A couple of nights before Thanksgiving, JD & Heather Pooley, John & Elizabeth Gorski and I met out at Gorski’s house to talk about this idea for a little marathon. That night, we debated a number of issues; indoor, or outdoor? Trail, or road? Most importantly, big, or little?
That night, I lobbied hard for a small race – just the five of us runners, lacing ‘em up, and doing our thing. One contributing reason to it is the reason I hate to share. There’s a shirt I saw on Pinterest or something that said “If you’re going to run with me, you’d better be ready to do a lot of walking!” My running isn’t running the way it used to be. Anything over five miles, I have to do a mix of walk and run to keep my left leg from seizing up from the blood clot residue from three years ago. I generally run 2-4 minutes, then walk 1-2 minutes, for the whole 26 miles. So if you see me walking, it’s not because I quit, it because of what I do to be able to “run.”
A couple of weeks ago, the homily at church was about what humility really means; it is to be willing to be embarrassed. As this race has gotten larger, I know I’m going to be embarrassed by the glacially slow pace I keep. I know a lot of people look at this as a ‘triumph of the human spirit’ thing with me, but that, too, is kind of embarrassing. I’m willing to be embarrassed, as long as all of y’all are willing to consider the way I really see this thing: It’s a triumph of God’s love through the love of family, friends, and community.
I’m not doing this thing alone – what should impress you is the groups of people who have dropped everything to be a part of this. THOSE are the heroes here. I could never have even started training were it not for Katie and the kids. And it goes without saying that the people who will be closest with me on the run itself are JD, Elizabeth, Meg, & Dr. Rini – who committed, without hesitation, to a race on what could easily have been one of the worst weather days of the year. All the other friends who originally 'adopted a mile' to run with us! It’s hard to imagine a stronger bond of friendship and love than that. All of our families; in my case, my parents, my sister, and all of the Boyle & Miller kin, from the beginning, have been supportive of this; so too has our church community at St. Al’s. And then the way the running community coalesced around it starting on Monday – from all over the country !; and the way the Bowling Green community – from the city offices, to the BGPD, to Grounds, to the BGSU Athletic Department, Dr. Heather, Alex, Dave’s Footware, the Roadrunners, Team Toledo, and everyone I’m forgetting in the five minutes I have to write this – came together to help as soon as this thing started getting WAY WAY bigger than any of us ever anticipated. I learned a lot about the communities I’ve lived in; from my hometown of GrandRapids, Otsego Local, to the SJ brotherhood, to the old West Hall gang from BGSU, through the Fort Wayne friends dialing in support, and especially the Rogers High/Toledo Public Schools folks who are indeed TPS Strong in every way. I’ve got others who have helped, and are going to run with me tomorrow, too. My Uncle Paul. My grandparents. A lot of you who have supported us along the way –you’ve had relatives you lost over the past few years, and they’re with me,too. All of this support, from the physical presence, to the spirits I feel are with us on this, it’s all the working of the Holy Spirit. How fitting that we’re running on a Sunday, and every footstep can be a prayer of thanksgiving for the ability to come together as a community; a prayer than everyone can feel this sort of love at some point in their lives; a prayer that we can see past our differences, and embrace the feeling of community and family, in all of its different forms!
I’ll see a lot of you out there tomorrow. I hope I get to thank every one of you individually, but I also know that, two weeks ago after my 20 mile run, I was pretty much delirious, with my core temp going low, and if those of us who did the full bug out pretty quickly, it ain’t because we don’t love you all !!!
