Watertown held their Senior Games this Friday and Saturday. We just got done doing the state games in Huron last week…4 days. We weren’t sure how much energy we still had left. I had Saturday morning free, so decided to sign up for the walking events. I need to learn more on this power walking. It truly is different from running. I signed up for the 400 meters, 800 meters, and the 1600 meters. They combined the 800 and 1600 due to the amount of people overall in them. So for the walking events, I won my age group. I was waiting for the 400 meters, scheduled to be the last event, when they were getting ready to do the 800 and 1600 meter runs. Only one person signed up for these 2. Several people were doing the 50 and 100 meters, but not the longer ones. Carol, who is part of our Watertown Area Running Club, was signed up for these 2 events, and no one else. Our motto for run club is, and always has been, “we leave no one behind”. No one should have to run alone. I did not know how fast I was going to do this with my knee, but told Carol I would run with her, and if she wanted to go faster she could. I just did not want her to have to run it alone! We ended up running them together…start to finish! Neither of us ran alone! We were actually having a discussion during the run…just like during run club. Every lap we were getting cheered on! Keep going!! Both of us earned some more medals. But, it was not about the medals. We ran together. We both are staying active. We both ran together so “no one would/should have to run alone!”
Welcome to life! Because haven’t we spent a lot of our lives doing exactly that for one another? Sometimes we’re the faster person. Sometimes we’re the slower person, or hurt and can’t run. Sometimes we’re the one saying, “Come on, I’ll go with you.” And sometimes we’re the one who needs somebody beside us. I have members of our run club now hanging back and running with me as I recover with my knee injury. I love this! “No one should have to run alone!” This is life. And the rest of the week were other examples of life.
Sarah and I went to Minneapolis to go see Nick and Hannah. We went on a run with Nick…attempted run…he is too fast for us! Then we got to go to a Twins game together, and our daughter Megan was at this game as she was in the cities for a work related conference, and a bunch of people from the conference went that evening to the game. It was great!
The best parts of this week were not about the things we did…it was about who we did them with. I’ve spent a lot of years trying to see how fast I could get to a finish line. Maybe I’m beginning to understand that who crosses it beside you matters a whole lot more! Keep moving everybody!
Dr. Dan
Consecutive Exercise Day of Newest Streak: # 900