Resetting Expectations

One week from today is the Peachtree Road Race, the World's Largest 10K race. That's 6.2 miles for those of you who ignored metric conversion in school. This wil be something like my 23rd or 24th time running Peachtree. The last dozen times I've finished in the Top 1000 (out of 55,000 entrants) and earned myself a mug commemorating that accomplishment.

This year will be different. Before yesterday, I hadn't completed a run of 6 miles in over 9 months. It's been an annual tradition to run the Peachtree course, then turn around and run back to the start, about a week or two before the race. While we couldn't do that whole distance this year, David P and I did do the final 3.5 miles of the race, including all the uphill portions, and returned to our starting point, for a 7 mile run yesterday. There were walk breaks and the pace was relatively slow, but we finished it. I thank David for slowing down to hang with me.

So I'm confident I could finish the race, probably in the 55 minute range, which was always my goal in the early years at Peachtree. But I'm not going to do that. You see, this year will be Adam's first attempt at Peachtree and I'm really looking forward to running the whole way with him. Well, running and walking. We've been training together the last couple of weeks, and we figure 70 minutes is a good goal for us - running 9.5 to 10 minute miles, with walk breaks of 90 seconds after every 9 minutes. The race starts at 7:30 but our group won't begin until 7:50. The time doesn't matter. What matters is one of my kids is choosing to help me celebrate my comeback from this latest round of battling cancer by doing something I love to do. I hope he loves it too, and that this is the first of many Peachtrees we can experience together.

Next Monday, around 9 a.m., I'm, planning to let out my loudest crossing the finish line exclamation ever, not just because I'm Kicking Cancer's Butt. I'll be yelling with pride for my son, who is turning into quite the young man. Whether he chooses to continue running is entirely up to him. I'm just looking forward to one of my best Peachtrees ever.