Life’s Challenges

At the beginning of this journey, I knew there would be challenges along the way. But, I didn’t know that I would be hitting a major challenge right at the beginning. I knocked out two races right at the outset. I was hoping to have at least one more race done by this point since it is in the middle of racing season.

As you may know from my post race article of the Jeff Coombs 5K, as soon as I finished the race, I was told that my grandmother was rushed to the hospital.
Sadly, after battling for a few weeks, my grandmother died on Friday, October 2.

Obviously, over the weeks between her hospitalization and passing, everything got put on hold. Unfortunately for this journey, this happened right in the middle of race season here in the Northeast. But, family comes first. For my first couple of visits, Grandma was sleeping. Then there was a day that she was a little lucid. She couldn’t talk, but she was awake. I was able to show her a picture of me crossing the finish line at the Jeff Coombs 5K, and she gave a big smile. My grandparents always supported my athletic achievements. They often came to my little league baseball games. I also went golfing with them a few times. And Grandma was always happy when I would start running again. As I got older, and put on more weight, I would sometimes try to take up running again. Grandma would always know when I started running again because she would say, “It looks like you’ve been running again. Your stomach is getting smaller. You should keep it up.”

And keep it up, I shall. I got knocked out of my routine over the past month, but I squeezed in a workout whenever I could. Now, I’m back into my workout routine, and ready to tackle more races during this fall season.

My grandmother was my last living grandparent. But, I was blessed to have known both sets of grandparents, and two sets of great-grandparents. I have some wonderful memories, and I will honor my family by being the best I can be, and accomplish my goal, no matter what other challenges come my way.

[twitter-follow screen_name=’TheRhodeRunner’ show_count=’yes’ text_color=’00ccff’]