
But then there was the fact that I had another race starting the first Sunday of the New Year. The rogue distance festival. It was the second long race that had ever let Kiana and I in with a stroller, 30 kilometers, roughly 18.6 miles. (Running these races with Kiana each time makes me both appreciate and reminds me that there's a reason you shouldn't start running late with your kid because while we've been doing it for almost three years, I think our retirement just due to her size in the stroller and her age is not too far down the road.) Most days I run 4-6 days a week... The week before this race due to the incessant cough and a fever for a couple of days I had run only 2 days (hey I had an underwear run title to defend! and a failed track workout to fail at?).
There are hard core runners who seem to take pride in running in the absurd Texas heat or in miserable cold conditions (it takes just one look at that picture of me in my underwear to realize I'm pretty soft core). The weather for the 30k was going to be in the high 30's, low 40's with winds ranging from 14-22 mile an hour winds. I asked/begged Kiana if she really wanted to do this (I've never hoped she said no more) but she layered up more than she ever has and for the first time ever we put the wind block on the stroller.
The playlists for my music are usually about getting pumped up, to create a little extra push when tired. The race playlist for this race had more songs that had never made a race than any before or probably any after. Because between the cough, the wind and the cold for this 30k, I had never quite questioned why I run these races more with or without a stroller. And the answer, most of the time, most days is because both during training and during races, I run because it is a joy of life, because exercise, especially the way I do it, with Kiana and with a great training group, with people whose company is irreplaceable, is happiness. One foot in front of the other with people you love, that is happiness. It was one of those moments that I was reminded that while I attend church, go to plenty of parties, and have jumped off planes, gone scuba diving and seen wonders of the world, won a marathon that the adrenaline rushes in life are nothing compared to the marvels of daily living.

It kept on with a gift that a friend who I'd had a few laughs with had sent "Safe and Sound." It had some George Clooney songs to just laugh in the middle of it like "They can't take that away from me" and "Short skirt and a long jacket." I'd explain that in more detail in an "uncensored" blog but hey my mom reads this blog. It had some that anyone passing by might have gotten confused but they served no greater purpose than to get Kiana, the actual tiny dancer, to semi dance while she was in a covered up stroller like "Boogie Wonderland" and "Feel this moment." Of course kid's songs were on there like always but unlike I had done in a while in any distance other than a marathon, I used to have a standard practice of a song that would come in shortly after the time I had hoped for which is Daniel Powter's "So you had a bad day" so that even if you recognize you didn't hit your time goal, you acknowledge it and smile.

The winds were the strongest and coldest for the end. I took 9th over all and 3rd in my age group. As Kiana and I did some games and puzzles later, she more than acknowledged that it wasn't her favorite race but that she'd had fun most of it. She'd talked to others in the race after math and said, "It didn't sound like it was anyone's favorite race."
In the end, I can say that like the worst days of my life, it was miserable with smiles slipping out here and there. I just wish Tony Danza had been there at the end to warm us up by holding us closer but he was in New York. Still with a PR, a medal and atrophy there was a girl who I held pretty close and danced with even if she was tiny.
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