The Sidelines

On Saturday, June 5th, 2010 Dan ran the infamous (around here anyway) “Dam to Dam” 20K Race. Hannah and I woke up at 4:30am to drive him to the shuttle stop where he would catch a ride to the start. We planned to wait at both mile four and near the finish to cheer him on, however the steady falling drops of rain made me wonder how I, or rather how I and a two year old, were going to manage.

I admit it; I’m not always the most punctual person. For many things it doesn’t seem to matter all that much, certainly not enough for me to change my bad habit, but today I knew if we were late by even a few seconds, we could miss him. With that in mind, I figured that going home before the 7:00am start was not a good idea. I would be sure to greatly under estimate the time needed to drive there, get stuck in traffic, arrive on time but have nowhere to park, or worse yet, fall back asleep and miss entirely. I didn’t want any of that to happen so instead we went for a little drive to Ankeny to kill some time. First stop – Wal-Mart. We were in desperate need of a couple umbrellas. Hannah was dressed for the occasion wearing her green froggy rain boots and light pink rain coat but I thought that she really could use an umbrella to complete the look, not to mention a new object might hold her attention for five minutes. We shopped quickly and found the perfect pair – a large black umbrella for myself and a child-sized variety in Hannah’s favorite shades of pink.

One of the most important things to do to keep my child happy is to keep her belly full. With plenty of time to spare we decided that even though it was early we were hungry. Isn’t it funny how that works? As we parked the car, we thanked God for senior citizens because without them IHOP wouldn’t have been open at that forsaken hour of the morning. I ordered the smiley face pancake complete with strawberry eyes and a grin of banana slices for myself and the short stack for Hannah. I wish! Lucky Hannah! The pancakes swelled our bellies beyond capacity and mommy got her coffee. We were happily off to mile marker four.

The rain continued to fall but it wasn’t enough to keep us away or to keep the runners from running. We crossed the street and found an open spot to stand where we thought Daddy would see us and began to wait as the rain gently fell from the sky. I set Hannah down to her feet and she looked at me curiously. I wondered why she looked confused and told her it was ok to splash around. And then I realized as I watched the look of amazement on her face that today was her first day playing in the rain. I tried not to choke on my guilt. My daughter is two and has never played in the rain. Time seemed to stand still as I watched her hold her umbrella over her shoulder and look in wonder down at her boots splashing in the puddles. It may have been late, but I was there for it.

We scanned the faces of the runners as fast as we could, knowing that daddy would be running by any minute. With the race capped at 8,000 runners, we couldn’t afford to look away for even a second. It was then that I heard the dreadful word. You know the one. P-O-T-T-Y. I ignored it. She said it again, and then I made her say it three more times just to be sure it was what she was really saying. I picked her up, told her that we would go find one soon and hoped that she didn’t pee on me. Luckily we soon saw daddy’s smiling face running toward us. We smiled big waving violently and instead of a baton, we passed him the GU.

I wondered when we arrived why almost everyone was standing on the opposite side of the street, the outside of the corner, where I though it would be harder to see the faces of the runners. Now I knew why. Crossing the runners would be an obstacle under normal circumstances, not to mention in a downpour with a two year old and two umbrellas. We waited and waited for a quick break in the massive crowd but knowing that she was likely to pee on me any second I decided it was best to fold up the umbrellas and make a run for it. It was in the opposite direction of our car, but we ran with traffic and eased our way across the street being careful as could be not to cut any of the runners off. Whew - we made it to the potty in time!

Final destination - finish line. While I drove downtown I fought off nightmarish thoughts…you greatly under estimated the time needed to drive there, you’re going to get stuck in traffic, you will arrive on time but have nowhere to park…It wasn’t so bad until we got close and then I couldn’t find a place where I could cross the street; everything was blocked off for the runners to pass through. I finally found what I thought was a spot to cross only to quickly discover that I had pulled onto a dead end street. Amy you idiot. Luckily there were cars packed in like sardines on both sides of the street with barely enough space for me to squeeze through and it only took a half an hour to do a twenty point turn in my large white Tahoe and then as I’m starting to drive out another car pulls in, realizes the same thing and then takes what seemed like twenty minutes to reverse out. It’s a good thing they were looking over their shoulder as they backed out because I’m pretty sure the look on my face read I WILL RUN YOU OVER. I closed my eyes and exhaled loudly out of my nose.

We soon found our way. With the race and the ever popular farmer’s market going on at the same time downtown – parking was indeed nonexistent. Don’t panic. It was best to stop wasting time looking for a close parking place. The last thing I needed was getting stuck behind a Buick creeping through a parking ramp, driving through each and every level pausing every time a spot appears to be open or someone appears to be leaving only to discover that there are no spots available in the entire ramp. Yes, I am speaking from past experience! (Dam to Dam 2009). Instead we drove farther away where I knew we could find a spot and walk/run to the finish.

Watch out people – crazy mom on the run! The words didn’t even have to come out of my mouth, people just knew. We dodged people, dogs, cats on leashes, and everything else you see downtown on any given Saturday in the summer. The humiliation of running with a non-jogging stroller was worth it because we made it. We saw Daddy’s big finish! We cheered and clapped, we were so proud of him! Not only did he finish his first 20K but he did it in the rain. I was also proud of Hannah and myself; we had finished a race of our own. To celebrate, we met Daddy at the Nollen Plaza fountain. Hannah looked at me in amazement as I rolled up her jeans and told her to splash around with the other kids (including me)! I was there for it.

:: note ::

Before I started writing this I thought I was taking a different approach. I was going to talk about how difficult it can be to stand on the sidelines. Even though I can be extremely happy for someone else, at the same time I often think “I wish that was me.” And on this particular day I was standing there happy for Dan, but at the same time wishing I would have ran it. It made me think about how it isn’t always easy to be on the sidelines…Poor me.  But then I wrote it down and I recalled the joy I felt that day. How proud I am to be Dan’s wife and Hannah’s mother and what a good day it was, just as it was.

Light shines on the godly,
and joy on those whose hearts who are right
Psalm 97:11