The Definition of SUPPORT.....

18 months ago, I ran my first 5K.  I had lost about 45 pounds and weighed about 260.  I had also been working out with my wife for about 3 months and was feeling really good about myself.  I decided the 5K was a good goal to set.  My brother-in-law ran that day with me and we completed it in a little under 37 minutes.  The emotions I felt that day were unbelievable.  Today, I eclipsed that feeling by a great deal. You see, I am down at the coast visiting my family and when my wife and I woke up, we decided that we should run a little to try and keep up with our exercise routine.  Surprisingly, today was the first day since January that the beach had experienced a snowfall.  We were determined not to be deterred and chose to run anyway.  My twin brother decided to run with us and so the three of us set out for a little jog.  Within a few hundred feet I was ready to quit....SERIOUSLY!  Had it not been for my wife on my right and my brother on my left I actually might have quit and gone home.  I pressed on and made it through the first quarter mile.  At this point, an actual buzzard began to circle over our heads.  I believe that he hoped I would drop dead right there on the side of the road so that he and his friends would be treated to a post-Christmas smorgasbord. Unfortunately for them. I stayed upright.  Now, when we began, I thought we would make a mile and decide we had given it a solid effort and could then go home and enjoy drinking some warm coffee and watching the snow fall.  This of course was not to be.  The route my brother had chosen was at least going to be a 2 mile run, with a possibility of 3 miles.  As I began to wrap my mind around this new development, I noticed that just like the synchronization of our heartbeats in the womb, my brother and I had settled into a standard cadence of a 1,2,3,4 pace during the run. I focused my attention on that cadence and on the fact that I was running with two of the most important people in my life...my TWIN BROTHER, who since the moment of our conception has been my best friend and the person who is truly a part of me...and my WIFE, who not only is the love of my life and the mother of my 3 incredible kids, but also the one person who has consistently shown me the definition of UNCONDITIONAL LOVE. With these amazing individuals by my sides, I continued to push myself through the one mile mark.  As we began the 2nd mile, my mind was taken back to the day of my 5K.  I thought about the feelings that went through my mind and body and about the joy of completing the run.  I also thought about the fact that my brother had completed his first 5K just a couple of weekends ago. At this moment, I decided that even though my body was screaming for me to stop, it was my mind that was my biggest enemy.  If I could find a way to defeat my mental blocks I could actually make it to 2 miles.  As the 2nd mile marker approached my brother looked at me and said, "YOU DID IT! You made 2 miles!"  I looked into his eyes and saw the love and joy that only a twin can express and told him I wanted to keep going.  His support lit a desire in  me to make this little run into an impromptu 5K. With my wife just ahead and my brother still running in step beside me, I passed the 2 mile mark. As the final mile approached, I fell into that little trance you get when the repetitive nature of the task at hand overcomes your consciousness and I simply began to just put one foot in front of the other.  My body, screaming even louder in protest nearly forced an early ending to what would become an unbelievable day, but suddenly things changed.  When I opened the eyes of my understanding I noticed I was on the road passing my Mom's house.  As I passed her house and the house of my older brother and then behind the house my twin shares with his amazing family, my body began to hurt less.  Running past the houses of the men and women who helped mold and shape me into the man I am today created a euphoric feeling, which blocked the pain my body was feeling.  You see, for much of my life, I have felt, in a most arrogant way, that I am the most successful person in my family. I am the one who went to college on a full scholarship...I am the one who earned the first Master's degree in our family...and I am the one who has been named coach of the year 6 times as the tennis coach at my school!  I have accomplished all these things and yet none of them helped get me through the run this morning.  As I ran down the streets of the town in which I grew up, watching snow fall around me, it was the amazing people in my life who kept me going.  For years I have reminded my brother that I am 4 minutes older than he is and for years I have looked at him as my "baby brother"....someone I should watch after and someone of which I should take care. However, today it was my "baby brother" who carried me on his back through 3.1 miles of road.  It was my "baby brother" who held me up in his arms and squeezed me tight as I finished my 2nd 5K.  It was my wife who had finished ahead of me and came back to run along side me for the last quarter mile, just like she walks beside me each and every moment of our life together.  As we crossed through two palm trees into my Mother's driveway (our finish line), there was no fanfare...there were no officials...there were no timer chips strapped to our ankles...there were no t-shirts for finishing. We didn't have any of the perks that come with running a traditional 5K, but what we did have was LOVE and FAMILY....and you know something....that is all the SUPPORT I need.