Holy bejeepers - did I just type that? Crikies....
Anyways, today was completely, totally filled with Undy stuff. Day started by sleeping in a bit (though I don't know that hitting the snooze from 4:15 until 5:30 counts as sleeping in...), then getting the kids up and going. Got Julia ready for her picture retakes today (since she was sick during the first take), then took the kids to daycare. Headed off to pick up diapers, breakfast, and pants for the race tomorrow. Then, back to the house to clean it up (two reasons - I didn't want to have to worry about it tomorrow or Sunday, and I have guests coming over tonight...), then off to meet up with everyone at the warehouse. We picked up all the materials for tomorrow, then off to lunch with the CCA ladies (thanks again - I love Mediterranean food - just wonderful!), then off to the hotel to put together the team bags. Home after that. Pick up the kids, back home to pull a couple of things together. Dinner, then two stores, then home. Got everything ready for tomorrow, and now I am sitting here with my glass of White Zin, waiting for Seana and her daughter to get here.
Tomorrow will start at around 4am, at the race by 6am. Registration starts at 7:30, race at 9:00.
Holy crap. I'm tired.
I wanted to take a little time to record what I was feeling today. It was a very cool day. But, it was also more emotional than I was expecting. I was okay until we started lading the team bags up with boxers, race bibs and survivor caps/visors. That was hard - one team had seven survivors. Seeing more names that I care to admit that I recognized was hard. Then, I came across Kim's team's bags. That was harder than seeing my own.
I think that, while I realize that I'm a survivor, I don't think about it. I mean, I do, but not in the same way. I don't mourn what's gone, what I lost, because I got through. Kim didn't. A year ago, at last year's Undy, Kim and I met. She had just been diagnosed, and she later told me that what I told her that day was inspirational and made her feel like she could keep on fighting. I made a difference in someone's life. It was my great pleasure to know her. And, today, I teared up at the thought that she can't be here with us tomorrow.
I don't know if I can adequately tell you how I was feeling. It was sorrow. That seems to be the best word. And yet, there's hope. Perhaps this year, I will be able to talk with someone and make their day a little brighter. Perhaps this year, the Undy will be to them what it was to me - a true awakening and realization that I'm not the only 30-something colon cancer survivor in Arizona.
I know that I will see some of you at the Undy tomorrow - I hope that you find me. I will be busy, but not to busy to do what I know is more important - take the time to talk with those that mean SO MUCH to me.
9.5 hours from now, I will be on-site. Kim - let me know you're there. I'm going to need it tomorrow.
Anyways, today was completely, totally filled with Undy stuff. Day started by sleeping in a bit (though I don't know that hitting the snooze from 4:15 until 5:30 counts as sleeping in...), then getting the kids up and going. Got Julia ready for her picture retakes today (since she was sick during the first take), then took the kids to daycare. Headed off to pick up diapers, breakfast, and pants for the race tomorrow. Then, back to the house to clean it up (two reasons - I didn't want to have to worry about it tomorrow or Sunday, and I have guests coming over tonight...), then off to meet up with everyone at the warehouse. We picked up all the materials for tomorrow, then off to lunch with the CCA ladies (thanks again - I love Mediterranean food - just wonderful!), then off to the hotel to put together the team bags. Home after that. Pick up the kids, back home to pull a couple of things together. Dinner, then two stores, then home. Got everything ready for tomorrow, and now I am sitting here with my glass of White Zin, waiting for Seana and her daughter to get here.
Tomorrow will start at around 4am, at the race by 6am. Registration starts at 7:30, race at 9:00.
Holy crap. I'm tired.
I wanted to take a little time to record what I was feeling today. It was a very cool day. But, it was also more emotional than I was expecting. I was okay until we started lading the team bags up with boxers, race bibs and survivor caps/visors. That was hard - one team had seven survivors. Seeing more names that I care to admit that I recognized was hard. Then, I came across Kim's team's bags. That was harder than seeing my own.
I think that, while I realize that I'm a survivor, I don't think about it. I mean, I do, but not in the same way. I don't mourn what's gone, what I lost, because I got through. Kim didn't. A year ago, at last year's Undy, Kim and I met. She had just been diagnosed, and she later told me that what I told her that day was inspirational and made her feel like she could keep on fighting. I made a difference in someone's life. It was my great pleasure to know her. And, today, I teared up at the thought that she can't be here with us tomorrow.
I don't know if I can adequately tell you how I was feeling. It was sorrow. That seems to be the best word. And yet, there's hope. Perhaps this year, I will be able to talk with someone and make their day a little brighter. Perhaps this year, the Undy will be to them what it was to me - a true awakening and realization that I'm not the only 30-something colon cancer survivor in Arizona.
I know that I will see some of you at the Undy tomorrow - I hope that you find me. I will be busy, but not to busy to do what I know is more important - take the time to talk with those that mean SO MUCH to me.
9.5 hours from now, I will be on-site. Kim - let me know you're there. I'm going to need it tomorrow.
Comments:
Tina said...
Hope all goes well! I'll be thinking about you. Enjoy the day--you get to be there again. And hopefully you'll be able to enjoy it for many, many more years!
And I am SURE you'll find someone else to inspire--you are very good at that. Its definitely a gift!
And I am SURE you'll find someone else to inspire--you are very good at that. Its definitely a gift!
November 20, 2009 at 9:20 PM
I have found your posts to be very inspirational to me. I found myself thinking more of you, Tina and Kim than of myself. I thought of each of you and prayed for all. I think to myself, it's been a month since Kim passed, now it's been two months and I pray that Deron and the family are surviving and are able to deal with their grief. I lost a very dear friend of mine (along with her toddler son and young stepdaughter) in a car crash in 2004. There isn't a day that goes by that I don't think of her but we go on. We don't forget.
November 21, 2009 at 10:37 AM
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