Long and Fast Weekends

By the title, you are probably saying to yourself, "Oh, great.  Another post of Jim's talking about how great of a long run he had this weekend."  Or maybe you are saying to yourself, "Oh, great. Another post about being tired of being injured and finally having a great weekend run."

Sorry to disappoint if that is what you were thinking.  Instead, this is going to be one of my non-running related posts.  It does, however, continue my string of posts, albeit spotty, on random thoughts and facts about my personal life.

You should consider yourselves lucky (said with tongue in cheek).  I usually have to know someone for quite a while before I share anything personal and that is usually reserved for my family and my closest of friends.  Oh, who am I kidding.  I don't really have "closest of friends" as that would require more energy than this introvert has.  So, thank the fact that posting online allows for folks like me to more easily share from behind the safety of a computer screen.

Back to the title. As you may be aware (see past posts), I am on a long term assignment in Colorado Springs.  Given this, I do not get to see my family much.  I take the occasional work trips back to AL and E- plans visits out here in between my work trips.  With two doggos at home though, we do not like for her to come out very often.  This weekend, E- found a deal that was too good to pass up.  With Frontier flying direct from HSV to Denver now, she finds occasional deals that are too good to pass up. This weekend was one of those deals.

I had been telling her that the Festival of Lights parade was this weekend.  I have never been to one here in downtown CoS, but from looking into it, it looked like a pretty big parade that a lot of people come to watch.  My apartment complex was also going to have a cocktail party before the parade.  The Frontier deal was the perfect storm with this weekend's events and we couldn't pass it up.  Of course, even if there was nothing going on here this weekend, I still would have wanted her to come visit because she is my life and my light.

My Light

Thursday night she arrived and she left this morning.  As I type this, her plane is getting ready to take off.  That is where the long weekend comes in.  I had from Thursday night until this morning to spend the long weekend with her.  As usual, I had an awesome weekend with her.  With Christmas approaching faster than ever, the weekend was full of activities centered around the run-up to Christmas.  We went to a craft fair at Colorado College.  We walked around looking at the Christmas lights and decorations that have appeared throughout downtown CoS.  We, of course, enjoyed some cocktails and then stood out in the cold (and some snow) to watch the Festival of Lights parade, enjoying every minute of it.  And, yes, I probably do not have to state this, but we enjoyed some Christmas shopping while frequenting several of our most favorite CoS coffee shops.

Festival Of Lights Parade

The most fun to me was walking around with her, holding her hand, having her next to me.  There will never be anything that is more fun to me than that.  I repeat, nothing will ever be more fun to me than this when I am with her.  That one simple thing makes me feel whole.  That one simple thing makes everything right.

And this brings me to the rest of the title.  While this was a long weekend, it went way, way too fast.  Weekends usually go fast, as you all know, but weekends like this, when you are with a person that makes you feel happy just being near them, go by in a flash.  As I stood in the cold this morning watching E- drive off, it already felt like this weekend had been imagined; it was a dream in a blink of an eye.  And it was over.

I will see her soon, in less than two weeks, but compared to this weekend, that will feel like an eternity.  As I watched her car disappear around the corner, it suddenly felt very cold outside.  My light was gone and my wholeness was suddenly less than whole once again.

If there is one thing I wish I could give to everyone, it would be the ability to have that person that is your life and your light and the ability to make those long weekends slow down to where they feel like an eternity, with the time in between moving at the speed of light.  I have that person.  Now, I just need to work on the time.

May your weekends be long and slow.

My Fav Float

It's Santa!!!

True Definition of Teammate

Something happened on my run this morning and I felt it deserved a little mention. It is not necessarily what happened that is the part that I wanted to publicize, but the person that initiated it. It was just another example of how a little, tiny thing can make someone's day and it was a great example of what being a teammate means.

I was in the 2nd mile of 7. This 7 was going to be my second longest run since October 1 due to my nagging injury. I don't know that I have mentioned that injury in past posts, have I? I will make sure I dedicate more posts later to my hamstring. :-)

Anyway, back to my run. As I came around a bend, a familiar face was running towards me. Now, if you know this person, you know the exact face I am talking about. Because no matter how long she has been running or how hard she has been running (it can be in the middle of a race), she always has the biggest, shining smile when she sees you. It has the power to instantly dissipate any and all anxiety, stress, and bad moods. It did its work again this morning.

But it is not her smile that prompted me to write this post. It was her actions as she passed by. How great it was for my soul to get a big "YEAH!" when she passed. It was that kind of "YEAH!" that I could feel came from her knowing how much I have been struggling with my injury and from her knowing how much it lifts my spirit to be out running, no matter the pace or the miles. It was that kind of yell that was genuine; she was truly happy for me.

That, my friends, is the definition of a teammate. It is not worrying how many races someone is running, their race times, how many miles someone is getting in. It is knowing their struggles, knowing how much it means to them to be back out there, and genuinely celebrating for them and with them.

It does not take much to be someone's teammate. While this person is my teammate both on the Huntsville Fleet Feet Racing Team and with RunningLane, she is more than that. She is a teammate in life, in getting through life's struggles and celebrating whatever victories can be found in this messed up world. And she is a teammate not by any grand actions or big shows. She is a teammate by her smile, by her wave, by her heartfelt "YEAH!" because she knows and understands. That's all it takes, folks. Trust me, that's all it takes.

So no matter what you are doing or where you are, be the best teammate possible. Be the best co-worker, the best athletic teammate, the best spouse, the best parent, the best child, the best boy/girlfriend, the best family member, the best fellow human you can be. Smile, wave, hug, but better yet, give that word of true celebration and encouragement that lets your teammates know that you listen, that you understand, and that you are truly happy for the little achievements over whatever struggles they are trying to put in their past.

So, thank you for being my teammate, Lauren Mitchell. And thanks, once again, for your beautiful smile and your "YEAH!" this morning. But more importantly, thank you for reminding me what it means to be a teammate.