Suitcase of Courage

It’s that time of year again. Tour Time.

I’ll admit that I was a bit of a fair weather friend. Once Lance retired it didn’t have quite the same excitement as it did before. But he’s back. And so am I.

The Tour reminds me of good times. My skinny summer with Claire where all we did was run, work(at a running store), eat pints of frozen yogurt and drink sugar free flavored water on Saturday nights. It reminds me of the one day when Claire drank the full sugar water and I didn’t say anything because I thought maybe she was splurging?! It reminds me of French Silk. It reminds me of getting our picture taken while gorging on chocolate chip cookies. It reminds me of fireworks going off near my rear and chocolate cakes that were certainly not rich enough for either of us. Mostly though it reminds me that whenever in doubt in life and running I need to look no further than my own suitcase of courage.

Paul and Phil might possibly be two of the best commentators of all times. Without them there is no Tour. My favorite Liggettisms of all time is when Lance was climbing a particularly hard mountain – his foot slipped after he had gotten caught up by a spectator and we thought the tour had been lost. Phil said something about Lance really having to dig deep into his suitcase of courage if he wanted to win the tour. He of course did and it was one of the most exciting stages I’ve ever watched.

Before my best friend Ashley, myself and my mom all ran Chicago Marathon one year my mom bought Ashley and I “suitcase” necklaces from Brighton. She attached a note saying that these were our suitcases of courage and to bring them to all marathons we run. I still wear this necklace whenever I feel that I need a little bit of strength or whenever I have a big race coming up that I feel like I need to remember to bring my courage!

“The race is not always to the swift, but to those who keep on running“