Happy Anniversary, Mom and Dad

Well, bloggies, you may or may not have noticed that I've been taking a little blog sabbatical the last couple of months. I thought it was necessary to take a break for a lot of reasons - life, work, over-extension of myself on summertime activities, too many weekends out of town, that sort of thing. But I thought today might be a nice day to come back because I get to wish Happy Anniversary to my very wonderful parents.

Let me give you some idea of how great my parents really are. My parents drove down from where they live early in the morning to watch the very first 10 mile race I ever did, and proceeded to stand outside and watch the whole race even though it was about 40 degrees that day. Then when I decided to run my first half marathon in Disney World, they surprised me by buying plane tickets to Orlando to come see me run, which I didn't expect. They drove down to Oklahoma City to watch my first ever marathon, and put up with having a completely crazy dinner the night before with about 20 other runners, bloggers, and family members. After the marathon, my Dad sent me the following comment to add to my blog about the race:

Just a note from a proud mom and dad who were honored by being allowed to be a part of Bubbles' "race team".Your persistence and desire have allowed you to perform a task that only a small percentage of the world will ever attempt, and even fewer will be successful. I challenge any naysayers who question the difficulty of a marathon to try to run just the last 8 miles of this race facing a 40+ mph headwind and then try to find the breath to speak negatively about those who do what you just did.

To Bubbles and FairWeatherRunner, it was such a pleasure to watch you cross that finish line although it (and typing this note) was done with a few tears in the eyes which were not caused by the wind. Your tangible reward is a medal which may tarnish and become less valuable with time, but you have also received the intangible reward of knowing that your future successes, both in running and life, are only limited by your desire. I am sure that finishing the marathon was important to you, but what was most important was that you accepted the challenge and risk of failure that a marathon involves. You have proved to the world (and have the medal to back up your claim) that you have the skills, spirit and desire that make you some pretty fantastic people.Congratulations!! You go girls!!! Love, Mom and Dad

And to top that all off, I'm fairly certain that on Labor Day my mom is going to be getting up at some completely ridiculous time of the morning (3am?) to drive from Palm Springs to Anaheim, California with my aunt to watch me run the Disneyland half marathon.

It was about a year ago that a friend talked me into training for that 10 mile race, which convinced me that I could do a half marathon, which lead to the full marathon, and the next two half marathons that I have coming up in the next few weeks. I'm sure it probably seemed a little crazy at times, with the constant training and the repetitive injuries and multiple doctor visits and physical therapy. But every step of the way, my parents have been there to cheer me on. So this is my little tribut to them today, on their anniversary. Thanks for everything you do Mom and Dad, I am the person I am and can do the things that I've done because you believed in me every step of the way and above all, taught me to believe in myself.

Happy Anniversary, Mom and Dad!!