On Saturday, Cameron completed his 13th marathon. It was hot and humid and sunny – not his favorite weather conditions. When he got to mile 16, it was  eeirly quiet he said. It was at that point, with very few spactators, that many runners realized this wasn’t going to be their best day. So, instead of giving up, he kept going and decided to make the best of it. He wasn’t going to have a PR (personal record), but he was going to have some “firsts.” This was the first time he had bacon & watermelon during a marathon. He ran by a frat house and the guys handed him a shot. He thought it was a beer shot, so he thought “why not?!” Instead, it was tequila – ugh. Luckily, he didn’t puke. We saw him at mile 23, drenched from pouring many cups of water over his head to stay cool. We also saw him right before the finish. He stopped to give the boys high 5’s and a smile. 

He has the skill of making people focus on the positive. It’s one of the reasons many people like running with him – he takes their mind off the pain. Think about something else… talk about something funny…whatever it takes to get you through a long run. Except for the actual marathon itself – when it comes to race day, he doesn’t say much at all. What all goes through his head, I’ll never know. I imagine it’s a wide variety of things, assessing the course, the weather and taking cues from his body. He’s said it before, marathons are mainly mental – you have to be able to get your head right to go 26.2 miles. Mental magic tricks – abracadabra!

The day after running the marathon, we went to a bunch of state parks for hikes. All total, it was over 11 miles. On one of the trails, our youngest son slipped on the mud 3 times and fell down. He was muddy and scraped up. Luckily his dad is a magician. He was able to get him to focus on other things instead of his muddy hands and scraped up legs. He let him be our “hiking leader.” Abracadabra – no more pain. Suddenly, we were on an adventure instead of a hike (where we were getting lost in the woods with impending thunderstorms.) Myles made sure that our group was doing ok, he walked with pride and purpose. He was important. 

Similar things happened today, when we also got lost on a trail and ended up going way further than we thought to see some “falls.” He made each of us take turns being the leader. Although he knew that I had “journeyed enough” and was ready to be done, he still tried to make it fun.  I told him he probably married the wrong lady because I don’t really love hiking. When you are that far into the woods and there is nobody else around, you still have to get back, there aren’t many options. We put on another 8.5 miles today. Vacationing with him is exhausting yet fun. 

He’s a magician and I’m thankful to have him in my life. He’s the silly to my serious, the random to my planning & we balance each other out. We celebrated Father’s Day in an unconventional way, but he thought it was great. Despite having just gone 26.2, we’ve put on another 19 miles in 2 days. I hope that you too are able to have some magic skills, to be able to focus on the positive (even when you are covered in muck and lost in the woods.) May you be a magician for someone else, and help them see past their scraped leg or bruised ego. Peace be with you on your journey of enough & may you find the best trail to the most beautiful waterfalls & perhaps a magic wand.