. I wanted to DNF this race.

"Tough runs don't last. Tough runners do." -unknown

During the week, we spent a lot of time in front of the TV. I've got 99+ channels and a show ain't on one. I'm pretty sure that daytime TV is the worst. Where do they find the people that appear on Maury? For the few moments I saw before I could change the channel, I felt my IQ drop a few points. We did watch the Cubs play some pretty awesome baseball and the "W" just kept flying! Pretty sure this is "the year". You can tell who the station thinks is watching the games by the types of ads that come on. Lawyers advertising services for nursing home injuries? Life Alert aka "I've fallen and I can't get up"? Hoveround motorized scooters? Pharmaceuticals? By the way, have you noticed that drug companies are making up all these "new" diseases and giving them initials? Have you seen those commercials for OIC? Did you even know this was a thing? "OIC" is nothing new and to prevent OIC while my son takes his pain meds, I made all kinds of green smoothies in my new Ninja blender. On the other spectrum, I also spent plenty of time this week cleaning up puppy poop. Lots of puppy poop. Everywhere. For some reason, she'd rather poop in the house instead of the backyard. It has been cold and rainy this week but come on! It's as if she was the one drinking those green smoothies. Maybe I need to feed Matthew some puppy chow.

Little furball.

Watching all that TV was tough. But cleaning up all that poop was the second wall I hit this week. Can I DNF now?

It's a good thing she's so cute.

"It's hard to beat the person who never gives up." -Babe Ruth

Thankfully for me, my medicine was in the form of actual running. There were enough breaks in the rain that I got some quality time on the road. I ran 4 days this week, and even though I intended those runs to be 'easy' paced, my legs just wanted to go and I let them. I even got an 8 miler in on Sunday. My PF started to act up again but I'm pretty sure I put the fear of God into that foot because it let me pound the pavement.

Sometimes it feels good to just let go and run.

"Your legs are not giving out. Your head is giving up. Just go."- unknown

There was also some yoga this week but not nearly enough. I didn't feel comfortable going to the yoga studio and leaving Matthew home alone, so I did my yoga in the family room. While I was on the mat, Cocoa wouldn't leave my side, and it was funny to see her running underneath me when I was in plank.

 I'm the one planking, she's the one sleeping.

I'm participating in Marcia's plank challenge, and while most people are planking for time, I'm having fun with all the variations I could come up with. I'm pretty sure I can't hold a plank for more than 2 minutes. The variations are more fun anyways. Kim from Running on the Fly may have thrown down the gauntlet and we may be having a friendly competition.

Who me, competitive?

Bird dog plank

That's right. Game on, sistah.

Lotus side plank where I attempted a bind.
Tight hips don't lie.
Not happening.

Thursday I went back to see Becky for my first post-marathon training session. We dug right into the new goals with lots of upper body workouts. I hoisted a 50# medicine ball 15 times over my shoulders. I hung from the high bar for 30 seconds at a time (it's harder than it sounds!). Reclined pull ups? Push ups? Dumbbell snatches? Sled pulls? Bring it on because it always feels good to beat myself up when I'm having a tough week.

"Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional. "-Haruki Murakami

There was probably a lot more I could have gotten done around the house. My closet needs organizing and there are bills to be paid. I did finish up my big project for work and I finally finished that online driving class.

But most important is that I cross the finish line of this race that life laid out for me. This race isn't over yet. Recovery is going to be long and tough for him. Hopefully, Matthew goes back to school on Monday and I go back to work. There will be lots of catching up to do for both of us. But a runner does what a runner's got to do.

Just keep moving forward. There will be no DNF at this race. Marathoners don't quit. Neither do moms.

"Let us run with perseverence the race marked out for us."- Hebrews 12:1

How was your week? Have you ever compared life events to running a race? How does running help you cope with difficult situations? Any helpful hints for housebreaking a puppy? Planks: quality or quantity?

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