Runners, Bloggers, Relationships!
Great People, Runners!
I have found myself in the middle of something huge. I think that I am a member of a group of peers that rival anything I have ever been a part of. It is very exciting!
If you have the chance to meet a fellow blogger/Runner, please do it. You will enjoy the experience! They are people that you know but you have never met. Extremely well spent time.
The Chicago Marathon!
Maddy, Petra and I ran Millennium Park near the lakefront of Chicago the morning before the race. It was a casual run that showed the staging area and several really cool features of the Grant Park area. It was a great way to get to know each other better. We saw the Cloud Gate and ran the length of the serpentine bridge. Millennium park is a great park to run.
At the start line, there was a young man who was running it AND going to work that very afternoon at 3:00 PM. He had even influenced a friend and fellow co-worker to run it with him. I passed him a few times on the course, and he was consistent. His friend was still with him. He really was an admirable young man and I am sure that he made it to work on time!
I ran the first half with a young man named Tony. I was hamming it up with the crowd as I ran. I would clap my hands and entice the on-lookers to cheer us on! Then, of course, the high fives with the spectators and thanking the volunteers and the police. He said that he liked my style. And liked the attention! After a while, we started up a mantra of, “We’re running, I’m Charlie, he’s Tony, You’re cheering!”
Tony gave me a tour of the city as we moved on!
I ran for several miles with Dee. Dee, like me, was from out of town. It was her second running of the Chicago marathon! She helped me to understand the etiquette of running a marathon!
My Medal
As you know, it laid me low when I didn’t finish Chicago. But friends came to my rescue. My friend and her family, took the time to find a special medal. I went to the door Saturday to check the mail. There was an envelope there addressed to me. It had something in it. Something very special!
It had a medal. There was an inscription on the back that made it very, very special to me.
I have a medal because of Chicago. It is not a finisher’s medal. No, it is something much more sentimental and important to me.
It is a runner’s medal from a friend. No other medal I have means as much as this one.
You know who you are – all 4 of you! Thank you very much.
I have found myself in the middle of something huge. I think that I am a member of a group of peers that rival anything I have ever been a part of. It is very exciting!
If you have the chance to meet a fellow blogger/Runner, please do it. You will enjoy the experience! They are people that you know but you have never met. Extremely well spent time.
The Chicago Marathon!
Maddy, Petra and I ran Millennium Park near the lakefront of Chicago the morning before the race. It was a casual run that showed the staging area and several really cool features of the Grant Park area. It was a great way to get to know each other better. We saw the Cloud Gate and ran the length of the serpentine bridge. Millennium park is a great park to run.
At the start line, there was a young man who was running it AND going to work that very afternoon at 3:00 PM. He had even influenced a friend and fellow co-worker to run it with him. I passed him a few times on the course, and he was consistent. His friend was still with him. He really was an admirable young man and I am sure that he made it to work on time!
I ran the first half with a young man named Tony. I was hamming it up with the crowd as I ran. I would clap my hands and entice the on-lookers to cheer us on! Then, of course, the high fives with the spectators and thanking the volunteers and the police. He said that he liked my style. And liked the attention! After a while, we started up a mantra of, “We’re running, I’m Charlie, he’s Tony, You’re cheering!”
Tony gave me a tour of the city as we moved on!
I ran for several miles with Dee. Dee, like me, was from out of town. It was her second running of the Chicago marathon! She helped me to understand the etiquette of running a marathon!
My Medal
As you know, it laid me low when I didn’t finish Chicago. But friends came to my rescue. My friend and her family, took the time to find a special medal. I went to the door Saturday to check the mail. There was an envelope there addressed to me. It had something in it. Something very special!
It had a medal. There was an inscription on the back that made it very, very special to me.
I have a medal because of Chicago. It is not a finisher’s medal. No, it is something much more sentimental and important to me.
It is a runner’s medal from a friend. No other medal I have means as much as this one.
You know who you are – all 4 of you! Thank you very much.
posted by CewTwo at 7:51 PM
15 Comments:
That is very sweet. You did the best you could on the day of the Chicago Marathon. We(bloggers) are very proud of you.
Dang it. You are making me teary.
That is so cool about the medal! I hope you will post a picture of it so we can see it.
Charlie,
you are indeed smack dab in the middle of something huge.
I had no idea about what you experienced with your new friends in Chicago. What fun!
You continue to amaze and inspire me!
Looking forward to you adding a finisher's medal to your trophy case.
Oh Charlie -- please let us get a look at the beautiful medal!
That's awesome! What a group. You completely deserved it Charlie. You can never even imagine how much your blog and your story continues to inspire us.
Absolutely agree with everyone else - the community is a wonderful thing! I so enjoyed our little run together and our breakfast afterwards, and the meal in the restaurant as well.
I KNOW that you will add a finisher's medal - you absolutely have it all in you!
Way cool!! I'm teary eyed as well. I have no doubt if it wasn't hot that day you would have finished. Las Vegas watch out, Charlie's coming to town on 12/7!!!
You deserve that Medal!!!!!! Stop making me cry hee hee. Just think of how special and how great it's going to feel finishing the next one.
very nice. I understand the feeling. Hope you can make it to Seattle. Please, let me know.
Charlie, we are the lucky ones to have a guy like you to count as a friend. Thank you!
What a gift! ... the medal, that is ... and all the friendships!
Keep running, Charlie.
Could you expect anything else? Your story of NOT finishing is actually inspirational b/c there comes a time when you have to come back on another day and you showed us, unflinchingly, this truism. And someone fashioning a medal for your effort and effect is actually not surprising. Your delight at it is yet another pleasure, for me at least.
What a nice thought!
Great story! There is so much more to this sport of running. All of the wonderful people you/I/we have met that today are called "Friend". It isn't about starting or finishing, it's everything in between.
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