Choose to stay

"38 degree race time temperature, 30 mph winds, mud.... but The Cary Rockin Marathon Relay roles on! These athletes are tough as nails!" - Trivium Racing (9am this morning)

According to the warm forecast ahead, this morning is going to be my last of the winter race season. I am looking forward to running without having tears roll down my cheeks & snot dripping down my chin from the winds & bitter cold. Bring on the shorts!

It was a great last race of the season; the WakeMed Soccer Park for the Rockin' Marathon Relay. I teamed up with my running pal, Jon Hunter, who's training for a marathon 2 weeks from today.

We ran 8 1.65 mile laps apiece around the Soccer Park - passing the baton between each set. We went with a breakdown of laps per person: 1, 1, 2, 1, 2, 1 - the last 2 consecutive laps hardest of all!

The weather gods had the wind pushing us back on the last monster hill of each lap - running uphill into 30 mph winds equals double the amount of exertion and doubles your usual pace.

We ran under the team name of the Hawk Clan Runners - in Native American tradition, you receive an Animal Totem at birth - comparable to Astrology - I am an Aries / Falcon (Animal Totem) and Jon is a Libra / Raven - both the Falcon and Raven are members of the Hawk Clan. 

Reflecting upon today's experience, I've thought a good deal about community - the Falcon is a solitary creature, the Raven more communal. The Falcon can learn from the Raven.

A running pal who supports your journey, and teams up with you to accomplish a shared goal, is a good friend.

(Almost 3/4 of the way through, lap results)

On my drive to the race, just after 6am this morning, I came across the public radio program On Being, and today's guest was author & poet Jennifer Michael Hecht - no chance of fate that that was the interview I heard while mentally preparing for this race. 

"We have secret web-like connection to each other," says Hecht. "Sometime when you can't see what important about you other people can."

It may seem odd to have been inspired by an interview focusing on Hecht's new book; Stay: A History of Suicide and the Philosophies Against. However, it was Hecht's words on community that resonated. 

There was a time in my own life 10 years ago, before I severed my biological family's toxic grip, that I chose to leave. Yet my spirit refused to succumb, and I was given the opportunity to live the life I was always meant to live.

Today I was renewed by the secret web-like connections of friendship, and community, and gently reminded of how wonderful it is to choose to stay, persevere and keep going - in life, and in a relay with 30 mph winds!

“None of us can truly know what we mean to other people and none of us can now what our future self will experience. History and philosophy ask us to remember these mysteries, to look around at friends, family, humanity, at the surprises life brings — the endless possibilities that living offers — and to persevere." - Jennifer Michael Hecht