Friday, August 10, 2012

Olympic Moms

I have been having a lot of fun every night watching the Olympics.  I just truly enjoy watching sports and you don't see a lot of these different sports often.  I also like the diversity of the athletes from all over the world.

The thing I have liked best about these Olympic games is the random shot of the moms in the audience...watching and holding their breath or closing their eyes not able to breathe as their child athlete performs.  The athletes work almost their whole lives to reach these moments but it's the moms who really carry them on their shoulders.  (Dads too and not to take anything away from them but since I am a mom I can comment on moms).  You see the moms in all kinds of stressful positions from odd movements to completely covering their eyes or just walking out.

I understand.  Because I am the mom of kids who play sports.  Yeah it's not the Olympics but it doesn't matter.  I stress over every game my kids have ever played in...baseball, soccer, football, basketball from little league to high school.  You name it.  My kids have played it.



Some of us moms are at it for years and years.  We sit through hundreds of practices and games ready to celebrate the highs and console the lows.  There are always enough of both.



For me there were plenty of both highs and lows.  I have had to play psychiatrist to my ball playing sons so many times. I have wiped many tears of loss and embraced the glorious wins.


And yet one of my proudest moments would come at the last game of my son's baseball career.  His last at bat in extra innings. Two men on base. The team was behind and needed a strong hit from my kid.  I went into my usual stance:  hands cupped, covering the eyes, jittery knees.  When I heard the crack of the bat I immediately looked up and saw the ball sail out of the ball park.  What ended up being my kid's last at bat of his baseball career turned out to be his first out of the park home run. 






I don't remember how high in the air I leaped and how loud I screamed and how hard I cried and how many other moms hugged me.  Time seemed to have stood still at that moment and all I could see was my kid proudly rounding the bases and his teammates waiting for him at home plate.  I didn't cry for the points scored. I cried because I was proud that my son finally had his very own home run moment. 

Us moms don't cry for the wins.  We cry because we are proud that our kids work hard toward a goal and we cry hard when we watch them achieve it.  We wouldn't have it any other way.



Saturday, August 4, 2012

Running to a Goal

April 26, 2012 will be a day that will go down in my history book.  It was the day that I found out that I was selected to run in the 2012 New York City marathon.  I remember my exact reaction when the hubster checked our entry status...pure shock and disbelief.  In fact I didn't believe him at first.  I slowly walked over to the computer and looked and sure enough it was true. 

I never really had a huge desire to run a marathon. I had run the Disney half marathon in 2008 to accomplish a goal and that was fine with me.  In fact I documented my journey here.  But early this year the hubster wanted to enter both of us in the NYC marathon just to "see if we got selected."  Thinking that since hundreds of thousands of people enter the lottery and only a fraction of that get picked I was sure my name would not come up.

But it did.  The hubster's name did not.

Immediately I felt very mixed.  I felt bad that he didn't get in and I did.  I felt nervous and scared. What the hell did I know about running a marathon. Sure I have gone 13.1 miles before but 26.2 is an entirely different story. 

At the end of the acceptance letter was a disclaimer.  If you didn't want to do it you could reject the offer.  You could also defer to next year.  I read that and hubster asked me if I wanted to exercise either option.

Ummm....no.  That was not going to be an option.  I took the challenge.



And so I am in and I will document my journey here and here.  Feel free to join in to see how a 46 year old mother of 4 with very little spare time can get herself in marathon shape by November 4th.  Should be a lot of fun.

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...