Tuesday, February 20, 2007

In one month...everything changes!

Wow, I can't believe that it's been almost one month since I last posted. So many things have happened. The day after my last post, Johan and I went to Hawaii and spent an incredible week there with his dad and stepmom. It was great to escape my world and go to a world with very few demands. Then on the last day that we were there, we received a phone call that Johan's mother had died in a car accident. That's when the world turned upside down.
We got back Feb.1 and were in shock, yet the show had to go on. I took a few days off work to help Johan with a few work things (when a plant order is coming in....it's coming in) and to help with all of the issues that a family needs to deal with when a family member dies. Being the only "in-law", I took on a lot of those responsibilities, as did their family friends Yvonne and Jill. Without the two of them, it would have been even more difficult. The next week was spent planning the service, cleaning her apartment and just overall keeping it together.
On a side note, I was elected to the board of directors for my choir...a few days later our Interm Artistic Director (and director of Otto Voci) resigned. Plus my new boss started that Monday. Shuffled that week were an appointment with the minister, an emergency board meeting, cleaning his mom's apartment...oh yeah, I'm training for a 50 mile race? Feb. 11th was the memorial service. Everything went as well as it could. I think all of the kids were able to have some closure because of it. Feb. 12th was another emergency board of directors meeting where we hired another interim artistic director and Otto Voci became self-directed (with me as the liaison between the board and Otto Voci...and sort of leading the rehearsals....so, sort of interim director, but not with the title.) Plus during all of this, we are looking for a place to move. We don't have a definite date, but as soon as possible is what I would like.
Oh yeah...this is a running blog. Funny how life gets in the way of what we would rather be doing! Last week I was able to have somewhat of a regular running schedule. Saturday was a long run of 11.5 miles. Longest run in 2 1/2 months. Now that's scary! I don't know if I'll be able to pull off the American River 50 mile by April 14th. We'll see. I'm keeping my eye on the big run....Run Across Iowa 2007 in June/July.

Happy Trails (and trials of life!)
-Brad

2 Comments:

Blogger Steve Ansell said...

Brad, Sorry to hear about Johan's mother. My wife lost her mother unexpectedly last summer. It definitely changes everything. I think the hardest part is knowing that, in such a situation, there is really nothing you can do to "make it all better".

Sounds like things are pretty hectic all over in your life right now. However, I wouldn't give up on the 50M just yet. I learned recently that endurance seems to be lost much slower than basic fitness. I did a 50K in January on very little recent training and a longest run of 12.5mi since Firetrails in October. Best of luck with everything.

2:10 PM  
Blogger Brad said...

Was the 50k Catra's Fremont run? That would have been a lot of fun.

Not giving up! I might do Ruth Anderson 50k as a warm-up. I wanted to run the Napa Valley Marathon (my birthday weekend), but I'm not sure if that's going to work out. Oh yeah, and it's next weekend!

11:08 AM  

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