PERSPECTIVE

Andrea and I ran Melissa's 10km Saturday, fighting migraines and bowel discomfort, but we survived and we will both run again.  There is a man who won't!  

 

A lady I know from work, also ran Melissa's 10km with a group of her friends.  They all started across the finish line together, on time, but eventually got spread out, making sure every one of them had a running buddy.  My girlfriend and her "buddy" crossed the line at the time they thought they would and waited for their friends. They all straggled in, except for one pair of men. 

Those who had finished running, grabbed well deserved snacks, stretched and waited near the finish with the wife of one of the runners left on course.  Within 10 minutes of the girls finishing, the men approached the chutes that led to the finish line.  There were crowds of runners, all finishing at the same time and the two men got separated.  One went through the chute to the right and the other went left.  Only one man emerged from the finish area.  He was greeted by his friends, but everyone was waiting for the big celebration until their last friend made it through the crowd. 

 

They waited and waited, his pregnant wife, holding the hands of their two excited pre schoolers, waiting to be swept up in daddy's sweaty arms.  But Daddy never came through the cutes!  After a couple of hours and lots of anxiety the wife found a police man. She explained that her husband had run Melissa's and now he was no where to be found.  The police mentioned that one runner had been taken to the hospital but he was un identified.  Her heart sank.  See, her husband was wearing her race bib, he would be impossible to identify!

 Melissa's is a race you have to enter for in February.  In February, the wife didn't know she was expecting a third child.  Her husband, a fit man, had decided he'd run in her place. He'd just use her bib number, how fun!  

You can imagine the confusion at the finish line with race officials trying to track down the actual identity of this runner, when they realized his face didn't match the female name on his bib!  To make matters more confusing another of the friends had actually registered the whole group using his address and phone number. The hospital could not reach the wife!

 

He had collapsed at the finish line but because of the crowd, his passing went unnoticed by the crowd, including his own friends.  Race officials had tried to recessate him, however, he was gone.  He was transported to hospital.

 

The wife, surrounded by her friends went to the hospital in Banff, after talking to the police man, where they were met in the lobby by a doctor, holding her husbands shirt!

As a well-spent day brings happy sleep, so life well used brings happy death. 
- Leonardo da Vinci