My son is voting for Ron Paul; oh, and I'm running a marathon this weekend

Yep, I have a son who is old enough to vote in his first presidential election. And he's actually voting!

But first things first. Three weeks ago my lovely grandmother died after many health struggles, including dementia. She's my dad's mom, a really special lady who used to sing to me. She spoiled me with Grandpa, who died several years ago. They both made me feel so special. She always made me feel like an interesting person. I loved that she and Grandpa loved to travel and would visit us no matter where our military family was stationed when we were growing up. I can't say her funeral was all sadness -- there is so much family in that part of California that made me feel like I'm home, even though I haven't lived in CA since I was a baby. (And my wonderful sister was there, too, who I adore). My other grandma still lives in CA and we was able to see her when we were out for the funeral. I wanted to hug her so tight. Grandmas are one of life's best gifts, and I sure got lucky.

My grandparents took us on Disney trips, still some of my most fun memories with them. I can remember the delicious anticipation clearly of counting down the days before a trip to visit them, or to go to Disneyland or more recently, Disney World. It wasn't just the Disney parks, though I admit I like Disney a lot -- largely nostalgic reasons. It was that excitement of knowing it was just going to be a really happy, fun time.

As truly weird as it will sound, I have similar giddiness for the, oh, MARATHON that I'm running in less than  a week. I had a great training season. The three-week taper that began after the last 20-mile run has gone well. I feel great and I'm excited. Even though I am a total space cadet this week. One minute I'm plugging away at whatever work thing I need to do, or tending to my bouncy toddlers... and the next minute my thoughts drift to the weather forecast (excellent right now), the pace and rhythm I want to fall into once I cross the start line, wanting to have fun, wanting to finish feeling victorious.... and tell perfect strangers, HEY, I'm running a marathon this weekend!

Training for marathons, the few that I've done, have taken over a good chunk of my energy in the past. Training for this Sunday's race has been different from past years. I think maybe it's because I have these cute, rowdy toddlers and a busy, busy job, which have kept me (hopefully) from being obsessive about training like I have in the past. And despite the welcome, wonderful distractions, I ran far more mileage this time around than I ever have and had the fewest -- that means zero -- injuries compared to past marathons. So there you have it. Runlikeamama's trick? Be so darn busy with everything else that, well, you're not obsessing. Let's see how that plays out on race day. At the risk of sounding contrived, I will be thinking of my grandmother as I run. Both of my grandmothers. :-)

My oldest son will be here in a few days. He's turning 20 in two weeks! My baby. I was in labor with him during one of the Clinton-Bush-Perot debates in 1992, I am not kidding. And now he's voting. I was excited when he told me he was and, I assumed he was voting for my candidate of choice. (Parental trap of wrongly assuming my kid is just like me -- yep, fall into that one all the time!) He said no, Ron Paul. I was surprised and oh sure, I could have said all the usual, predictable stuff... but as I thought about it, I was just proud that he even gave a rip enough to pay attention and have an opinion.

With that, this marathon mama needs to go get some sleep.