Tuesday, December 30, 2014

Uh, I think you forgot about one… #Race19(No)Medal18

Well, I did not forget. I actually registered myself and my child that ALWAYS GOT SOMETHING TO SAY! I mean, it’s another state and a Christmas themed race! We are going to Jingle Our Bells for a great cause! Medals!!!

At least that’s what she led me to believe when she text me about the race options in Seattle. I should have known she didn’t read the fine print. Medals for those the runners who place in their age group, and uh, yall know my life. You’ve been reading the blog. There’s none of that.

But we registered anyway. It’s all in good fun.

…and that was the extent of what we did. I don’t know, but something about this one always gave me the feeling that it wasn’t going to happen. I didn’t want to admit that though. No medals. Registered a couple of weeks before the race. No packet pick up option #MailOnly. Did not receive my packet in the mail before my flight (with my bib and timing chip)…or race tee. And nothing about the three days spent before the race had anything to do with the fact that at some point we were going to run/walk/drag our butts 3.1 miles.

And oddly enough, I am okay with it. Sure I would love to be able to say I got another running event in, in another state. That would have made for a great blog post. I mean, you already think I’m the most amazing person you know…that would have just made me like, like, like Jesus’ Administrative Assistant. I woulda been great yo. Filing blessings and taking yalls’ prayer messages.

But it wasn’t meant for me. If the running has taught me anything, it’s that I am going to miss the mark. It’s that every challenge isn’t mine to overcome the first time around. And above all, no matter the outcome, if you show up again the next day, something better might be there.

The night before the race I just knew we were going to run, my baby girl that ALWAYS GOT SOMETHING TO SAY and I sat around a cheese tray eating grapes and drinking some awesome concoction that I came up with. I’m like a bartender. And by bartender, I mean, I know how to find a bar, and I tend to get things while I’m there.

She picked at a couple of my emotional scars. And she is persistent…just like her hood mommie. She would not let up. Not in a badgering way either. Just in a I love you, but you are going to answer this question and talk about this ish with me kind of way #SheWasRaisedRight #SheWasTaughtWell #YoureWelcomeWorld. She definitely has that way about her. I had to admit some feelings I never anticipated ever sharing, especially with her.

There are things you don’t tell your kids. At least not while they’re kids. No parent ever wants their kids to know how hard life can be. Parents spend their lives (parents worth anything, anyway) making life as easy and as wonderful and as beautiful as they can for their kids. Life can get real shitty real quick, and it will, if you keep on living. So for me and my kids, they got every happy anything I could manufacture in Conway, Arkansas, and I kept all the rest for me. Right or wrong, it was my choice, and mine alone to understand.

It’s just that my kids aren't kids anymore. So it’s time to let some of it go. And to do that, I have to give something up.

Crying, tortured, wishing on some four leaf clover, to free you from the chains that bind you, fleeing from yourself…

In time you'll figure out, we search our whole lives, to seek what's inside, we run but can't hide…

Begging strangers to try, to shield us from pain, hoping we'll change, but it stays the same…

Why do you defeat you? Let the past mistreat you? You don't wanna let it go…

No one else can help you, only you can free you, but you gotta let it go, let it go…

Vicious circle, frozen by the fears that lurk, you'll wind up in the place you run to, find you've lost your way…

But in time you'll figure out, we search our whole lives, to seek what's inside, we run but can't hide…

Begging strangers to try, to shield us from pain, hoping we'll change, but we remain in the game…

Why do you defeat you? Let the past mistreat you? You don't wanna let it go…

No one else can help you, only you can free you, but you gotta let it go, let it go.

I’ll get that 19th race one of these years. Perhaps even an 18th medal. Just not this one. This year I got something better. I got a little bit closer to freedom. #ItFeelsDivine

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