Today was the Provo City Marathon. I spent the day downtown in charge of 200 teenagers. I helped direct a 1000 person city-wide youth volunteer effort to plant the flower boxes on both sides, and down the middle of Center Street leading to University Ave. So instead of spending my morning racing; I was planting and helping kids, unloading flowers, and digging in the dirt. I got to watch about the first 50 finishers of the race. I had a lot of feelings about this. Last month it was all about Boston. This month it was about Provo City, next month it will be about Utah Valley (which I paid for in November with the hope I'd be running again by February). Of course I felt the pang of not being in the race, on the road, running with friends, cheering for friends. I missed the post run endorphins and that dewy glow of contentment I can only achieve from running. But mostly, I thought of how much time I have available now to spend with my kids on Saturday mornings--including going to early morning soccer games, getting up early to work together on the yard, and also to do service projects like this one. There have been 2 big ones recently, including a cake auction fund raiser to raise money for Scout and Girl's Camp. It's been so many months now without running and all I've done is felt sorry for myself. But while I stood there planting and thinking about the marathon, I was glad I didn't have to divide my energy or time between running and also something else. I've done a lot of important, fun stuff with the time I used to spend running on Saturday mornings. | 