I Am Thankful For...

This Thanksgiving I am thankful for how well my son's been doing. It's tough to relate to a 16 year old, but i'm trying. Really trying. Our relationship's gotten better...much better, and I continue to work on making it better. We've had some "issues" which both of us have worked on (in our own ways). He has made a incredible turnaround, and I'd like to think that I have as well. I cannot say enough how proud I am of the young man he is becoming. I hope some of it rubs off on me.

There are other things to be thankful for, I agree, but this is my main one. I'm making it all about us this time.

This is my running blog, so you know i'd find a way to make it about that also.

Not far down my list of things to be thankful is my job as a middle school teacher. Yes, I'm thankful I have a job, get to teach and work with kids...but I'm also thankful for all the time off throughout the year that I get to focus on my running. I know. I know. I know. It should be all about helping young minds, and it is, but it's also about me sometimes. Besides, who says you can't juggle it all?

I'm off for the next 3 days and the weekend. Technically, it's a 5 day weekend and it couldn't've come at a better time: This is our 1st time off since school began in late August and, more importantly, I haven't been running much since CR due to some knee pain.

Full disclosure: We get 5 personal days to utilize during the fall semester (and 5 more during the spring semester), and I've already used them all. Nothing wrong with that, but it occurred to me that I used them all for my running - driving to/from races, taking day off for soreness, etc. It's all about priorities.

This got me thinking how much "me" time I get off...time to spend with my son and time to run.

I'm off 3 days this week (plus the weekend = a 5 day weekend), 2 weeks for x-mas, 1 week for spring break and (drumroll)............the entire summer off.

I think I already run quite a bit, but all this time off makes running easier since I practically have all the time in the world to do it, and being slow, I need all the time in the world to do it.

Plus, I get to run with my track runners in the spring for about 5 weeks when I'm coaching them. That's when I get to work on my (lack of) speed with some speedy kids by chasing them.

Oh, yeah, did I mention that all this time off coincides with my son's time off??? Yesssssssssssssssss!!!