My Ten Things Thankful: Exploding Great Expectations edition.

Expectations. I  try hard not to have them but riddle me this?

How does a gal have goals — either for the next 10 years or the next 10 minutes — without setting expectations?

My Ten Things Thankful —  My 4th of July, Peachtree Road Race exploding great expectations edition.

 

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Yesterday, the Fourth of July.

My son and I in Piedmont Park for the customary hold-a-shirt-up pic after the Peachtree Road Race.

 

10.   Wait. There was supposed to be three in this photo.

For three months my 10 year old and I had trained to run this race together. It was to be his first 10K.

 

 

 

 

9.   I am so thankful for my dog. Who loves to sleep on the cool bathroom tile in the summer.

 

At 5 a.m. on Friday, I wake the boys up to head into Atlanta. Joe stumbles into the bathroom to take a quick shower.

Here’s where everyone must swear not to mention I shared this to Joe.

Half asleep he trips over the sleeping dog and crashes onto our 1925 cast iron bathtub.

I know this has happened because I hear a crash the likes of two-ton meteorite hitting the bathroom tile.

 

 

 

Joe knocks the wind out of himself. And becomes hysterical.

 

 

8.   I love that the legs routinely come off our newly restored tub.

 

 

 

 

 

7.  Poor boy is very upset and says he is too sore to run. After trying 20 minutes to convince him he can do it without any luck, Jake and I leave.  Photo of the three of us in Park after race — gone.

 

 

6.  On the drive into Atlanta  (we are now 30 minutes later than I wanted to leave), I try to relax while talking to my son.

All the while the refrain from Frozen is blasting in my head.

 

 

 

 5.  Because we are late, change idea of parking at park (too crowded by now) and decide to park at start. So I turn onto I-285.

 

Soon after that I saw flashing signs: ALL LANES BLOCKED because of accident. Said prayer for those involved and decided to creep off 285 to Marta station.

 

Parking lot was packed.  I noticed all these people. All very nicely dressed.

My brain is trying to figure it out. A wedding? A family reunion? So weird. Then see a sign Jehovah’s Witness International Convention.

Please do not take this in anyway against the Jehovah’s Witness but there were a million of them.

Every stop the train picked up a handful of late runners  and 3,000 more convention goers.

Each stop took about 30 minutes.

 

4.  I was impressed with the Jehovah’s Witness. As I was crammed in the back of the car standing  by the door.

No one seemed rushed or bothered. Everyone seemed happy. Except me.

Let it go, let it go. That’s what I kept telling myself. So I talked to the nice man from Jamaica right behind me. And the old fellow from Macon in front. And the beautiful young girls in saris right beside me. One of whom was a stunning young Indian girl. The other two looked and talked like they would spill forth from the Delta Delta Delta house at any major Southern university — while wearing gorgeous colorful Hindu wear.

 

3.  Then the crazy preacher man got on the train. And stood right in front of me.

 

“The Church is in me,” he started. That sounded great. Then he latched onto my son like a piece of gum that inevitably finds the bottom of my shoe. We learned stream-of-consciousness about his playing basketball in college and then how no cop better try an illegal search and seizure on him.

 

By this time, I have given up all hopes of getting to the start of the race before 9 a.m.

I had fallen down the rabbit hole into an episode of Seinfeld.

 

 

2.   I became the crazy talking lady on the train.

 

We switched trains and headed up toward Buckhead. Gathering more runners each stop. Till Lindbergh station. The train driver told all runners to exit and wait for the Lenox train.  The Marta guys outside were telling all runners to stay on till the Buckhead station.

Crazy late runners don’t need this.

A few of us stayed on the train and headed up to Buckhead. As woman stood beside me freaking out that the train wasn’t going to stop.

Then I noticed two women in front of me. They touched and held onto each other like a couple as the train lurched.

I locked eyes with one of the woman and it all came out.

My 10-year-old was supposed to be running with us.

My sleeping dog.

The 1925 cast iron tub.

The ALL LANES BLOCKED.

The mass of sweet convention goers.

WILL THE TRAIN STOP AT THE BUCKHEAD STATION???

 

 

1.   We stopped at the Buckhead station.

The entire train heaved a sigh of relief. The couple and I offered a “have a good race” to each other and Jake and I started the mile and a half walk to the start.

 

 

 

No, the picture at the end of the race didn’t look as I imagined — but once I LET things GO — things turned out pretty awesome.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yes — there were only two of us in the photo but to heck with expectations.

Thankfully, I’m not the best at making realistic ones.

Reality is well reality.

And pretty good.

 

 

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