The Gift I Never Noticed

I started meeting with a running coach at Hayward Field. Leon is from the gym we go to and asked my wife and me if we’d like to train running the stairs at Hayward Field.

When you hit 50 (or more) something happens that tells you to try the things you’ve never tried. When you get cancer you realize you’ve got nothing to lose and find yourself saying yes to things you’d never thought about before.
As Leon was coaching me today, showing me ways to run correctly, my speed started to increase, my style grew better and my times decreased. At one point Leon looked at me and said “Rick, you can run.”
I haven’t felt like that in a long time. Perhaps I’ve never felt like that. Like what you might ask? I don’t know. I really can’t explain it.
As I ran as fast as I could up the stairs at Hayward my lungs burned and quads screamed for relief and I just kept pushing them. I told the: “You belong to me and you don’t get to run my life, I run you.”
I kept saying a time over and over in my head as I ran and I beat my time every time. I was in a zone. Not my zone or a least any zone I’m familiar with. I loved it. I think I like running. Leon took off and I took another lap. As I ran past the statue of Bill Bowerman I felt something I’ve never felt before, I belonged here.
I’m not planning to head to the Senior Olympics or anything like that but when the next All Comers Meet happens at Hayward Field I’ll be ready and maybe, just maybe I’ll run.
I wonder that we don’t all have this huge pile of gifts in our lives just waiting for us to open. It’s like Christmas but most of us are too busy or too scared or too something to open the gift. Next time someone asks you to step out, just do it.