Surf City Half Marathon... The best of times and the worst of times...

On Thursday afternoon last week I flew to Orange County to run the Surf City Half with my cousin Windy.  Windy, Heidi and I had planned a girls weekend for nearly a year and Windy was set to run her first half marathon.  She trained like a beast for months and was counting on the fact that we would run it together ~ I loved that idea and I was all in.

Heidi landed shortly after I did, so we went down to baggage claim to wait for Windy.  While we were sitting on a bench, I got a phone call from a wrestling mom at home in Oregon.  My son Caleb's team had a match in Silverton that night and I thought she might be calling to tell me how he did.  Instead, I picked up the phone to hear crying.  She was trying hard to tell me through her tears that something had gone terribly wrong in the match after Caleb's.  Charley, Caleb's teammate and friend, was in crisis.  At first there was chaos and nobody knew what had happened.  Alicia thought maybe he was injured, but told me they were intubating him as we spoke.  She told me to find my husband and get him there as all the boys were crying and it was chaos.

And just like that, everything changed.  Life is funny that way, isn't it?

The next reports were from Caleb... he thought Charley had maybe had a seizure.  George suggested it could be cardiac.  Unfortunately, George was right.  Big, strong, funny, kind Charley Engelfried died on the wrestling mat at Silverton of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.  If you are reading this and have not had your children screened, please do.  Mine have all been screened and one needed follow up.  You just never know. Read about Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy

So there I was, newly landed in California and not due to fly home for four days.  An impossible place to find yourself.  I was in complete shock that first night, but I didn't want to ruin the girls weekend for my cousins.  We went to eat and although I hadn't eaten in hours I could hardly get anything down.  Everything in me wanted to get on a plane and fly home.  I truly felt like no matter what decision I made, it was the wrong one.  Fly home and disappoint Windy who had trained so hard and so long to run this with me?  Impossible.  Stay in California and let my son, my family and my community go through a major crisis without me?  Impossible. In shock, I decided to sleep on it

By the next morning I was hearing reports of how Caleb's wrestling coach was handling our boys and some of the things he was saying to them.  Although not one bit at peace with my decision, I knew between his Dad and his coach, Caleb was in good hands.  So I stayed. 

People ask me if I had a good trip.  Did I have fun?  Such a hard to question to answer.  The truth is that yes, I did.  My cousins and I shopped for flip flops, ate out, sat in the sand and watched the sunset over the Pacific, got 8 hours of sleep every night... what's not to love?  But at the same time it was hard and I kept finding myself just overcome with grief.  It was a bit surreal at times.

Windy and I ran the half marathon on Sunday morning while Heidi cheered us on.  We had such a good run ~ I can honestly say I was so glad to not be running the full marathon.  On top of that I would say this was my most enjoyable half marathon yet.  Windy is one trooper of a partner, as I knew she would be, and she was way beyond thrilled to finish a full 23 minutes faster than she thought she could.  We crossed the finish line holding hands, held high in the air, and it was a beautiful moment.  Life is good, and rich, and full, and it's for living every moment.  We collected our way cool surfboard medals, took off our shoes and walked straight out onto the sand and down to the ocean.  How many times can you do that after a race?  Not too many!  We soaked our feet in the ocean and then laid our sweaty selves down in the sand and just rested and soaked up the sunshine. 


I flew home the next day and hit the ground running.  My community is in crisis and so is my family and there is a lot of work to be done.  Oh, and by the way... I'm losing another toenail.  :P