Marriage. Babies. First home.
Family vacations. Family funerals. Kid graduations. Father of the Bride. Retirement.
Stages we share with friends – BESTIES whom we closely confide, share laughter, life events, our ups & downs.
First to RETIRE. Stephen. Thirty years of bosses, budgets, job titles, office changes, annual reviews, Thursday pints-after-work – then blink, it’s all over. Luckily, I’m at the tail-end of my peer group. August birthday, last to turn 18. Trend’s continued whole life.
When am I old enough to buy a house? When should I be getting married? Decisions seemed so ‘grown-up’ – then somehow, one day – YOU’RE the grown-up, YOU’RE the uncle, YOU’RE the one sending cash on birthdays & graduations. Time warp.
Stephen’s party started my own wheels turning. Retirement. What will MY next chapter look like? What’s after retirement? And when? 10 years, 15 years?
Luckily, notta question for Stephen. Guy’s been FILLING his dance card. Candlepin bowling. Community chorus. Crafty to-do project I’ve been vowed to secrecy – AND a role in this year’s Palm Sunday celebration: ‘Jesus the Dreamer’ at South Church in Concord. Name printed in the program & everything. Completely legit.
Retirement reflection. Step ONE. Pay off the house. FIVE years.
Think it, dream it, say it out loud (and hopefully, win the lottery – HA!)
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- Welcome to New Hampshire
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- South Church, Concord
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- Jesus the Dreamer ♫
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- love as HE did †
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- Sanctus Deus
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- candlepin BOWLING 🎳
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- no spare, no strike – tough, unforgiving new sport
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- first CONE of 2019
Retirement Lunch
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- Concord’s Common Man
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- CONGRATS! 🎉
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- Ashley & Dan
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- cousin Patricia
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- Cobb salad 🍴
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- first to RETIRE
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- SIBLINGS 👪
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- Joanna & Harding
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- Schofield Clan ❤️
‘Jesus the Dreamer’
Late 9am start. Showered/dressed, bib pinned, bags packed. Train to Malpensa post-marathon, hotel change – last night sleeps ‘cross from Milan’s Terminal 1.
Quiet walk thru Montanelli Public Gardens (city’s oldest Park), déjà vu mirror-moment. April last year: Ibirapuera Park, São Paulo. Birds spring-nesting/making their presence known, muddled sound of runner conversation. Did a dry run yesterday (walking off evening PASTA). No surprises – knew where to go/when to be there.
Bib shown, entry granted: Sector 7. Lot goes into marathoning international. Aside from registration/foreign language emails – medical certificates, applying for an Italian Federation ‘RunCard’, Visas (Brazil/Russia). They’re not all that way but Brazil, Italy, Russia, South Africa – jumped thru some Hula-sized loops. Learned to pace myself.
Little by little, bit by bit…one day, TODAY all comes together. Race day in MILAN, ITALY. Surrounded by centuries of architecture. All worth the effort 😊
Short heavy burst of water five minutes to Start. Short-sleeved natives noticeably shivered, muttered in Italian. Been a RAIN MAGNET this year. Cap, jacket, new gloves. Merino wool. Lesson learned from last Sunday’s COLD Indiana deluge. Il Duomo, Teatro alla Scala – first Half tour highlights.
Mentally plugged in. For me, that’s the battle. Easily noise distracted. Race horse requiring blinders. Inclement weather helps. Shifts focus. Day’s physical challenge? Cobblestone, SLICK & uneven. No slips, no falls welcome. Focus, take my time. Bloodied & bruised first mile in New Zealand, I can be taught.
Picked UP speed, mile 12. Third 10k my fastest (sub-9 min/pace, 30k timing mat). push, PUSH, push. Derailed the last 10k of course, hour-26 minutes. Yeah well, I’ll be ‘African’ next year. LOL>
Jonas. Runner tag-along Mile 23. Even young super heroes hit the wall, first marathon.
Shoulder tap. Walk, slow jog. Walk again, easy run. Quicker.
40k, two kilometers to go. Lost my run partner briefly (dude paced up too early). I’d see him again in 5 minutes. Bit rattled, outta breath. Gave him the universal ‘thumbs up’. Jog, canter, steady again – STRONG under the Banner. PRIMO! PRIMO! I shook my head AFFIRMATIVE. First marathon FINISH.
The look, the excitement. Any language, completely understood. CONGRATS man.
Metro to Centrale, train to Malpensa. Early start tomorrow. Goin’ HOME, Colorado HOME ❤️
Generali Milan Marathon | 07/04/2019
USA 676 – HAGA KEENAN
Arrival 42.195 4:24:32
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- Giardini Montanelli
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- COBBLESTONE slick
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- il Duomo 🕍
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- mile 23 tag
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- super hero FINISH
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- new European PR 🇮🇹
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- day/month/year
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- U-S-A ❤️
Milano Marathon
Tick, tick, tick. Last tourist stop. Marathon bib pick-up @ MiCo (Milano Convention Centre) via Metro. Easy navigation. Modern, well-marked/labelled (used both red & yellow lines).
HUGE marathon, nice-sized Expo. NYC & San Francisco bigger, but this one – soooo international, many countries represented. Like walking a row at the UN (United Nations). Runs represented from France, Czech Republic, Switzerland, UK, Poland – and host country Italy, of course.
FREE is for ME. Entered a drawing (& WON entry) to a far far-away December location but… still gotta get there. Fingers crossed I receive a lottery ‘thumbs-up’ from JAPAN, where ideally I’d tag Continent #7 over Thanksgiving break. So it’s Osaka or Abu Dhabi (no joke). Either way, all signs pointing to SEVEN CONTINENT completion in December 2019 (life goal, half-year early).
(Strangely, geographically, much the Middle East is technically Asia.)
Just 26.2 miles of cobblestone to go AND a big plate of PASTA. Pre-race carb-loading in ITALY — HIGHLY recommended. Tomorrow we run, tonite we EAT. Gracie mille, Milano. Molto bene!
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- MiCo bib pick-up
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- International Expo
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- tomorrow we RUN 🏃
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- tonite we EAT 🍴
Milan Running Festival
