Remembering 2013

Years help us mark the passage of time, but all years are not equal. I don’t remember anything particularly meaningful happening to me in, say, 1993 or 2009. Those years are not memorable years in my life. Other years will always be significant to me: years in which I moved (’92, ’95, ’01, ’05, ’08, ’12), and years of graduation (’01, ’05, ’08). I’ll never forget that I married Lisa in 2008, that my grandfathers died in 2002 and 2012, or that in 1996 the Steelers lost the Super Bowl for the first time in team history.

As 2013 comes to an end, I will remember this year as significant for two reasons:

1.      2013 is the year I fell back in love with running.

In January, Lisa began training for the Pittsburgh Marathon. To support her in this endeavor, I agreed to run a 6.5 mile leg of the Marathon Relay. Although I ran cross country in middle school and high school, and ran for fun in college, I had not run on a regular basis in 8 years. The last couple of years, I tried and quickly succumbed to injury. So, I began my training with much fear and trepidation.

Oh my goodness, I forgot how much I love running. It doesn’t matter what time, it doesn’t matter where, running is glorious. I feel so free, so relaxed, so much at peace when I run. Yet, it is more than just stress relief and fitness. Running also offers challenges worthy of my competitive nature – can I go faster, further, up steeper hills? Can I push myself to the limit?

When the year began, I thought I would push myself through the relay leg of the marathon and then call it quits. But by that time, I had become so enamored with running that, like Forrest Gump, I just kept running…

In 2013 I think I ran more miles than any single year in my life. I ran more races than any year since 2000. In all, I ran one 5K, three 10Ks, one 5 miler, and my first half marathon ever. And I am still running, already dreaming up challenges and setting goals for myself in 2014.

2.      2013 will always be the year the ignominy ended.

I am a fan of the Pittsburgh Pirates. Win or lose, they have always been my team. And for 20 straight years, they had a losing record, the longest in the history of U.S. professional sports (an ignominious streak, indeed). Yet I still cheered. I still wore my Pirates hat to temples of evil empires: Boston, Atlanta, Philadelphia, and Yankee Stadium. I don’t care that your team is better; I’m a Pirates fan. From 2009 to present I have been a season ticket holder with the Pirates. I love this team, but for 2 decades they didn’t love me back.

That all changed this year, as they became the darlings of Major League Baseball, winning 94 games and advancing to the divisional round of the playoffs with promising young stars, veterans who returned to form, and a ballpark that was rocking and rolling like I’ve never seen it before. I’ll always remember the 9 game winning streak in June, taking 4 of 5 from the Cardinals at the end of July, Gerrit Cole’s 1-0 win in September that got things back on track, and of course, I’ll always remember “Cueeeeeeee-to… Cueeeeeeee-to… Cueeeeeeee-to…”

            So, on the last day of 2013, I engage in the holy practice of reflection. 2013 challenged me, uplifted me, and brought me peace and joy that I never saw coming. In 2014, new challenges and new celebrations will surely come that I cannot anticipate. So I prepare myself to meet them with grace and joy, as we once again leave one year behind and strive towards a new one.