My Two Running Dads

This is the story of my two dads...I read somewhere once that you'll have many parents throughout life, in addition to your biological mother and father. At this point in my life, i can easily identify 10-15 different parental figures, including my two "running dads."

There's Richard, aka real dad, who is gearing up for the Pig half marathon. This will be his furthest distance covered in a race to date and it's only 2 weeks away from today. I convinced him to come downtown to practice the Eden Park hills, so we walked about 6 miles of the course yesterday morning. Dad is a great walk/run companion; we talk about our family, enjoy the scenery and when I suggest we cover the whole Eden Park loop (Woodburn to MLK and back down Gilbert), Dad is willing to keep going. It shouldn't surprise me, but he randomly tosses in a quote from Pee Wee's Big Adventure, which in retrospect, cracks my shit up.

Well, Buenas dias!

It's good for us to have this time together. In my nuclear family, Dad and I are cut from the same cloth. On the surface, we share a common addiction to race-finishing euphoria and obscure movie quotes, but on a deeper level, walking together is our time to reconnect as daughter and father. Rad said to me the other day that some of his best talks with his kids are on walks. And how.

My neighbor, Mark, became my running partner and de facto dad almost 5 years ago while we were living at the Renaissance. That running partnership survived my move with Dan to PP@L, then Mark & Kathy's move to PP@L. We run together 2-3 times a week and usually catch up on the latest from work, family and downtown living. There have been runs, though, when Mark has listened to some of my most difficult issues and offered his advice. Mark is the same age as my dad, but I must say his pace belies all that. Lately, I'm lucky if I can keep up with Mark. That's why he's in Boston right now, (hopefully) resting up before the Boston Marathon tomorrow. I think it will be his 4th or 5th Boston, so I'm sending lots of good thoughts to Mark (and Linda and Mark S.) on the eve of Patriots Day. One of these days, I hope to follow in his footsteps - not just with respect to running, but also in his commitment to his family, community involvement and leadership at work. Mark's a good egg.