Each Step is One in The Right Direction

Thank you Mister Science Teacher

Mentor: noun

1. A trusted teacher or councellor
2.An influence senior sponsor or supporter.


So, yesterday, I was having a super bad day. Like, gah. I had been running on about 8hrs sleep for the whole week, and the first 3 days of that week, I didn't sleep. At all. Exams. It was ridiculous. So, Saturday I worked a 14hr day. I came home, and looked for my running clothes, and set them out beside my bed. I had my shoes, fuel belt, uncharged garmin, heart rate monitor, everything. I had my alarm set for 7:15am. This gives me enough time to wake up, roll out of bed into running clothes, have a glass of water and bagel, and determine what other fuel I may need. (i.e. Do I have enough gels). I was very ready. I crawl into my bed at 2am. I've run on less than 5hrs sleep before.

So I don't remember much. I don't think I laid in bed at all, I just CRASHED. Like, I don't remember hitting the pillow.

6:50am: First alarm goes off, just a warning to get out of bed. Tiger does not hear this alarm. Sleeps right through it.

7:15am: Second alarm goes off. Again, Tiger does not hear this alarm

7:20-9:00: The snooze keeps going off. I find out later that my mother had come in and shut it off cause it frustrated her so much. lol.

11:15am: Tiger frantically gets out of bed, and starts putting on her running clothes. Her sister is watching treehouse calmly on the edge of her bed. Her mother is making lunch and her brother has gone to work...

shit! I missed the run. I don't care that the weather was bad and it was icy. I know I didn't eat much the night before. It's not like I was trying to burn off a Big Mac or anything. See, that is the thing that people don't understand. I don't run strictly for excersize purposes. I run so that I can get through the next week. Life is stressful for everyone, and this is my way of coping with the stresses in University and exams and all of that stuff...

Yes, I run for 3hrs. Some people may think that i should be studying. But seriously, without that run, I don't study.

So, Sunday was off to a bad start. Then there was the issue of being stuck at home all day with the family. The crazy mother. Yeah..She stresses me out in herself. Then, I leave the house, and take my 4yr old sister to a movie, and we have a Snowball fight. It was fine. Then more stress when I get home.

It was really really frustrating. I was almost at the point of not coping. No run + Lots of stress=tiger going crazy.

I sat down. Ready to just curl up into a little tiny ball and forget about life for awhile. I went to check my facebook, and nobody important was online, and even msn, there was nobody to talk to. I thought about re-evaluating what I was doing...

I opened my e-mail, and I have a little folder where I save special e-mails. A little boost I guess. There was the e-mail that my old science teacher sent me. After I finished the Mississauga Half, I went and told him all about it. I don't think anybody has ever listened that closely to the story. After I got the picture, I wrote a letter, telling him about the impact that Running has had on my life. I truly have him to thank for planting the seed.

In an email, a few months later, he told me that he understood the impact that running had on my life, and that we would run a race together!

Looking at that e-mail, and thinking back to the comments that I get about my running, including those about being crazy, Somebody get's it. Someone that doesn't have to be proud of me, is. I dunno, I guess it's a nice thing.

I hope that everyone at some point in their life has had a "Mr.Science Teacher"..

Don't know what I am doing wiht my life from now on, but I hope that someday I can make as big of an impact on someones life as he has on mine.

So, publically--Thank You Mister Science Teacher! I'll see you for the Mississauga Half in May??

Tiger

posted by AddictedToEndorphins @ 6:35 PM