The Race Course

I heard the gun shot and I was off. I wasn't sure at the beginning becuase none of us are when the race begins. As my run progressed the course headed into the woods, off road here. A little bumpy but in the absence of my coach the assistant coach stepped up. Great job by the way, of getting the team through that. I came out of the woods and it was open road for the next few miles. My support vehicles and coaches backed off because they knew I had this. My strides were long and strong, yessir this was looking good. I saw a shortcut up the road. There was no one looking so I figured hell yeah, I cheated, someone was watching, HE's always watching. I learned that the hard way. All of the progress I had accomplished to this point was taken away. While on the shortcut HE told me to continue to run it becuase all of the courses short cuts go in circles. Well I eventually made it back to the spot where there was open road ahead of me just coming out of the woods. HE was right I lost all of that progress. This time I knew what was up there and there was no way I was going to cheat and mess this up again. There's another shortcut, and another, and another what the hell was this race designer thinking with all of this temptation. I knew though, stay on course and I'll be blessed at the end. I saw my finish line. My coaches and support staff were behind me cheering me on. There's the tape, I ran across it feeling that this was it, all that work, and now for it to pay off. There was such an unexpected silence though. I was looking for a hug and a kiss. A handshake a high five. My coaches and support staff stood just off of the road watching me with smiles and letting me know I did everything right. Then where's my prize?!?! There was no hug, no kiss, no one there to enjoy this moment with me. Why did I even run this fucking race? Why accomplish anything in life if you have no one to share it with??? I'm exhausted, my heart hurts, my legs ache. I fell to me knees and didn't know what to do next. I felt a small hand on my back. I opened my eyes and saw four beautiful angels staring at me. There was my prize, my hugs and my high fives, up high, down low, too slow, LOL (inside joke). I stood tall, as I was once taught to do, beside my angels and we all held hands. I began to walk my babies back to the start line and knew that I ran that race so that I could coach them in competition, life, adversity, dissapointment, challenges and accomplishment. He we go guys, let me walk you through this course we sometimes call life...