I've been slacking on my posts because I've been slacking on my routine. These last two days I ate horrible food and didn't work out as well. Of course now it's the 3 day weekend and I'm heading out of town. I am however brining my running gear. I'm heading out to Cathlamet to stay at my grandpa's.
It's probably there where I developed my love-hate relationship with running. The summer between my freshmen and sophomore year in college I went to stay with my grandma who was in the process of being treated for cancer. My grandpa was in Alaska taking a much needed break. That summer was one of the hardest moments of my life. I had to watch someone I loved more than anything become a person I barely knew (the chemo was causing horrible side effects). My grandparent's place is in a very remote area, there are barely any neighbors and the nearest grocery store is 30min away. I had no friends nearby and of course no internet or cell phone reception. It was difficult. It was that summer I began to run. Every morning I would get up, check on my grandma, grab my discman (that's right, it was before iPods) and go running. I would run along a remote country road. Either side was line by forests and you would never see any signs of another human being. It was on those runs I would let my emotions and hardships go. It was my way of starting the day fresh and ready to deal with whatever was going to happen. It was because of those runs that I was able to make it through that summer.
Tomorrow it will be 5 years since my grandma passed away and it's still painful. I miss her so much. I know tomorrow morning that I'll get up and run that country road which was my escape. I'll run to where we laid her ashes and say a prayer of gratitude that I was so incredibly lucky to have her in my life. This time when I run, it's not to escape the pain, but to celebrate a life.
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