The natural home run I was

The natural home run

I was concerned then, but today I dont worry so much about it, because my future has changed. I dont know what theit will bring, but if I can get through this crap, I can do just about anything. Ive met some amazing people during this journey and Ive learned from themthat your life is now defined by a new-normal, the state that your life is forever in post treatment. From the Tucson Racquet Club, we decide to follow the Rillito River Path which allows us to set an easy pace on a flat path. A popular and busy thoroughfare for runners, bikers and walkers, the path is a perfect place for us to start our journey. While warming up and stretching, we laugh about our decision to join the cross country team in the fall of 1981, oh so many years ago. Im excited to get started and we start our walk/jog on the path, with good conversation, acknowledging those coming the other way. A pleasant looking man and his wife are walking toward us, and as we say hello, I realize that it is John Brooks, our cross country coach at Sabino High School with his wife Carol. What sort of universal cosmic karma has placed the three of us together at this the natural home run nearly 30 years later? John Brooks, or Mr. Brooks as he is forever known, is the sort of teacher and mentor that you remember for the rest of your life. Everybody has those 1 2 teachers in their lives. He is mine. We exchange pleasantries, talking about running and the beautiful weather. I tell him in a few short minutes about my recent battle and he encourages me to keep up the good fight. A two-minute conversation at best, with the man that has influenced my life immensely, and were off to run and walk. Mike and I exchange emails a few days later, amazed at the wonderful coincidence of this meeting. But as I reflect on this, I realize there are powerful forces at work in the universe. While Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma may have put me on a year-long journey, I realize I the natural home run really completed a 30-year journey. That moment of panic from a scared and nervous 14-year-old, deciding to join the high school cross country team, has given me the tools to complete the most important race of my life as a 43-year-old man. That decision to become a runner has come to define me. Being a runner provided me with the skills, fortitude andcompetitiveness to win this race against Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma and chemotherapy. The fact that I startedboth of my running careers, in 1981 and 2010, with the same people has to mean something, right?Mike Greene and Mr. Brooks set me on this path. I was lucky enough to begin one journey with a good friend and mentor, but a second time? Running with the life-long friend that cajoled me into going out for the team in the first place, and then randomly meeting the man that started me on the path nearly 30 years ago? Its not random and I realize there is a plan, a path to follow.