May Day

Happy May Day! Are you planning to celebrate by dancing around the maypole?

Yeah, me neither.

[Insert obligatory comment about how quickly the year is flying by and how I cannot believe it is already May!]

I celebrated by waking up at a ridiculously early time this morning in order to run the OKC Memorial 5K.

 It was cold. It was raining. It was disorganized chaos.

But it was totally worth it. Although it sounds like a contradiction, the mood of the participants and the crowd was that of excitement and reverence. It felt like we were all part of something larger, with a common goal of remembering and honoring those who were affected by the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building on April 19, 1995.

A particularly poignant memory I have from the race this morning includes a group of several firefighters in their full gear, oxygen tanks and all, walking as a unit, stopped to wait for one member of their group to make a wardrobe adjustment. As I passed them, their cohesiveness intimated a brotherhood that I find evident whenever there is a natural disaster or crisis where their expertise is needed.

The 5K left me feeling motivated to set my sights on running the half-marathon in next year's race. Stay tuned to see if I can do it!