I ran in a 5K at the Rose Bowl with my entire family yesterday. Originally, it was just going to be Nolan and myself, but Anne got interested, and then Ryan decided to round it out to a full-on family event. Anne’s friend Michelle joined, too, and so did our friend Amanda. We were a full-on team!
There were thousands of people swarming around the Rose Bowl. Some of them had funny things to say.
There were about 1500 people ahead of us in the runners’ starting corral, and another 5000 or 6000 in the walker’s area. The sun felt warm on my face, and I wondered if I’d made a mistake wearing my long-sleeved shirt.
“Do I have to stay with you if you’re going too slow?” Nolan asked me.
I told him that he didn’t, and we all agreed to meet under the giant American Airlines balloon that was set up on the South Lawn when we were all finished. We stretched, did some ridiculous looking jumping around to get the blood pumping, and waited for the race to start.
The gun went off, and the kids broke away from us after about six strides.
“Wow! Look at them go!” Amanda said.
“Yeah, I suspect we’ll be catching up with them around the second mile,” I said, as we passed a troupe of Japanese Taiko drummers. For reasons that I’ll never fully understand, Taiko has always inspired me at a cellular level. It’s like those rhythms get into my nanosoul, and I started out a little fast as a result. After about 1/4 mile, my Garmin Forerunner was chirping at me that I needed to slow down, and I’d pulled far away from Amanda, Anne, and Michelle. Still no sign of Nolan and Ryan, though.
I felt pretty good, considering that I hadn’t put my shoes on in over 5 weeks, due to an incredibly annoying injury in my groin that showed up suddenly in December and sidelined me until . . . well, until yesterday. I cruised along for the first mile, smiling at people, announcing “On your left!” and “Looking great!” to the little kids who were running with their parents. I felt good, emotionally and physically. I loved it that I was out here on a Sunday morning with thousands of people, and I loved it that I was in my first race of 2005.
I sent some mental probes along my body, to see how I was doing:
- Feet: Feeling great!
- Legs: A little tight, but warming up nicely.
- Back and shoulders: 5 by 5, captain.
- Cardiovascular system: If you don’t get faster than 9 minutes / mile, we’ll be just fine, sir.
- Right groin and hip area: Houston, we have a problem.
Oh, shit.
Truth be told, I shouldn’t have run yesterday, and I may have put myself right out of the San Diego marathon this year (my quads are so sore today each step aches — but in a good way!) by running through the pain, but I desperately wanted needed to spend some time with my family. Since November (except for a brief break around the holidays), I’ve spent more time down at ACME than I’ve spent at home. When I have been home, I’ve been working so hard to meet my writing commitments, I’ve hardly had any time to just sit and visit with Anne and the kids. I’ve been redlining for weeks, and I’m creatively exhausted. Whenever I get a free moment, I want to spend it with my family, but my free moments have been few and far between.
So.
Just short of mile one, I felt the first twinge of pain in my right hip. (Hey! Maybe I’ve got a little bit of Gunslinger in me!) “Look,” I told my body, “we’re just doing 5K, and our pace is 10 minutes/mile, so relax, okay?”
“Yeah, probably not,” my body said. Pain began to radiate around my hip and up my chest. Right around 1.3 miles, I had to slow down, and at 1.5 miles the pain was so intense I had to walk.
Goddammit! For the first time since it happened two years ago, I really felt like I was in my thirties. I mean, in my bones, in my heart, and especially in my muscles.
A cheerful voice behind me called out, “On your right!” As a woman in her 60s wearing a pink “I’m a survivor” T-shirt jogged past me, putting everything into perspective.
“Doing great!” I said when she was ahead of me. She didn’t look back, but flashed an enthusiastic thumb’s up.
I walked quickly for a few minutes, and when the pain began to subside, I tried jogging lightly. I went slowly but steadily, and caught up to Ryan near mile two.
“Hey! How are you feeling?” I said.
“My knees are killing me,” he said, “and Nolan ran faster than I’ve ever seen him run. He was all the way up in the front, where there were only ten or fifteen people, when I had to walk.”
“Well, you want to run with me?” I said.
“I don’t think so,” he said. “I’ll see you at the finish.”
“No way, kiddo. This is why I came out here today.” I thought.
I slowed and walked with him.
“What are you doing?” He said.
“I’m walking with you!” I said.
“Oh. Cool.” He said. He is so fifteen right now, I can’t tell if “cool” means “cool” or “you’re so lame, Wil,” but I was happy to walk with him.
We moved slowly through a few other walkers, and a man jogged past us, pushing his 3 or 4 year-old daughter in a jogging stroller.
“We’re doing great, daddy!” She said with a huge smile.
“We . . . sure . . . are . . . honey,” he said.
Right around mile 1.9, Amanda caught up to us.
“Hey, I know you!” Ryan said.
“How are you guys doing?” She said. She’s been training for the LA Marathon, so this is nothing to her.
“My stupid hip is giving me a really bad time, but other than that I’m fine.” I said.
Ryan told her about his knees, and we did a little speed-walking for a few minutes, until I saw the water station for mile two at the crest of a little hill.
“I’m going to run the last mile,” I said. “I’ll either see you guys at the finish, or you’ll step over my body in about 3000 feet.”
They wished me well, and I began to jog. I extended my arm — just like a real runner — as I passed through the water station. A smiling middle schooler pushed a dixie cup into my hand and said, “Great job!”
“Thank you!” I said, as I dumped the water over my face and head. I was on the Western side of the Rose Bowl now, heading South. The sun was in my face, and I began to regret wearing my long sleeved shirt.
The Rose Bowl has been involved in several landmark moments in my life, most of them when I was a teenager living in La Crescenta: When I was fourteen, I attended the Depeche Mode Concert for the Masses there, and when I was fifteen, Darin taught me how to drive a stickshift in his VW Bug . . . right in the parking lot that was now on my left. My hip was on fire, and I was beginning to feel dangerously warm, but I smiled. This is a great way to spend a Sunday morning, I thought.
When I rounded the penultimate corner in the race, I was breathing hard. The sun was beating down on me through a magnifying glass, in classic Warner Brothers carton-style, and I pushed my sleeves up as far as they could go. I sprayed the remainder of my water over my face, and immediately felt better. I turned North and checked my Forerunner: I had less than a quarter of a mile to go. Surprisingly, the pain in my hip, groin and ribs wasn’t that bad. I didn’t have the mental cycles to determine if it had just been renice-ed to 19 by /wil/bin/adrenaline so I could finish, but I I’ve learned that there are times when you just don’t ask questions. I was in the final 1000 meters! Music and cheering filled the air.
I set my eyes on the finish line, and the noise of the crowd faded away. Pretty soon, all I could hear was my heartbeat in my ears and the pounding of my feet on the pavement. With about thirty yards to go, I heard a familiar voice calling out: “Go Wil! You’re almost there! Go! Go! Go!”
I blinked my eyes and looked off to my right. There was Nolan, grinning broadly and jumping up and down. It was pure, concentrated mojo. I raised one of my hands up and made it into a fist. I pumped it in the air at him.
“Yeah! Go Wil! Go Wil!” He cheered. My heart swelled, and I finished the race running on air.
I crossed the finish line and got my time: 34 minutes. Not bad, all things considered. I my body ached, my throat was dry and my heart pounded fiercely in my chest. My 3.1 miles felt more like a marathon, which is a sad commentary on my current level of physical fitness, but I did it! I ran slower than my marathon training pace, but I did it! I wanted needed to spend some time building memories with my family, and I did it!
When I got off the course, I collapsed into the grass and caught my breath. After a few minutes, I stretched. The pain in my hip was slowly coming back (I guess The Writer got hit by the van after all), but Nolan’s cheering echoed in my head, and there wasn’t any pain at all strong enough to break through that wall of joy.
Eventually, I made my way over to our meeting place. Ten minutes or so later, Ryan and Amanda came over.
“What was your time?” I asked them.
“Thirty-six,” Ryan said. “What was yours?”
“Thirty-four.”
“Nice job,” he said. I ran this comment through my fifteen year-old to English filter, and got "Nice job [Sincere.]"
“Thank you, Ryan,” I said with a grin.
Behind us, on the other side of the giant American Airlines Balloon, about fifty people were Jazzercising. Outrageously loud europop music assaulted us, but the Jazzercisers seemed to enjoy it.
I always thought Jazzercise was an improv joke, you know? Like Bigus Dickus, but it turns out it’s a real thing, and the people doing it were having a really good time. When the music went out, (presumably because the girl leading them whooped and blew out the mixer) they kept right on going, while she said things like, “Up to the left! Up to the left! And attitude! And attitude! Left! Left! Give me attitude! Attitude!”
Anne, Michelle and Nolan walked up together.
“I learned something today,” I said.
“What’s that?” Anne said.
“Apparently Jazzercising is all about attitude,” I said.
She sat down next to me.
“How’d you do?” I asked her.
“I totally ran the whole way!” She said. She was the happiest I’ve seen her in weeks. She’s been under a lot of stress and pressure lately, and there’s nothing I can do about it, so seeing her smile and relax nearly brought tears to my eyes.
“I’m really proud of you, honey,” I said.
We talked about our times, and I turned to Nolan.
“I loved it that you were cheering for me, Nolan,” I said, “Thank you.”
“Of course,” he said. I haven’t had to use the teenager-to-English translator on him yet, even though he’ll be fourteen in August (!) and I hope I never do. (Yeah, I know, I know . . .)
“What was your time?” I said.
“Twenty-four minutes!” he said.
“Holy crap, Nolan!” I said, “That’s fast!”
“Yeah, it was fun,” he said. “I think I finished pretty close to the top.”
“Gosh, you think?” I said.
The Jazzercise music started up again.
“What the —” Anne said.
“Attitude,” I said, “plus loud europop equals Jazzercise.”
We snacked for a few more minutes, picked up our gear from the gear-check, and headed back to our car. As we crossed the street, thousands of walkers streamed across the bridge and turned into the final stretch. They were a sea of pink shirts, pink hats, pink balloons, pink flags. They were singing and shouting, and having a great time.
“Oh my god,” Anne said, “Look at all those people!”
We did.
“We are totally part of that,” I said. “I’m proud of us. All of us.”
In recent months, I’ve sort of indirectly come face to face with my own mortality, and the mortality of the people I love.
Like it or not, death is the price of admission into this life, and one day all we’ll have left are memories.
We made some wonderful memories yesterday.
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Awwww..thanks for sharing your wonderful family experience withy us. Really puts everything in perspective huh?
Take it easy w/ the exercise and your hip, you are old remmeber? (HaHaHa)Your boys really seem to really love you, and I am sure it was wonderful to have them route for you. You all did a wonderful thing, and the fact that you did it a family shows that there are good people out there. :)You are setting a great exzample for the next generation. :)Keep it up, and you told the story beautifully.
Thanks for sharing that with us Wil! I hope you hip isn’t too bad.
BTW, my boyfriend was watching Teen Titans and the host of the “cartoon hour” indicated that Aqualad will be on the show full time? Does that mean you’ll be providing the voice?! 🙂
That’s such a nice story. What I love best about it, is that there was no mention at all of trying to win the race. It seems it didn’t enter your mind at all. It was all about being there with your family, and participating. Sometimes, Wil, you’re such an inspiration.
I hope you’re feeling better.
you find out so much about yourself when you get in over your head…and a 5k run after doing no training for months definately qualifies for “in over your head”…but you had your loyal boosters with you…”your family”…and the good karma from that group helped to give you the kick to get you through…good job wil (and family)!
Hiya Wil,
Love the stories, keep them coming. I haven’t a teenager yet, just a sunny 10 year old. However, I am not looking forward to learning how to filter stuff. I wasn’t good at doing that when I was a teenager!! Part of what made me such a dork back then!
Since this is my first post, just let me say keep the great inspiring storytelling coming. I enjoy it all very much and would love to come watch you at ACME sometime. Maybe this summer we’ll take a trip down your way…
On that topic, when are you coming up to Vancouver BC? It’s a great road trip, and there are a TON of really fun things to do here in the summer. It would be great to see you up here doing a reading at one of the local book stores.
Ok. Enough harassing the talent.
Looking forward to the next post as always!
wow that made me tired just reading that,lol.
I am very proud of you and your family that is very awesome that you guys ran this today.
Your entry today is very inspiring 🙂
Dude, those marathons sound so much fun! I’m not a runner. I can’t run because I have this evil resident in my lungs. His name is Asthma and the more puffs I take on that stupid inhaler, the tighter he tightens those chains he has wrapped around my chest, but I love to walk. They don’t have anything like that here in The Land Of No Opportunity.
Wil said: “Like it or not, death is the price of admission into this life, and one day all we’ll have left are memories.”
I like that very much. Not sure if it’s a quote (my husband jokingly said it was Thomas Payne), but it touched me, and not in the usual omg-i’m-going-to-die way; it’s really a beautifully pragmatic way to look at things.
Thanks.
Geez Wil, here I am trying to catch up on blogs while watching Iron Chef, and instead my eyes are tearing.
I wish I had your talent for sharing the amazing joys that is spending time with familly and creating such wonderful memoriesl. Thanks for sharing them with us too.
Yay for geeky Gunslinger references! I had just about lost hope that anybody had followed the journey to the end…now I just need to find somewhere to discuss with fellow travellers…
Aw, that’s a lovely story. I first began running with my Dad when I was thirteen, and made some wonderful memories of him until I joined the high school cross-country team and got to be too fast for him!
Keep an eye on that hip though! Running’s a high-impact sport, and what starts as a persistent twinge can wind up leaving you in physical therapy or end your running career for good. My hip finally died on me at age 23, now I bicycle. But if you marathon, I doubt I’m telling you anything you don’t know!
There truly is no performance-enhancer greater than hearing someone you love cheer for you.
Congratulations Wil…
In my opinion, this is your greatest blog entry yet. Very well-written, very heart-felt.
Thank you for sharing it with us.
That is an awesome achievement Wil. I am finding it very difficult right now finding time and things to do with my family. It isn’t that I don’t want to, but either we are all busy, or not into the same thing. Being able to do something like your run is outstanding! I suppose ball season will start soon, but then I’ll be Coach again, and not Dad.
Sigh, well I envy you but I will use this as fuel! Thanks for sharing your story 🙂
I dug the DT7 nuggets you dropped into this post — made me smile. I’m in the middle of that book now.
And my right hip sympathises with yours. I can’t do the running thing, too painful. So I give credit to all who do.
cheers 😀
That’s so awesome Wil!
My Mom is a breast cancer survivor, so I think that anyone that helps with causes relating to that is awesome!
Take it easy, soreness sucks.
ya know, some people could ramble on about their day for a couple paragraphs and people would get bored…put this post into Word, though, and its six pages. six pages that i found totally and completley interesting and entertaining about only a few hours of your day. thats some great writing…and hopefully i’ll get around to buying “Walking Barefoot” soon!
Sounds like you had a great day! 34 minutes… egads… I don’t even want to think what MY time would be. You see, I’m what people call… “athletically challenged.” Well, actually, most people call it “lazy.” The “athletically challenged” thing is just so I don’t feel as, well, lazy. Anyway, I’m glad you and your family had fun! I hope your legs feel better.
Wil, that really was a great way to spend a Sunday. And the fact that were able to make yourself finish despite the pain and discomfort was amazing as well.
Right on, Wil! Good job to the entire Wheaton clan! I swear, if I hadn’t picked up smoking 13 years ago (yeah, at age 14, I’m a dumbass), I’d be running in these things every chance I got. But, alas, these are the consequences of the choices we make, eh?
Wil,you did a great job.Alot better than I would have.You an your family have a Great DayAnd enjoy the Day.
DONALD
Good job on the race, and GREAT job on the write-up. Like I’ve said before, it’s stories of everyday life that keep me coming back everyday looking for more.
Keep up the writing, it is truely where your talent lies.
Good Luck….Jon
Wil, I am simultaneously inspired and depressed by your story. There are times when my body feels like you did AFTER your race and I’m just standing still waiting for my lunch to finish nuking at work.
What’s more, running outside won’t be any fun for a while here in Ohio…Snow sucks sometimes.
Great Dark Tower references. This post was beautiful, thanks. You remember the face of your father, thankyeesai. (or something like that)
Are you aware of the Stephen King Emailers? (http://skemers.com/) It has a regular mailing list for people who love Stephen King. (Funny, a lot of the people in the group love Sci-Fi too…)
Great post, Wil.
It makes me want to start running again. That’ll pass. I’m a distance walker. I’ve always had trouble getting into running. I know what you mean about the hips. Because I’ve been a serious walker all my life (even before I realized it) my hips have always been tight and inflexible. Events like the Komen Foundation race are great. I just started fundraising for my 60km breast cancer walk (I think the link to my page is in my Soapbox profile).
I enjoy reading about your family time. You are such a dedicated father and it’s amazing to see how much family means to you.
I’ll set a reminder for CSI.
i totally want to jazzercise now.
i am so jealous. i could never run a marathon, not even 1k – my lungs and heart won’t let me. I could walk, but I could never run.
you rock wil!!!
yay family memories. they are the best… 🙂
Great story! I love those moments of clarity when you are with your family and then suddenly *BAM* you take a snapshot with your mind. I realized the other day that my boys are going to be four next month. FOUR YEARS! It seems like they have been with us for such a short time. Before you know it, I’ll have to use filters to interpret what they are saying.
But for now, I’ll just take all of the kisses and snuggles while I can get them and take mental snapshots during those times where work, school, design and all of the other obligations just drop away and you are a family.
I believe one of the most important things a parent can do for a child is to make volunteering a normal part of family life. Thanks for making my point with out preaching.
Leigh Ann
AmeriCorps VISTA
Project Coordinator
Durant Literacy Council
Way to go Wil/Anne/Ryan/Nolan/Michelle/Amanda!!
I think that is so awesome – not only the fact that you spent time together, but that you did it in a productive and meaningful way. It’s really an amazing thing.
I sympathize with Ryan’s knees issue – I used to run when I was his age, and had to cool it because my knees couldn’t take it. Heel cushions and finally escaping puberty helped out a lot with that, so good luck to him! 🙂
Thanks for the inspiring entry.
Dammit. I just had to explain to someone at work why I was tearing up.
Thanks, Wil.
Regarding your hip/groin thing… If you haven’t already tried them, Craniosacral Therapy and Lymphatic Drainage Therapy can be REALLY effective in that kind of situation. If you go to http://www.upledger.com you can find people in your are who practice one or both of those things. I’d recommend someone who has completed at least 2 CST classes and 1 LDT class (2 LDTs would be even better).
We use these modalities in the pain relief clinic where I work (which is not in California, so I’m not bucking for business) to great effect. In fact, the owner, who is a physical therapist, opened the place because after 25 years of experience she found the hands-on modalities worked way better for her than some of the other PT techniques. It’s good stuff, Maynard.
-Dot
Great post, Wil. I am envying your climate from just south of Green Bay, WI. The only running I do this time of year is indoors at my gym. There are some hardy souls who keep running in spite of the cold…I’m not one of them.
Hope your hip/groin injury heals quickly. I know that, being in my 30’s, I have to take it a bit easier on my knees than I used to. When you do get back into running, I find personally that running every other day my body does a lot better than running on consecutive days…at least, it’s a good excuse to skip a day occasionally.
well done on the happy family feelings/broken down hack athletic schtick. dude take up cycling! it’s like running sitting down. and stop talkin to yourself like you are a bad scifi tv show. trek is so dead
Hey, I’ve never commented before, but had to say congrats on the 5k! You and I run about the same pace, we could run together, you know, if you lived in Texas…or something…yeah. 🙂 Anyway, I run at least a race per month, they’re always so much fun. Glad you thought so as well…
Hey, Wil. Sounds like the race was a good one.
Your off-hand comment about Taiko is what caught my attention, though. We’ve got a great Taiko group here in Portland (Portland Taiko, to be exact). They base their music in Asian traditions, but bring the American experience into it, too. They have a couple of CD’s and a DVD coming soon. This year, they are also colaborating with African drummer Obo Addy, which should be a great concert. Anyway, I thought you might like to check them out if you haven’t heard of them –> PortlandTaiko.org