Reflecting about Mom!

I hope that everyone who is fortunate enough to still have their Mothers had the opportunity to spend time with them this weekend.

Regardless of what else is going on in my life (good, bad or indifferent), I attempt to honor my Mom (Nancy Walk) by making sure I am in church with her.

Last year, when I paid my entry fee for the Indianapolis Mini-Marathon and made subsequent reward travel, I realized too late that the race was the day before Mother's Day and even though I took the first flight home from Indianapolis, I wouldn't be able to be in church with her. My Mom, as she always tends to, completely understood and knew that I wasn't just speaking in vain.

Sunday morning, as much in my life relates around running these days, I reflected upon how my Mom has been supportive in my efforts to 1.) take better care of myself, 2.) try and set an example for my daughter, Waverly, to follow and 3.) accomplish some different goals in my life. When others have felt my priorities have been misplaced, my Mom is never critical and her love is unconditional -- the way love should be.

I remember the very first race I ever attempted: the 24-Hour Fitness 4-Miler at the 2003 hp Houston Marathon. My wife and my daughter were supposed to go with me, but Waverly got sick at about 1:30 a.m. that morning. At about 4:30 a.m., I had my wife call my Mom and ask her to see if she would go downtown with me. (I didn't want to go at this alone. I guess if I failed I wanted somebody to share my heartbreak with.)

Although we woke her up out of bed, she soon had made her way to our place (about 10 miles away) and proceeded to spend time with me before and after the race much like she, my Dad and I had for a former co-worker, Rob Jones with IMA Consulting, Inc., when he ran the 2001 Compaq Houston Marathon.

The thing that I remembered about my Mom and my running on Sunday is that each time I've run Houston, she's been there when I finished. (She even made a trip to Lafayette, Louisiana with me in November 2003 for me to do the Cajun Cup 10K. More so to make sure that I didn't fall asleep at the wheel while driving, but I enjoyed her company nonetheless.)

She was one of the first to know about my plan to honor my Dad and his service in the Marine Corps by making the Marine Corps Marathon my first marathon; however, I had to run Houston so my Mom was able to see me finish one as well!

In fact, even though I'm 38 and she's 56, she doesn't rest easy when I'm on the road (like I was the weekend before last) running until she hears from me. Not so much to know how I did, although that's important to her, but just to know that I'm OK.

(The only place that that didn't happen timely was in Indianapolis and she wasn't too happy that I didn't call her right away! I had mustered up enough strength to do a little sightseeing downtown.)

I'm immensely proud of my Mom. She's the next-to-youngest of 10 brothers and sisters. Her parents passed away when she was in the 2nd (father) and 10th (mother) grades. One of her oldest sisters finished raising her until she married my Dad and had me. She basically grew up poor so material things don't mean a lot to her; however, love is something that is always very important to her.

I just hope that I can continue to love my daughter the way she has loved me over the years. That would be the greatest tribute that I could ever pay her.