Just13Miles

Marathon Man Learns to Ride

I spent most of the summer cursing the fact that I was a slow runner. This was a new fact, because when I was younger, I was a fast runner. I took a certain pride in being a fast runner. And when I started training for the half-marathon, I honestly believed that speed would return. Boy! Was I wrong! No matter how hard I tried ... in fact, it seemed that the harder I tried, the slower I got! I strained a hamstring. I broke my toes. I got runner's cramps. I got hot. I got dehydrated. I got discouraged.

I got slow. The day of the race in Hartford, I was unbelievably slow.

God loves slow runners!

Yay! Whodathunk? If I'd shaved one minute off my average per-mile pace, I might never have met the most wonderful guy who just happened to also be running slowly beside me.

My "Marathon Man" came back last weekend, and took his very first ever ever riding lesson. You can see the photos in the album on the left. We had a blast, even if his backside was so sore the next day that he could not sit down! After he got home, he wrote to me about how excited he was to learn to ride, and looking forward to all of the wonderful adventures we will someday have on horseback ... to include riding through the Flint Hills this spring at the Flying W Ranch near Candlewood Falls.

I am heading out the door this afternoon to take another long, slow run. May I never run fast again. May I learn to savor the moment, smell the roses, and appreciate the legs that carried me, oh so slowly, to a happier life!

Marathon Man Meets King: November 10, 2008

Marathon Man just went home. He has taken to calling me Kansas. He has fallen in love with the prairie, the farm, the horses, the granddaughter and ...

He got King's approval. (Elijah is fighting another hoof abscess, and so was a bit distracted, but I think you know you have a keeper when the guy who was afraid of horses helps you soak the hoof of a 1,500-lb, 17hh horse!)

David had his "King Moment" though. While I was nursing Eli's hoof, I swear King walked right up to David and snuffled him. One time. Only once. David says King looked him square in the eye and said, "Well, alright. You're finally here."

David was sooo happy to think that maybe King liked him. I said, "Ahem, I don't want to burst your bubble, but, King accepts you. And that's a high compliment, so don't have your feelings hurt if you discover that he doesn't really LIKE you."

Next day, we're out in the barn again, working on Eli's foot again. King of course is watching it all. I forgot some supplies and had to walk back to the house. King watches me all the way across the yard. David thought he would try for another "King Moment." Ha ha ha! He tried to catch the old man's eye. King looked past him. David moved into his line of sight. King moved so he could see around him. David moved. King moved. David moved. King stared him down, and David swears he was summarily "dismissed" by the old guy.

"It was as if he told me, I said you could be in HER life. I didn't say anything about MINE! Now, get the hell out of my line of sight, you're blocking my view!"

Ha ha ha!

The Saga Continues: October 30, 2008

Marathon Man and I have talked on the phone almost daily since October 11. He is coming out to visit us here at King's Ransom on Nov. 7. I am thinking that he is a keeper. Today, I found this email in my inbox, the subject line was:

TO KING AND ELIJAH

Good afternoon King and Elijah,

Please allow me to introduce myself: I'm the reason she's been smiling so much lately. I'm David.

I just wanted to say hello and thank you for taking such good care of her. I know she thinks she's taking care of you but we know better, don't we gentlemen? King, thank you for watching over her when she fell and Elijah, thank you for teaching her that she can be loved with absolutely no restraint ... ever.

She has burnt fingers and so do I (as do most people). But mine healed long ago while hers are more recent. I tell you this because there may be times that she will get scared; just nuzzle her and send her my way. Between the three of us, she's in pretty good hands (or hooves).

I've been afraid of horses for a long time but not so much now; I feel as if I already know you.

See you on the 7th.

So, I shall keep him!!!!

Okay, so dinner was great: October 12, 2008

Mr. Marathon is actually afraid of horses!

But, he listened intently as I told him the story of my dear heart, King. I had to another great horsewoman, who once wrote that sometimes you find a horse who just looks at you with understanding, as if to say "Oh. THERE you are. I was wondering when you were coming." I told Mr. Marathon that this was how it was between me and King. Despite being the "vicious horse" in the stables, he took to me instantly, never gave me one bit of trouble. He gave me that LOOK ... "Oh THERE you are. I was wondering when you were coming."

And Mr. Marathon's eyes were a bit misty when he said. "That was me, too. When you ran up to me and started talking, with your easy smile and your open heart ... I thought to myself, Oh THERE you are. I was wondering when you were coming."

Don't you just wonder what happens next? Isn't life just LIKE a box of chocolates?!

The Next Night: October 12, 2008

I must say, no matter what happens next, this has been a most unforgettable weekend! And, the most romantic thing that has ever happened to me.

My marathon man drove half-way across the state of CT (which admittedly is a small state! not like driving half-way across Kansas! but hey!) to meet up with me and my friends at Terri's house and then take me for dinner. Terri and her family live in the Berkshire Mountains, on the Houssatonic River. Her husband, Frankie, started a huge fire in their firepit outside, by the river. We drank wine and swapped stories under a multi-colored canopy of fall foliage!

Then the marathon man and I went to dinner. He is funny, incredibly cute, a journalist, very smart,  and unabashedly smitten with me. Whodathunk? But he lives 1,500 miles ... and a cultural universe ... away from King's Ransom!

He wrote to ask directions to Terri's house: "I found you at a race, I don't want to lose you in New Milford!"

Who knows what happens next? But once you achieve your quest, they say, your life is never the same again!

And Here's What Happened: October 11, 2008

Now that I have recovered a bit, I want to tell you what happened today. I am not a big believer in the mystic side of life, but this day has been absolutely incredible.

First, just before I woke up this morning, I had this very real dream. My first of this type. My dad passed away in October two years ago, and he was my greatest inspiration and one of my closest friends. My dad was there in this dream, as real as real could be. I just walked into a room (in my dream) and there he was. Smiling at me. I was so stunned to see him, and I just ran into his arms. I kept asking him, "Can you stay? Can you stay?" and he just kept saying, "No. I have to go. Not quite yet, I can stay awhile, but not for long." Terri came to wake me up just as he was saying this. I couldn't help but just sit and cry. He has never come to "visit" me like this, I have not once dreamed about him since he passed. But how appropriate that he would come to me this morning, and it just felt soooo real.

Then, when I started the race, I noticed I was running beside a man, about my age, who seemed to be running at about my same pace. We had barely gotten started when I just casually asked him how he was doing. He was doing fine, he said. We got to talking, and I learned that his wife had died suddenly in her sleep about 6 months ago. Rather than sit around and let himself become depressed, he decided to train for a marathon. Today, was just a training run for him, in preparation for a full marathon that he will run a few weeks in Dublin, Ireland. We decided to run the race together. And we did. Every single step of it. He was like my guardian angel, this fellow!

He told me, "My coach told me that your first half-marathon is a quest. There are no races, no times in a quest. You just achieve it. And when you achieve your quest, your life is never the same again."

Well, we talked and laughed and encouraged each other. And when we got into what David called "the horror zone,' that last mile ... I was hurting something terrible. He said, "We're going to make it. You know you're going to make it. If you can, run faster."

I said, "Oh, David, I don't have a surge!"

He laughed. "There are no surges in a quest, either!" And, as we crossed the line, he held up so I would cross ahead of him and they would announce my name first.

This stranger, who came out of nowhere ... absolutely saved my arse today.

And ... ah ... we are having dinner together tomorrow night!

What a day.

What a quest!

Quick Update: October 11, 2008

Just a quick update: I made it!

I ran the entire race, I ran every step. They did not close the course on me.

I am still alive ... but oh! the PAIN of it!