Competition

I have been training for a triathlon for 3 months now, and these days its seems like I'm always pushing myself. I'm not running fast enough, swimming far enough. Strangers pass me on bike rides, and that's not okay, because I want to be the fastest...the best. I feel like I should always be pushing myself alittle harder, sweating just alittle more.

I threw all that competition out the window this morning as I took part in one of the world's biggest races - the Bolder Boulder. I donned some mardis gras beads, a feather boa, and took to the streets with my friends (Super Girl, an 80's rock star, and a Hawaiian girl) and approximately 40,000 other runners.

Some runners take this race seriously. They train for it and give it their all - trying to beat last year's time, or at least the person next to them. But the 4 of us weren't out to beat anyone. We came in costume, laughed at ourselves, and just enjoyed being outside and running through the streets of Boulder.

It's the best training run I've had in three months worth of running.

Another tribute to family

I lost my grandmother to cancer this past weekend. Just a few weeks before, I recall sharing with a friend how lucky I was to have all four grandparents still living. Now, more than ever, I realize what a gift that truly was.

The night before her wake, we were looking through all Grandma's old photo albums to find pictures of her with various family members to post on a board at the funeral home. In one of her albums, I came across a printed out copy of my Thanksgiving blog entry (http://b-did.blogspot.com/2005/11/thanksgiving.html). Re-reading that entry, tears running down my face, I was reminded anew of how blessed I have been by my family. While I wish we could hold on to our loved ones forever, I am thankful for the 28 years I had with my grandmother. I'm thankful for the chance I had to say goodbye to her. I am thankful that she left this world surrounded by family, knowing that she was loved, and that she will be dearly missed.

I was reminded again this week by how little all the material things in life matter: the clothes, the car, the furniture, even the house that Grandpa built when they were first married. She can't take any of that with her. But the relationships she built - the lives she touched and the people she served - those things will last. So maybe next time I am deciding between spending an extra hour at work versus spending an hour with a friend, or between spending money on a new skirt versus donating that money to someone who needs it, I will choose what really matters. I think Grandma would approve.