Oops too long and Cherry On Top

I ran a big scary distance today - 8k (5 mi).  I was planning on running 7.5k according to a well designed distance increase, but I took a 1 minute water break after 5k, and wouldn't you know it ... I needed to pee when I was finishing the 7.5k.  I live in an upper middle class neighborhood, BMWs, Audis, Hondas, Cadis, so stopping by a Juniper tree and letting a golden show rip was out of the question.  So I just ran an extra .5k to get closer to the house.  I think my run was faster than a walk at this point.  I love my neighbors.

Pace was 7:56/k (12:43/mi).

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I and 5 others received an award from Adam (The Boring Runner) called the Cherry on Top.

The rules of this award are [from Adam's page ... I don't research back to BerryFine ... you know how much energy a click takes?!!? I just missed a boys night out last night and the cherry, and the cherry on top had some very important significance, and so I did a very long double take and read everything very carefully - as I was afraid this was a setup by my bunch of evil-doing hoodlum friends whom I can't live without!]

1. Answer this question: If you had the chance to go back and change one thing in your life, would you and what would it be?
2. The second thing you have to do is, pick 6 people and give them this award. You then have to inform the person that they have gotten this award.
3. The third and final thing is, thank the person who gave you the award.

Here we go:

1. I reviewed many places in my life where a decision I had made could have made a big difference in my life and the lives of others, and a decision that if made or not, could have had a very different outcome.  What I tell you is deep in the heart of this big guy, so please treat me gently with this one regret.  ...... Most of my adult life, I have been struggling with being an ambitious bastard and a good son/person.  I had a really good job offer in Atlanta as VP in a Telco, but stayed here in Toronto to be near my paralyzed father.  I often let junior people go on longer trips so that I wouldn't miss taking him out for a coffee (drunk from a straw) or a Honey Cruller at Tim Hortons at the Chronic Care Hospital where he lived.  [Tears are rolling down my eyes now.]  He was one of the greatest and well-adapted personalities I have ever met and he was ill from Multiple Sclerosis from about my 9th birthday.  My parents were divorced and I grew up fighting against him until the age I started my own business when I was 20.  He turned out to be a patient, knowledgeable teacher.  Over the years we became very close.  I even chose (with my wife) to move much closer to him so that travel time could be converted into visiting time.  I would push him through the neighbor hood (that I run through today) to our house from the hospital - it would take about 45 mins one way in his wheel chair.  Two years ago he had a mild pneumonia that made him lose his appetite and lose most of his ability to speak.  I could see he knew he was dieing and I wanted him to know he was not alone so the family quickly set up a visiting schedule that would keep him with someone almost every hour of his waking life (we were good at this by now - my uncle the year before from brain cancer, my mom from congestive heart failure and cancer two years before and my father in law, 3 years earlier, from arterial sclerosis.)  I usually had the evening shifts (5 pm to midnight).  Well he had been suffering from a second pneumonia and was not waking from it for a few days.  I wanted to go home and get some sleep, and I asked a nurse what I should do.  She said he's stable and I should go home.  I used her authority as an excuse, I kissed him and went home to sleep - because my going to sleep was apparently the most important thing in this world.  I reached home (a 5 minute drive) washed and we received a phone call from the hospital that he had died.  He had died alone.  A man that lived alone his whole life, and his oldest son couldn't even sit with him.  Everyone told me later he probably wanted to die alone, as he never (this is true) wanted to inconvenience anyone.  He probably would have said "I'm sorry, but I have to die now - please excuse me!"  My regret was that for an extra hour of sleep I wasn't there to give him to the next World.
2. Six people to give this award to (not in any order):
1. Johann du Plessis (Run Tall, Walk Tall) for taking me to a whole new world every blog post he makes - for living a life that I can not, but sharing it with me.  For the encouragement.
   
2. Chris K (BQ or Die) for the training help and the good humor.  Still rather tame (since I've been tanned on the grid-iron and in the air).  And for the abs that I am working towards!  P.S. "Fumble" and "Reee-Jected" are common for us here too.
3. Emily "EMZ" (cuckoo formatting blog) for being different - that is an achievement that is both respectful, and lonely all at once.  And the abs.  I know everyone was waiting for that comment.
4. Rae (5k Rae) she's aways ahead of me, like an older sister (but she's younger) and she reveals a lot of hope for herself in her happy pictures and her posts.  Qualities I would like to acquire in time.
5. T.S. (Long Road to Paradise) for Operation Beautiful - I remember when I shoved a bunch of wood splinters into a radiator hole in North Dakota, hoping to get me and my car to Lansing, Michigan.  The radiator worked just fine for another 600 miles.  Operation Beautiful could just work in such a simple way in changing the world.
6. Amanda (5 Miles Past Empty) for making me do lunges [in a bikini] and liking furry animals.
3. Adam, thank you.  You were my first follower two months ago.  And I immediately felt I could fit in to being a runner when I saw that you had a blog that was about "nothing" to use a Seinfeld praise.  Whenever I see it has a new post I'm on it baby.  Late for a Wedding, Church or an Opera?  So what, Adam's got something to say.  You have helped me [in a non-legally binding way] in my understanding of training and given me much encouragement.  I hope to grow up and be just like you.  I am planning a trip to Iowa soon for a wine tasting!

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Taking a break for a few days.  Sorry folks, my wife and I are off to a spiritual retreat given by Fr. Ron Rolheiser at a local retreat house.  I'll be offline until Sunday evening - no laptops, radios, or phones allowed - thank God!  Of course our world is already crumbling without us so we have people lined up for babysitting, driving people places, lawn cutting etc. But I couldn't find anyone to post and read your posts.  Don't post anything interesting this weekend.  Or if you do email me to catch up on it! andrew (at) andrewopala (dot) ca.  I might sneak my blackberry in past the strip search [don't ask where]!