SPIRIT OF THE MARATHON

Thirteen of "The Runners" went to dinner and to see the documentary, "Spirit of the Marathon" last night. We had a great time and were inspired by the great movie. If you like running, and maybe even if you don't, you come away inspired by the stories of first time marathoners as well as professional runners alike training for and actually running the Chicago marathon. You experience the disappointment of injuries, the long hard training process and the ultimate thrill of the finish. You also get a very good view of what it is like to run in a HUGE mass of people. It is a very good synopsis of the history of the marathon. They also gave a very good history of women in marathons. One of the comments was, "That women could not run because their uterus would fall out." Well we have not experienced this particular problem in our group of women, although one of the runners has been known to say that "Her ovary is about to explode."

"Poor Larry", our token male ,has heard it all. He has had a liberal education in women as he has run beside us and heard all of our conversations. One of the women training in the documentary said that when her running group went out to dinner all they talked about was running, but while running they never talk about it. That is exactly what we have found. HOW INTERESTING! I suppose when running we are trying to keep our mind off of just what we are doing!

We have enjoyed our two week "down time" to recover from the marathon and its training. We go back to work next week and actually I am ready. I have enjoyed the down time, but my body is getting soft and I am getting lazy, so back to work we go! I am trying to decide just what I will do and what days I will do it on in this new round of training. The trick is diversity so you don't get bored or over trained. "I'll think about that tomorrow!"

Camille's sweet husband, Adam, gave her the above piano for Christmas. He is a sweet and thoughtful husband. When I saw the picture of it, I immediately traveled back to the "infamous piano lessons". Every day after I got home from work the conversation when like this"

Camille, have you practiced the piano yet?

Not yet, but I will in a minute.

30 minutes later-Camille when are you going to practice the piano.

I can't right now Mom, I have to --------------

Camille it's getting late, don't you think you should practice the piano.

Mom, I have to do my homework.

Camille, what about the piano.

I am really tired and I need to go to bed.

Camille's piano teacher, Mr. Dee, was the ultimate example of patience. We would go to piano and he would say things like-

"Your other right, Camille."

"We haven't spent much time practicing this week have we."

Camille has an inherited talent for music from my Daddy. Unfortunately this gene seems to surface every other generation. She has a great ear and the "Suzuki" method of teaching worked to develop that ear. She loves to sit and play at the piano, so fortunately all those lessons were not in vain. I am delighted she has a piano to play around on and hope Adam enjoys the concerts! I am going to live long enough to see her children take piano and not want to practice. WHAT GOES AROUND COMES AROUND!