Let's Get this Challenge Started

(Just a FYI warning…if you find yourself annoyed by miss-spellings, grammar, and random thought changes this blog may not be for you…I tend to express things without being attentive to some of those things, I’m a marketing major…not the English Teacher my grandma was) J

If you are new to me….my dad…my family, my hometown, my community, my state, etc I welcome you to follow along and learn about a wonderful inspirational person who I just so happen to be lucky enough to call Dad …For the newcomers; my dad was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease the summer I was going off to college in 2001.  He has had a rather progressive battle with this disease from having brain stem surgery with little success to now being confined to bed with very limited speaking capabilities…..We may not have the cure for every heartbreaking disease but together we can work to honor those people who continue to fight those battles everyday and hope that today brings a better day than yesterday and better hope for tomorrow.


Now let’s get this challenge going.....


Since the news came that I could be on “Team Fox” (Michael J Fox's Foundation for Parkinson's Disease Research) for the NYC marathon I’ve had a mix of emotions.  From highs to lows…to emotional doubts…to knowing this is what I’m supposed to do and it’s going to be a positive exciting adventure.  “This is for you Dad” 

I’ve never been the empathetic daughter of the bunch (the boy dad never actually had I suppose)…I have far too much of dad’s stubbornness and no excuse mentality in me to even let a broken bone stop me from playing anything.  For those who have known me growing up we can reflect on the Little Cardinal basketball days of dad wrapping my casts with knee pads and having to make up stories to tell mom that they mis-printed my name in the paper and I DID NOT have 6 points.  We still laugh about that story because how we ever pulled it off for as long as we did without mom finding out being a grade school teacher is beyond me.

            Sometimes I don’t feel like I’m there as much for dad as I wish I could be, sometimes I don’t know how to make any of “this” better from a caregiver’s perspective.  This marathon is so much of who dad helped me to be…and that’s why I’m doing it.  When our cross country team was about to lose the volunteer coach we had, dad stepped in with all of his football coaching knowledge to be a running coach (no he didn’t make us wear pads out of confusion the first practice)…and I’m not sure he ever thought he’d love that as much as he did.  He’d always told me to “get my run in” and usually ran some on his own….but the world of running was a new concept at that point (to most it seems rather silly I’m sure…but that’s what I wanted to do….so dad wanted to make sure the opportunity for kids was there).  That’s why another new adventure of running a marathon is just what we need to do together again.  I’ve ran half marathons, long runs, circles around tracks, over the river and throw the woods many times….but this….this is OUR first marathon…and where else more perfect to do that then NYC.  (Ok the NYC part probably wouldn’t be dad’s first choice but hey… he’s use to not getting his way with a house filled with 4 women).    

            I’ve always pushed through some hardships with working hard at something else.  As a runner you find your solutions to life and find yourself during a long run day and you’re miles from home with just the scenic views around you and it’s easy to escape to reflect.  I think there are days I struggle more with my best friend having something that none of us can make any better right at this given second then anything.  I miss his voice full of advice, his handwritten inspiration notes, and even the typed items that had words so badly misspelled that even spell check didn’t figure out.  (Now please take note where my bad spelling comes from, at least that’s what I blame it on) J  I look forward to these future days of training and running to allow myself to reflect on so many of these things and help me deal with this in some way. 

      When I was home this past weekend I went walking with my mom.  Which might I add in the midst of this first blog …my mother is an amazing individual.  I have always been daddy’s little girl and through the struggle of some of this it has given me the opportunity to become close to my mom.  I told mom, given the hard days I know that will come with being sore, legs hurting, and so forth I will always be able to tell myself no matter how hard a run, a day, or something might be I realize things are much worse for dad. If he has had the strength to battle so much, without question I will be able to do this and I will. 

I’ve randomly been running, but since news of the marathon it’s given me a new meaning to run and a new goal as well. I’m going to do something for this event every day…every single day…no excuses, because neither my mom nor dad gets a day off from this.  I look forward to being able to update dad on how the running is going and all the activities going on to help raise money for this event.  I’m looking forward to going to NYC and running this marathon and sharing “our story” along the way and making people aware of our small town and everything people like my dad do for so many others every day.

I wanted to start this blog to share in this adventure and hopefully reach others who are struggling with the same type of situation.  I want to express the importance to the awareness for Parkinson’s along with Team Fox and embrace the contagious optimism that Michael J. Fox has given to this disease.  There was a lot unknown about this disease when we were first told of the prognoses and we scrambled to try to understand it all.  I usually don’t discuss emotions much, but I look forward to sharing the thoughts I have while running, training updates, and the random “remember when’s”.  I will update on the fundraising efforts, projects we plan to do, and welcome anyone who wants to contribute, has ideas, wants to assist with a fundraiser to let me know.  I have set the goal of money to raise at $10,000….but if we’ve learned anything from dad it is to always do better then what we once hoped…so I do hope through this my goal increases and we are able to make a big impact from a small community.    

Dad Along with Tara, Me, Mom, and Kelly <3