I am posting this a little early because I have a meeting in the morning....I have been thinking of Thursday now for several days...hard to believe its been 7 years since the WTC attacks...I will remember that day detail by detail vividly for the rest of my life...I was driving to the dentist's office on Rte 208 and heard a report on the radio that a small plane had crashed into the WTC, when I arrirved at the dentist they were in an office meeting I asked them to put the TV on and well you know the rest....
I wrote the following two years ago when I was coaching the Nike Team, you will see some familiar names including Coach Melissa's ( she was running her first TNT event)...rather than trying to express my thoughts and emotions I think this sums up how I still feel today...its almost a bit weird that two years ago we had run in Mahwah as we did this past Saturday...I don't have the attendance sheet from this past week but that doesn't matter you can all add your names to the list of HEROES...amazing that my contacts don't work they are a new pair ...but everything is very blurry as I try to type...thanks for doing what you do
Hi team,
It's exactly 8:45 AM and in one minute I am sure I will at least be teary eyed if not shedding a tear.
I am having a truly bittersweet day (its now 8:47 am) I could not be prouder and more honored to know a group like you. Many of you started as beginners and now are runners...watching you achieve new heights every week and listening to you as we run has been a pleasure...You all can be described in two words...HERO and RUNNER.
Eighteen of you ran up and down some tough hills yesterday in Mahwah for between 15 and 18 miles...you are incredibly strong be people and are doing this so others may nopt have to suffer in the future...Thank You!!! Thank you for making a diffrence in my life and even more so in the lives of many who will never see you faces.
And then as I drove into the office this morning and listened to Ray Charles sing " America the Beautiful" with tears running down my face, as they are right now...remembering the 2949 people who died, several who I knew casually and one who was a good friend...for those of you who have bar hopped in Hoboken may have met him too...formally Robert Wayne Hobson III (Wayne) who opened "Hobson's Choice" It's now 9:03 and the second plane just hit the South Tower.
Sunday's Heros:
MCM:
Jenn McKenny
Patrick O'Callaghan
Andrea Matz
Gerry Ferraro
Amanda Sabatos
Jenn Rygiel Boyd
Jack Myers
PF Changs Alumni:
JoAnn Beneat
Pam Conlon
Tamara Lynch - TNT Illinois Chapter
Nike:
Jose Amaya
Clare Talarico
Barbara Gilmartin
Melissa Muilenburg
Marsha Anderson
Marie San Pietro
Shannon Ferguson
Varda Carbley
Sorry if this was a bit of a downer but it helped me just to express what I am feeling right now.
You are the definition of Heros..."Ordinary People Doing Extraordinary Things"
If nothing else, hug your kids today just a little tighter, be a little more tolerant of dopey things that others do...continue to do so much good for other people....you are very special people and thinking of you makes the bad things in life seem insignificant and tolerable.
Thanks for listening,
Bill
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Running with a Purpose
I wish I could take credit for the title but it is actually the title of an article I read last night that touched me and prompted me to write here today although I have something else in the works for tomorrow...It was article in Runners World by Richard Murphy ( read it if you get the chance Oct 2008 Issue). The article hit me for several reasons. Its the story of a son who while waiting for his father as he had a malignant tumor, one the doctors compared to the size of a football or a small watermelon, removed at Memorial Sloan Kettering cancer Center in NY. notices a brochure for Fred's Team. For those that do not know Fred's Team is named for Fred Lebow, the father of the NYCM, he and a few others had a vision of a marathon in NY which started as a run completely in Central park and grew under his leadership to what it is today...traveling all 5 boroughs with 40,000 of your closest running friends....if you ever run another (or only doing one) run NYCM...its a tough course to run fast, its a tough course period but there is nothing else in the world like it...it is an experience that no one should miss...I digress....
So Mr. Murphy decides if his father beats the odds and survives , he will beat the odds and run a marathon....training is going ok until his 18 miler which he is going to run while visiting his dad, he has to limp home 13 miles in with aching knees. Mr Murphy recounts the look on his father's face when he saw him hobbling in the driveway which he describes as "his silent fear about his own health unmasked by the realization that maybe everything wasn't going to turn out ok after all." The Doctor tell Mr. Murphy that he has patellar tendinitis and he is done running for now. His father pled his case and explained why he was running the marathon..the doctor said there were other ways to raise money for cancer.
Mr. Murphy finds out a week later that his father's cancer has returned. This inspires him. "If my father could take on chemotherapy, I could take on the marathon.
Mr. Murphy finished the Dublin Marathon, although he never learned about Body Glide and suffered some chafing distress...he called his father and told him he had finished...his after lost his battle six months later....so you see some of what touched me in the story but here is the clincher....
Mr. Murphy taught me a lesson...when he wrote..." I would not feel cheated. I learned something on the streets of Dublin. In a marathon, success is all about shaving seconds off the time it takes to complete your journey. In life, its all about stretching time and appreciating the distance between each breath, something I did not appreciate until I struggled to breathe. To only have six months with someone you love may seem unfair.BUT IF YOU CAN VIEW THAT DISTANCE IN HOURS, SECONDS EVEN, IT SEEMS LIKE A GIFT."
I like many other seem focused on running from one task to another worried about getting everything done as quick as possible....I can say that I will slow down every day but I will try and remember Mr. Murphy's words more and more often and try and stretch that distance as far as I can as often as I can...and remember what the Penguin says "take your time during the race and get your moneys worth" At least in your first one and then worry about your time in the next one...no one can ever take away the title of MARATHONER OR HALF MARATHONER regardless of how long it took you or how many years ago you ran it....and if you are ever disappointed by your time remember what Richard Murphy wrote and then get in your car and go drive 13.1 or 26.2 miles away from your house and see what you accomplished.
So Mr. Murphy decides if his father beats the odds and survives , he will beat the odds and run a marathon....training is going ok until his 18 miler which he is going to run while visiting his dad, he has to limp home 13 miles in with aching knees. Mr Murphy recounts the look on his father's face when he saw him hobbling in the driveway which he describes as "his silent fear about his own health unmasked by the realization that maybe everything wasn't going to turn out ok after all." The Doctor tell Mr. Murphy that he has patellar tendinitis and he is done running for now. His father pled his case and explained why he was running the marathon..the doctor said there were other ways to raise money for cancer.
Mr. Murphy finds out a week later that his father's cancer has returned. This inspires him. "If my father could take on chemotherapy, I could take on the marathon.
Mr. Murphy finished the Dublin Marathon, although he never learned about Body Glide and suffered some chafing distress...he called his father and told him he had finished...his after lost his battle six months later....so you see some of what touched me in the story but here is the clincher....
Mr. Murphy taught me a lesson...when he wrote..." I would not feel cheated. I learned something on the streets of Dublin. In a marathon, success is all about shaving seconds off the time it takes to complete your journey. In life, its all about stretching time and appreciating the distance between each breath, something I did not appreciate until I struggled to breathe. To only have six months with someone you love may seem unfair.BUT IF YOU CAN VIEW THAT DISTANCE IN HOURS, SECONDS EVEN, IT SEEMS LIKE A GIFT."
I like many other seem focused on running from one task to another worried about getting everything done as quick as possible....I can say that I will slow down every day but I will try and remember Mr. Murphy's words more and more often and try and stretch that distance as far as I can as often as I can...and remember what the Penguin says "take your time during the race and get your moneys worth" At least in your first one and then worry about your time in the next one...no one can ever take away the title of MARATHONER OR HALF MARATHONER regardless of how long it took you or how many years ago you ran it....and if you are ever disappointed by your time remember what Richard Murphy wrote and then get in your car and go drive 13.1 or 26.2 miles away from your house and see what you accomplished.
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