This weekend is the Grand Teton Relay. Jared and I did it last year with Jared's family and we're doing it again this year. I'm a 3-5 miler (mostly 3) and today my 3-mile run felt pretty bad. My knees hurt. My breathing was off. I felt old. This weekend I get to run about 18 miles over the course of 36 hours (a 7 mile leg, a 4 mile leg, then another almost 7-mile leg), lots of it during the heat of the day. I'll do it but there may be some walking involved. Oh well. I'm excited for the good times in the van with great people from Jared's family. But I can't say I'm excited for the running part. At least I know what to expect this year so there's not so much anxiety involved. I know I can do this. But I also know I probably won't do it with flying colors. How in the heck do good runners do it?
On another note, a restoration brick specialist come today to give us a bid on getting some cracked bricks taken care of, fixing missing mortar in our foundation rocks, and getting all the paint taken off our beautiful old bricks (why would anyone ever paint these bricks???). It's going to be expensive and we'll probably have to do it incrementally. But as I walked around the house with this masonry guy and he pointed out the issues that needed to be fixed, he also pointed out how amazing it is that this 125-year-old house is still so very solid thanks to the 2-foot thick rock foundation and the three layers of brick the original builders used. We marveled together at the nice brick details and lovely workmanship. They just don't build houses like this anymore.
And that made me think about how grateful I am that my parents offered me a really firm foundation and that I've got the equivalent of three layers of brick going on thanks to my upbringing with solid values and clear rules with lots of explanations followed up with ample freedom and ongoing support and guidance. Sure, there are cracks and missing bricks here and there and sure, there's been some tough weathering at times and repairs need to be done periodically. But all in all, I'm pretty solid thanks to the gospel and to my parents.
I'm working hard to build a similar foundation for my kids.
3 comments:
Oh wow Saren, you've gone far beyond your parents when it comes to running! I wish I had the guts or even the desire to do such a hard thing. Sounds as though we have our own resident Olympian. Just think of the headline: Mother of Five Wins Gold in Perseverance and True Grit!
We'll be praying for you!
Beautiful post! You should read or listen to Born to Run this week as you are prepping for the big run...didn't you say Jared read it?
Love your perspective on the house and life. Rain comes down and floods come up but the house on the rock stood still (I'm in Primary...can you tell?!?).
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