On a trip home recently, facilitated by a loved one’s deteriorating health, I had all the reason in the world to not take life for granted. Then, to drive the point home further, a friend got hit by a motorist while cycling and is currently undergoing rather complicated surgery for a variety of extremely bad injuries. This makes me want to rally against motorist so ferociously who feel that cyclists (and to a lesser extent, runners) are merely videogame objects to destroy for more points in their own version of Grand Theft Auto. But that rally has been done previously and chances are, if you are the type of hillbilly-Neanderthal-ignorant-fool prone to do such a thing, chances are high you aren’t reading my articles here or that you can’t read at all because you are either:
1. Inbred
2. Have your head so far up your ass that you can chew your food twice.
So I will instead focus on the positive even though I am still extending a virtual middle finger to the above named people.
Articles about enjoying the day and each run are nothing new. However, this past weekend had two friends of mine participating in the same race after each facing major recent difficulties. As such, it was easy for me to see why focusing on the positive is necessary. One friend, two weeks after having gall bladder surgery, completed a marathon in a time many people would hope to run just once in their life. However, I know this friend still was hoping for more. I told them to realize what an amazing accomplishment this was and be happy.
The other friend, someone really close to me, was wondering if they would be able to finish the marathon at all due to a variety of issues leading up to the race. Instead of stumbling across the finish line and needing to be medevaced to a hospital, they were able to run their fourth fastest marathon ever. Just like the other runner I described, this friend was pleased but was also thinking that a better time was possible.
The thing is, unless a race takes you one second, a better time is always possible. As such, realizing that you can always be better and therefore you need to be happy with what you have done (and being happy is not mutually exclusive from wishing to strive for more) is paramount.
