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Reid’s Running a Marathon

Posted January 2, 2011 by jimhigley

January 1, 2011. 1-1-11. One-one-one-one. With all these ones, there’s one thing that’s been bugging me all day.

I don’t make resolutions and I’m feeling left out.

Don’t get me wrong, I am routinely setting and working on goals. I like to think of myself as wanting to improve and experience new things. And, yes, there have even been times when I have set new goals on January 1. But I also do it on March 9, or October 15, April 2 – it all just depends.

But I’ve never made an official resolution.

This year, however, I’ve decided that I am, in fact, going to join the world population and publicly make the following resolution: I’m going to work harder to help people, encourage people and cheer louder for people. Starting now.

And, today, I am going to start by cheering for Reid. He’s decided he’s going to run a marathon. And, quite frankly, I’m really proud of him.

Reid’s a good friend of my daughter, Wallis, where they both are freshmen at the University of Iowa. He’s a journalism student – with plans for making a name for himself some day. I’ve spent time with Reid and I’m quite confident he’s a young man you’ll be hearing about in the not too distant future. But along the journey to his professional goals, Reid’s already enjoying the experience of a few of his bucket list items. And running a marathon is at the top of his list.

I knew he was contemplating this because we talked about it a couple months ago when I was out in Iowa visiting. Reid had heard I finished a marathon (“finished” being the operative word – I’m careful to never say “ran”!) recently and was full of questions. I remember it vividly because I was a little surprised that Reid was questioning his ability to run the 26+ mile course. Folks, Reid ran cross country in high school. And, he’s good. The kid has a running pace about twice as fast as mine! Yet, he kept telling me he wasn’t sure he could do the 26 mile run,

My favorite Reid-comment was when he told me he wanted to “run a marathon before he got too old.” (which almost resulted in me giving his not-yet-twenty-year-old-mug a firm backhand). Youth. What I would pay to be in Reid’s running shoes these days.

But I read today on Reid’s blog, The Reidfeed, that he’s officially running the Chicago Marathon. So I’m going public to simply say that I think it’s inspiring, exciting, and fun to see people go after their dreams. And, while I’m certainly not an expert at marathons, I do know that the experience of getting to the starting line is as exciting as the race itself.

Kind of like life,

I’m proud of you, Reid. Enjoy the journey.