Award Winning

(on an introductory completely unrelated side note, if you've ever doubted that this blog isn't raw, uncensored or unedited, Livestrong which I love and will support till my dying day wanted to share the majority of the content of the last blog but wanted to clean it up to sound smarter than I am, http://blog.livestrong.org/2014/06/17/changing-centers-a-view-of-the-livestrong-symposium/, compare those two and you can see why I will never ever write a book :)

While we're on that side note I'll never  completely quite understand why I get invited to speak at those types of events because everyone else their has their brain working, I'm even more confused why there is media pieces about a guy who puts one foot in front of the other. Still, two of the video pieces that were done about me have won awards, one print award has as well and a third news one is up for contention. They're nice enough to let me know they won it though I have no idea how all that stuff works and I'll tell you a secret other than the ones where I am there when they are shown to people I haven't watched most of the videos.  I figured it has to be how cute my daughter is that wins the awards in the media. Still,  while making good content is their game, I am working on stepping up my game in running, yesterday and the day before doing back to back track workouts for the first time in forever. My upper body is in the best shape it's ever been. I said that if all medical appointments went well in April and my pick up line no longer had to be will you pick me up if I was cleared to drive I'd be more open to relationships. So hear me here and hear me well, George Clooney's engaged and while I may not get married one year to the date of when I meet a girl like he did but there will be no more George Clooney girls in my life. If I am fortunate enough to make a connection well, we're going to do it the old fashioned way and you know go on a date and pursue her instead of running from relationships and maybe like you know get a girlfriend for the first time since high school. If anyone doubts I'm serious I met a cute girl and for the first time in my life, though it took 3 tries, I got her number and got a date. I honestly don't know what I'm doing and it's probably a little more complicated than putting one foot in front of the other or obstacle courses, but hey if we're talking about awards, if life is a game, love is the prize.


But with that said... let's talk about a prize I actually have achieved and not just one I'm dreaming about... while Kiana's in the middle of a two week summer stay with her mom, she came home for father's day weekend. A blog came out about me from spartan on father's day http://blog.spartanrace.com/tribute-to-spartan-fathers-day-5-iram-leon/  which was incredibly kind. It was perhaps my favorite post because while I happen to be in three different Spartan things in June (the slow news day continues but the other two were about the Austin race and the charity challenge). I know good and well that part of the reasoning I'm getting parenting better than before was because I had so much room to improve before cancer. But like a medal at the end of a race, it's nice to get some kindness. It actually inspired me to do the workout of the day where I was supposed to carry a log for 1/2 mile increments where Kiana pretended to be a log. I hadn't carried her for anywhere near that long in probably a few years and let's just say she's growing.  Still, some of the workout was burpees and jumping  jacks and some of it was running side by side.

Still... that wasn't my favorite part of the weekend. We  had fun with flowers and yard work. We got a pedicure. But in a rare happenstance, she woke up before me on father's day and came and woke me up with her father's day present. Medals hang in her room of every race we've done together. There is a trophy case in the living room of the races I've managed to place in. And somewhere, somehow she'd thought of that making a trophy that said "Dad of the year" (though it's questionable whether it says dud of the year.). And I loved that she gave me that for many reasons but the main one is that it's "of the year." With the spartans, I try to get less obstacles failed and faster times. With the road races, I try to get a faster pace in. And what I loved about Kiana's father day present was that it was just "of the year." Not best dad ever or best dad of the century. Somewhere, whether consciously or unconsciously, she reminded me that relationship are something you should keep working on to keep them on top of their game. It now sits front and center in the trophy case. With all the races that I've ever won, I try to get back to defend the title. There's lots of those I haven't pulled off but some have been back to back titles. But in order to do it, it requires at least holding onto your game and usually improving it. That's what I hope to do with fatherhood and loving Kiana cause I wanna defend and keep nurturing in growing the qualities that let me get the title more than any others I've ever gotten.