Last week was the first week in 2013 that I didn’t post anything here on 7marathons7continents. We had a very full week; my beloved (Bill) retired after 30 years as a teacher of ESL and director of an international exchange at Western Washington University.
I’m prouder of Bill than I can say. I’m not sure I’ve ever had it in me to set my mind on doing a job for so many years, but I’ve always admired Bill’s tenacity. He puts his whole heart into everything he does, a quality which mostly benefits me and sometimes irritates me. As a recovering perfectionist, I like to think I’m wholehearted (as opposed to perfectionistic) in most of my endeavors, but I do occasionally like to engage in activities halfheartedly. But Bill never approached his work with anything other than integrity and commitment. Over his years at WWU, more than 4,000 Japanese students came through, and Bill made it his job to make sure the program he directed offered each of them a quality experience that would change their lives for the better.
Now, he’ll be recalibrating, cleaning the garage, finding a new rhythm. And I’ll be working around having him in the house more often–happily.
On Training:
I’m getting up to speed after two weeks off of running while we were in Japan. This last week I managed to get my miles back up to about 25 and did both my pace and speed work. Today I got out for six miles with Bill and another friend. I’ll be back to posting weekly workouts on Friday. My coach, Carol Frazey from thefitschool.com, has just launched her 6-month marathon training program for a group of women training for the Austin Marathon. I’m ahead of the game because I’ve been training all year to shave off an hour from my marathon average, but I’m excited to have the extra support of her weekly seminars and regular emails. If you missed out on working with Carol this time, don’t worry. She’ll run her program again.
Cheers to all of you. I hope you’ve been enjoying these past few weeks of summer.
