The Waiting Game

This quote is so true, yet so annoying at the same time.  Who wants to wait?  In my “real” life, I can tolerate waiting in traffic, waiting in line for my morning coffee, waiting on hold to speak to a real person … these are all things I have done so many times that I am immune to being aggravated.  Recently my husband had surgery, and we waited for three hours before he was taken to surgery; I waited for three hours before I heard how the surgery went; we waited, and waited, and waited, when we called the nurse’s desk and asked for assistance.  This kind of waiting really tests my patience, probably due to stress and fatigue and worry.

In my “running” life, I just can’t get used to the wait in corrals for the race to start.  I have learned that pre-gun, I am supposed to do “dynamic”, not “static” stretches.  Usually in the corral I’m shoulder-to-shoulder with the next person, so there is no room to be jumping around “dynamically”.  If I warm up before being herded into the corral, by the time the race starts I’m ice cold.

A perfect example (but not the only example) of this is runDisney (insert any runDisney race name here).  Don’t get me wrong, I love Disney, have run two events, and hope to do many more.  It’s not Disney’s fault that a gazillion people sign up for their races.

Let me put it this way – I basically couldn’t see the start line from my WDW Marathon corral.  And there were plenty of people behind me too.  We were up at 3 a.m. to catch the shuttle to the race start, where we sat around, shivered, and waited to line up in the corrals, where we waited for a half gazillion people to start before us.  For the Wine and Dine, a night race, I sat on the ground for hours before moving to the corrals (when it started pouring rain), where I waited again for the speedier Mouseketeers to start before me. Disney staggers the corral start times to avoid congestion, but that just means more waiting! And don’t even ask me about the lines of people waiting to take pictures with the characters during the races 🙂 !

Honestly, I know this is a good system and it’s what I signed up (and paid mightily) for.  But that doesn’t mean I have to like it!  I also know that to avoid this, I should run in smaller races, and I do try to look for smaller races.  But let’s face it, the fanfare and bling can really sway a girl!

Moral of the story – Get over it, be patient, enjoy the journey because you never know if you will be lucky enough to experience it again.

Even at my age, sometimes patience is a four letter word.

I have to admit, I thought this was going to be a wonderful summer.  My oldest daughter was fulfilling her dream and moving to Seoul, South Korea.  She was accepted to teach English at her first choice school, and expected to leave mid-July.  Due to multiple snags, glitches and being at the mercy of not one but two governments, her papers still are being processed and home she waits.  Needless to say her spirits are sagging and patience is just about non-existent.

My next and youngest daughter left college in NYC in the spring with the plan that for this school year (which begins in 3 1/2 weeks) she would find an apartment with three of her friends (all of whom live in surrounding boroughs to NYC).  As time passes, there is talk that the friends might just commute from home to school, which is impossible for my daughter.  This is not definitive, but how patient can you be when you are talking about possibly not having a living space?  Her nerves are just about rattled.

For me, today is exactly one month before the Rock ‘n Roll Half Marathon in Virginia Beach, my first-ever half marathon and the beginning of my year-long 50th birthday celebration.  Unfortunately, I am still in my CAM boot nursing stress fractures and bursitis, and haven’t been able to train for over a month.  It goes without saying that due to my injuries, my family hasn’t been able to do many of the fun family outings that we had planned.  It’s easy to feel like a bad mom, still, even when your kids are grown, when you can’t do anything to help them with their situations, and you can’t even follow through on promises you made.

I consider myself a very patient person, but this summer is really testing me!

“Patience is no…

“Patience is not the ability to wait but the ability to keep a good attitude while waiting.”

― Joyce Meyer