K and I did it! My daughter ran every step of the half and I
“cruised” (ran-walked) the full in what was bar none the most memorable marathon
of my life. Just when I thought “the marathon” stirs the predictable along
comes the pristine, no frills, no chip-time run of a lifetime, the 44th
annual Nova Scotia Marathon.
Photos to come in this space. Now, though, it is time for
this: love and admiration for my road darling daughter that I shout from the Brooklyn
rooftops. She (the young woman on the right side panel of this blog) who
greeted with a proud, joyous smile when I needed it most back at the 17-mile
mark during the Pittsburgh Marathon in May 2010. A runner. Just like her pops.
To be with her at the start, with only two hundred and
change runners in tiny Barrington, Nova Scotia, at 8 a.m. July 27, among us,
and then hailing me at the finish line at Barrington Passage at the finish line
on that hot sunny day more than four hours later, cheering me in our identical
subway-chair orange marathon Ts, is a memory that will always stay with me. K was
no bystander this day, four years after that rainy day in Pittsburgh, but the effect on me was
just the same, pushing me to finish on the run, the hardest and happiest that I
can remember.
What, I ask, is better than that? Outside of celebrating a
certain 25th wedding anniversary next month, it beats me. It sure as
hell beats me.
Next: Running for Your Life: Light in August
