A friend sent this. He thought perhaps I’d resorted to graffiti blogging instead of keeping up here. Bad blog girl. For shame.

Quick background. In my former life (read: pre-kids), I was a thriving marketing professional who directed a large editorial department for a global PR firm and led the market intelligence efforts for the company. Then came kids, at which point working many, many hours for someone else became a real challenge for this highly functioning multi-tasker and Catholic-guilt-prone devoted mom. I left that job to be in control of my own time. Fat lot of good I am at that (she says with a sardonic chuckle).

The last 10 years have been consumed by raising two amazing little people, an entrepreneurial endeavor that I co-founded and led marketing and sales, an entrepreneurial husband to assist, a job with the church, and lots of volunteer hours at the elementary school. I applied my marketing/sales/writing/research skill set to my own company, learning firsthand about the vital nature of the information that I had so adroitly gathered and analyzed as a young post-grad.

Fast forward to May 2013, at which point, the kids are much less reliant on me (for survival anyway…they always seem to need clean underwear, a snack and a ride someplace) and my company is functioning on cruise control. Starting with a rebranding project for the husband’s thriving company, I have begun to step bit by bit back into my professional life, and the last few weeks have worked on a great research project that included a smorgasbord of primary and secondary research in an industry new to me. I’m such a student at heart and love a good learning curve. This project was interesting on so many levels, and fun to use my brain in that way again – and if I’m being entirely honest, so exciting to be listened to as a valuable source of consult. But boy oh boy, did it rock my world.

To bring this story full circle – we had our house painted last week. It occurred to me as I zipped in and out of the house, to meetings, to and from school, on calls, mowing the lawn, etc etc etc… that there was a group of strangers watching it happen. (Literally, one of the days, looking in my windows as thy painted them. Baseball hat day.) I couldn’t help but wonder if my patchwork days of work, volunteering, meetings, calls, kids, dogs, housework and even the occasional post-bus quickie run seemed nuts or frenetic to them.

Certainly everything is getting done and managed but I admit to feeling a little hectic of late. I try to be like a duck (you know, calm on the surface and paddling like hell under the water) but it occurs to me that the past few weeks anyway, I’ve been splashing a lot.

Funny, we so rarely look into other people’s windows, that it’s hard to know if your existence is more or less hectic than others’. I think that’s probably for the best. Hitch up those big girl panties and get it done; don’t worry about what other people are doing. Right?

Right?

Have you ever become aware that you’re being observed? Does it draw your awareness to how you’re functioning? Does it make you wonder if you’re doing as well as the next gal or guy? Hmm. Talk amongst yourselves (or below)…why not? Open those window shades and let us in. 

Actually, the idea had occurred to me over the weekend, and I knew I’d need to start early and work in spurts throughout the day, but I decided at the early hour to get started running a marathon. Today. I put in 13 miles before breakfast, and another 10 over lunch, leaving 3 to do tonight – hopefully with one of the #BostonStrong groups in my area.

Nuts? Perhaps. (My quads currently think so.) But I disagree, and here’s why.

On April 21, 2014, I plan to be at the start line for the Boston Marathon.

Over the past week, and over the year to come, many will work hard to make sure that we lucky runners have a course laid for us. They have worked so hard this week in the face of unthinkable horrors. So we can run, they will take extra care, provide extra security, plan more, execute carefully…all so we can run. Life and death – so people can run. It’s a level of generosity that baffles me. I am amazed, humbled and so thankful for these people.

I’m also running – like thousands others today – as a show of respect and honor to all those who have endured the incredible difficulties of this past week.

No time to write more – have spent more than my free time today running. Gladly and thankfully.

In the last handful of months, jobs have changed, kids have grown, pets have passed, lands have been traveled. And I have truly morphed from a casual runner to one with serious focus.

Becoming part of the Oiselle Team was the initial reason to strive for racing success, and as I began to train with real focus, the successes began to come. Those successes have not necessarily come in the form of wins; rather, they have been in the form of personal improvements. Interestingly, the focus and determination that a desire to compete – with myself, for the most part – engendered a focus and determination to compete with other runners.

I think it was Dr. Sheehan who said that the difference between a jogger and a runner is an entry form.  There were many entry forms in this past year, including a marathon – something I thought (actually, vowed) I’d never do. And now that I have, I am so very thankful that I tried. I’m so humbled, surprised by and proud of the successes I’ve had in running. Am I the fastest runner in the field? Not usually. On the Oiselle Team? Not a chance. But I’m continually faster than myself and it’s getting easier and easier. I have a pretty solid sense that this trend won’t last, so I’m enjoying it while I can.

We tell our kids that every success comes down to a combination of attitude and effort… if nothing else, this past year of racing has been visual proof of that tenet. For the next year, that cocktail will fuel every mile I run toward Boston 2014. It will take me through Chicago (marathon) and perhaps another, through the start lines of many more half marathons, 10k’s, 5k’s, 15k’s and more. On road and on trail. Some will be glorious, some hard, but all useful.

The gun is about to go off at Boston 2013, and with that, I step up to my own start line. Deep breath.

Along those lines, I have a theory that some of the most interesting things happen just before sunrise. All of you early risers know what I’m talking about. (Or perhaps you may be some of the sources of interesting things I see on early morning runs.) With that theory, I also think that people who get up before dawn to venture out from under the warmth of the covers do so driven by curiosity… What will the day bring? What is happening already? What can be found before the day begins its chaotic whirl?

Even on mornings when the run isn’t so great (like today – sore feet, slow pace), I’m glad to have gotten up and out. It’s a rare thing to see something like an enormous moon making way for the sunshine, or a quiet rabbit in the grass. It’s a reward for tenacity and drive. (And it’s a nice way to wake up – I often say that I have to get out the door for my run quickly so that I’m engaged in the action before my brain fully wakes up and realizes what I’m doing to my body.) Seeing a bunny, a sunrise or something odd and amusing is much better than an alarm clock for getting the engine revved.

This week, I’m on spring break with my kiddos, visiting the grandparents. We spent a couple of days at the beach and I ran on the sand, and then today ran through an old, quaint (and apparently somewhat wild) segment of Orlando. Here are a few things I’ve seen in three days of pre-dawn time:

• A little old lady collecting bags of seaweed (art? breakfast salad?)
• Two funny birds waiting for a sea fisherman to get going with his catches (or get out of the way so they could sample the bait)
• A giant jellyfish
• An enormous (and sadly deceased) white pelican
• Wild roosters
• Incredible sunrises

Not bad for three days! I don’t normally do this, but I stopped along the way to snap a few shots to share with you here. Enjoy!

What are some of the fun things you’ve seen on your early morning excursions?

The schedule this morning was off the norm, and in retrospect, it’s clear that there was a higher power in play because today has been a right place/right time kind of day.

Backstory. Thursday mornings are youth group for my son. He has to be out the door before 7am, which is nearly impossible for him (lots of cajoling to free him from the sleep tractor beam). Frankly, it’s not ideal for me either because it interferes with my morning run time (which typically happens early enough that it doesn’t interfere with anything…I’m not sure my kids would believe I run as much as I do except that I always stink when I get them up.) My husband, knowing me as he does, kindly offered to handle the carpool so I could take Runner Pup out for a quick spin this morning. I still waited until the guys were on their way before heading out (yay for houseguests who are happily still in bed at 7am and willing to ‘watch’ my still asleep daughter).

Starting a run at 7am is not my norm so, while I’m accustomed to having a sky full of bright early morning stars, I’m not so used to a huge moon hanging low on the horizon. If you were out this morning, you know what I’m talking about. It was like a movie prop and it was an amazing gift. Right time, right place. (Just wish I’d had a camera…and that I could take good pictures.)

After the run, I got my daughter ready and to school – in the car, not her normal bus ride. While there, I thought I’d just make a quick stop into the staff mail room, where my PTA mailbox is located. (I’m the co-president of the elementary PTA…it’s a privilege and as was confirmed today, has its perks.)

A teacher approached me while I was signing some checks, and gave me a very sound, very thoughtful observation and piece of advice. It was an unnecessary, brave and caring gesture, and one that I am overwhelmed with gratitude to have received. The conversation confirmed something that I’d been mulling over and discussing with my husband for some time. It came unexpectedly, and had I not zipped into the mailroom on a whim, it wouldn’t have happened. Now that it did, I realize again, that it somehow I was in the right time, right place to be enriched.

All of this to say that it’s so simple to look at the big things in our lives and see we were there at the right time, right place. But it’s in the quotidian where we sometimes have the most eye-opening, formative encounters. We just have to recognize them for the gifts they are.

Where have you had powerful right place/right time experiences? Do you see them as serendipity or the hand of a higher power?