A Sweaty Day

When Becca was in grammar school, she was, like her mother, likely to be one of those chosen last for the athletic teams.  I actually was once the very last selected for the basketball team, and it was humiliating, to say the least. I can still picture the awful scene, and remember how I felt – cold, clammy, and wishing I could disappear through the gymnasium floor. I thought at the time, that it was too bad there wasn’t a geometry team.  I would have done much better there.  But who besides me cared about geometry?  Becca, while not good at sports requiring coordination, unlike her mother, shone in anything that took staying power and overall fitness.  This may have been because she either rode her bike or walked the three miles to school every day, and was a super swimmer. 

 Nonetheless, I was surprised when she recently started running for fun.  I have always viewed this as a slightly ridiculous pursuit, absolutely not fun, and had only personally encountered it in some of the detectives in the novels I read.  Kinsey Millhone stands out in this respect.  She is always running to buck up her spirits after getting her apartment blown up, or having a near miss in a shootout. When Becca and Rachael started running in 5 and 10K races, I was secretly jealous, but not so jealous that I would actually do anything about it.  But then, after much nagging on her part, I reluctantly let Rebecca take me in hand, and I have been jogging along two times a week, whinging, gasping, and begging to stop and rest “just for a few minutes” all the way.  Any excuse to spend some quality time with my girl, I tell myself.  So when a 5K event came along and she suggested that we make it a fun family event, I was all for it.  Rachael, Tommy, and Tina were to join us for the fun day.  I was pretty excited, and so was Tina – we two total non-runners.  As we started out, Tina got a pebble in her shoe.  Becca and Rachael, who had promised to stick with us in our tortoise like pace, showed no mercy, and shot off, leaving us in the dust.  Without Becca to prod and crack her whip, we were not as inspired to hurry as we might have been.  They called us from the finish line to see if we had met disaster, and were shocked that we were just approaching the 2M marker.  They trotted back, all fresh and frisky, to spur us on, but by this time, we were pretty unspurable.  Despite our poor showing, speed-wise, we enjoyed a fun day, and a Birthday Lunch afterwards for my dear girl.  I have to say that I found this birthday of Becca’s far less grueling than the very first one.  But that one had its positive side too.  What a wonder she is!!! And how lucky I am to have her.

Someone is not amused!

Tina and her handsome Apolinario

Our other handsome menfolk