The Right Coverage

Last night, I finished a 5k Happy Hour that was followed by great Gospel Music and crashed into a few running friends there and with the seizure having happened during a run, instead of the typical back and forth, I get the most questions about something I don’t remember and couldn’t control. I knew I had 20 mile run this morning and an ultimate tournament to run and play in this weekend but I sat there and alternated between working on my Boston Marathon playlist and rereading the neuropsychological report, wondering how today’s neurological results will come in. The seizure tweaked my knee somehow, I don’t know if it was landing or on the way down, and I wonder if it was impact or a twist so I wondered how the run would go. I’d sat and received my neuropsychological evaluation and then gone over to Livestrong where we started working out the details of the training for the ride and the postcard that will go out to 80,000 homes to raise money for the organization. (Let me know if you want one but you have to promise to make a donation.) A friend joked with me about how I’m not the poster child, I’m the post card child and I responded that it wasn’t size that mattered. Another friend and I had been talking about when is all of this attention going to die… and I don’t know but I sure hope it’s long before I do. There is even a volunteer who is going to train me for what I learned is called a century, a 100 mile ride which like a marathon, you don’t do the full distance till the event date (whether or not you are a biker think about coming out, donating or being a virtual participant: http://www.livestrong.org/Take-Action/Team-LIVESTRONG-Events/Ride/Team-LIVESTRONG-Challenge-Davis, tell them I sent you though eventually in due time apparently they’ll have a guy named Iram who won’t possibly look good in biking shorts on there .) They want to highlight taking a new challenge and frankly the new challenge helps keep the other ones from being completely overwhelming. The biker jersey makes me realize I need to do more upper body work. There is going to be a blog off the Livestrong website after I run Boston with a few entries about my training which frankly biking will make my life easier with the driving limitation.

The 20 mile run is less fun than I’d hoped despite the good company, the uphills, usually my favorite part messing up my knee to where this training run takes longer than the marathon did 3 weeks ago. I get an email about when I can help organize the Brain Power 5k this year and state that I am happy to help. It’s no joke that I enjoy attention, having being a class officer through high school and having organized things my entire life but even as I’ve had some criticism from the media stuff I’ve turned down paid gigs for a couple of running things that I had no connection to. And it’s no secret that as a culture, we highlight the people who succeed despite difficulty, as at some level we should though sometimes the way we define success varies. And the trophies are on my mantle from races so let’s not pretend like I don’t enjoy my accomplishments both because of them and because I worked my tail off to get them. But there are also people who come over to the house despite some neurological impairments and as I notice mine, mild by comparison, I remember that the cracks are sometimes how the light gets in. But every once in a while we get the right coverage done and the Austin American Statesman gave more coverage to the guy who finished last in the marathon than the guy who finished first, coincidentally someone whose home I’ve had the privilege of being in. And I am proud of the guys and gals from the Ship of Fools that kick ass and break 3 hours and qualify for Boston but I am proud of friends I’ve made like Matt Cotcher who despite serious physical impairments has been doing 5ks and half marathons. I’ve been thinking a lot about the possibility of death. My friend Susan always calls me the boy who lived with the scar on his head to prove it. Damn it both when I’m scared and when I’m not, I hope that becomes the norm. Of course, we should cheer on the winners but life is a marathon, and let’s always cheer louder the ones who don’t give up in both real marathons like John Street and like Matt or in the marathons of the challenges of life.