Lately, our work has led us up and down the most treacherous and beautiful terrain of Southern California. Rattlesnakes, mountain lions, rock faces, tired faces...we are categorizing jurisdictional authority over resources for a client who shall go unnamed but not unseen. We have been challenged physically and emotionally by this.
On the third day of working on this project, my entire body laughed out loud because in all of my training runs, the only thing that remotely came close to what we did that day was a 20-mile marathon training run day. In all of my years of being friends with this person, I have pleaded and begged for her to run a race with me. She has declined each time. Shot me down. She hates running. It's too hard. She and her husband have been nothing but the greatest of support during my San Diego races. They have claimed spectatorship as their own, to the fullest, and always to my surprise at each finish line. So on this day, as I watched her move up and down the rocky hills and rock faces effortlessly, with a smile on her face all the way, I couldn't help but wonder, if she can physically complete this day, what is stopping her from being one of the best running partners in the world?
Her reason? Hiking is easier than running.
I am laughing again. I am shaking my head and my pleading has stopped.
I look down the last rocky cliff to be scaled of the day, my ankle turns. My knee tweaks. Seeds are sticking to my sunburned, sweaty neck. Or maybe they are ticks...at this point, I don't even care. I am still laughing and still in awe of the woman I see go before me. All she is thinking about at this point is a Diet Pepsi. All I am thinking about is what I have to do to get her to run with me...Well, that and my own reward.
