The Old Woman Who Lived in a (Nike) Shoe

 

The day of this posting is Mother’s Day.  Today we celebrate that nutty chick who would raise us, feed us (best lasagna ever), scold us, celebrate us and hopefully love us.  Today I will celebrate mine (even with the compulsive lying problem, see the blog “I’ll put you in a home”).  Not because she’s better than yours, but because I can.   My mom did a heck of a job raising us kids.  All five of us turned out pretty decent, the younger two are bit iffy at times. She should have listened to me and stopped at three, but not much we can do to change that now.   Our mom is and was the type that lived by do as I do, because she didn’t need to say it she just did it.  I don’t think I have ever seen the woman sit down.  She would wake up, do mom things and then 15 hours later she would sleep again.  That was until my sister and I became teenagers, then she never slept again.  She made sure she was home while our dad was at work.  She made sure she was there to help with homework, make dinner and receive the nightly call from my crying teachers who would politely describe me as “hell spawn”.  She had one full time job when we were growing up, driving all our asses from golf tournament to golf tournament.  For 5 months a year she lived in a freaking car that probably was lacking air conditioning and possibly seat belts, while walking hundreds of miles to watch us hit a dumb ball into an even dumber hole in the ground.  Through it all she never complained once.  Then at some ungodly old age, she graduated from college and became a special education teacher.  To this day she still teaches the wonderful children of Iowa.  We always thought that teaching was her true passion, but we were wrong.  A few years ago, she started running.  Why so late in life?  The same reason Forrest Gump decided to, because she felt like running.

I can’t personally count the number of 5k’s she has done, not to mention the full marathons.  She does not run these in times that would put her on the cover of runners world or trail runners magazine.   Especially the latter, she described trail running as “for the birds”.  I never see birds running on the trails, so I’m a bit confused by that statement.  She does routinely podium in races, namely west coast races where she dominates.  She doesn’t podium because of some God given talent.  She does it with grit and determination.

So why do all my millions (give or take a few here and there) of my readers care?  I don’t know, but maybe the next time someone says they are too old, too fat or too tired, you can tell them the story of the old woman who lives in her Nike shoes.  Tell them about the woman who went from stay at home mom to teacher of the year.  Tell them about the woman whose full time job was driving her kids from golf course to golf course, but now just drives her ass from finish line to finish line.  I’m not saying our mom is better than your mom, but I bet our mom can beat your mom…….in a 5k.