"The will to live" is why he is here. The hospital where he was treated spoke about him for years after he was healthy and I recently met a doctor who had heard his story....he shouldn't be here. He shouldn't have lived. And he sure shouldn't be strong. As distance runners, we all know the "will" is what propels us the finish line.
Makai has always been an individual athlete. He has never enjoyed team sports, except maybe football. He started racing BMX when he was 6, racing Motorcross when he was 9, and started surfing at 10 when we moved back home to Hawai'i. He is an adrenaline junkie and likes all his successes and failures to be his.
But being the "read the parent book" type of mom, I feel team and high school sports are a huge benefit to kids. They have to go to practice, even if they don't want to, are part of a group which holds them accountable, and most kid's grades actually go up during sports season. So he chose Cross Country, with a little (ok, A LOT) of input from me. You're part of a team, yet the race is yours, and XC doesn't interfere with big wave surfing in Hawai'i.
He enjoyed freshman year. Couldn't make him do track. Didn't run from November until August, when XC season started again. This past season he had a great mentor and his new coach lit a fire in him. He had a successful season and was moved up to Varsity and went to States. He started talking about continuing to race 5K's when the season was over and run the Honolulu Marathon with us. (HUGE MOM GRIN!!!!!!!!)
So this miracle kid with an incredible will to live started training with Steve and me in October. And most of the time, it hasn't been fun! This hurts, that hurts, we're going to slow, it's too hilly, it's too early, wah, wah, wah!
He raced his first half marathon 3 weeks ago, after a whiny baby 11 mile training run the weekend before, and finished less than 2 minutes behind Steve, and 2 minutes ahead of me. Based on the previous week's training run, I was sure I was going to catch him!!! He placed 3rd in the 16-19 age group with a respectable 1:31 chip time. The fact that I PR'd was less significant than how proud I was him. And he loved the race!
3 weeks of training runs have gone by. And he is killing me. On our 10 mile hilly run on Sunday we considered dropping him as he was messing with our training plan. I actually yelled at him "Dig deep. You defeated death, stop letting a little stomach pain slow you down!'. Not sure what a parenting book would say about that parenting moment. Our early morning short runs are better and we have to slow him down, as he doesn't understand why anything less than 6 miles shouldn't be at a sub 7 pace.
Tomorrow is the marathon. The kid excels under pressure in everything he does. For some reason the whiney baby crap disappears, but with running, the race is the reward for pushing through hours of training. Not sure how long his young legs will hold up before lack of mileage, due to a late start on distance training, catches up. I honestly don't know what to expect.
I have requested he not start the marathon with me, and with Dad instead. I know he can keep up for at least 12 miles and although it's not the smartest idea to go out at Steve's pace, I don't want the responsibility of pushing him along. I have my own goals. But mother instinct would take over and if he's hurting I may slow down. So I am going to put up the Mom hat and put on the Boston Qualifying Goal hat on and have no idea when to expect him at the finish line.
The best scenario would be that he beats me there.
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