An Engagement at Pelican Hill

Eddie surprised me with a trip to a mystery destination last month. Once I discovered we were going to Newport Beach, he pretended to take a wrong turn into the Pelican Hill Resort where we he had already made arrangements. The property was immaculate and the service impeccable. On a chilly night with no one else in sight, Eddie proposed underneath the rotunda. The evening was capped off with a bottle of champagne that Eddie had bought earlier - yet another surprise. In a word, perfect!



Sunset Ocean Views from the Rotunda Lawn at The Pelican Hill Resort

Boston Marathon

In the wake of the Boston Marathon bombing, we're still grappling with the notion that anything as horrific as this could occur. Much of the focus from the news has been on the deliberate nature of the act on Patriots Day. As the namesake goes, the act was a blow to patriotism and the fabric of America. All true. As a fellow runner, the blow goes for the jugular. A marathon is meant to celebrate life, health, and physicality. Instead, people were robbed of their lives, vitality, and mobility. Unlike a professional sporting event, most of these runners are your average working stiff, your stay at home mom, your buddy who is looking to lose a few, who are vying for just one moment of glory, to cross the finish line and realize that all that training meant something, that any past insecurities, concerns, shortcomings mean nothing, and indeed you mean something. Many of the runners did not cross the finish line, and others may never again know the feeling of crossing that finish line.

I'm sure many survivors are wondering "what would have happened if" and later we'll ask the question "what should have happened" to prevent this tragedy. Eddie says we can't live in fear, but it's human to feel fearful. At some point, moving forward means quelling the need to look backward, but the wounds are too fresh now, and we're still trying to make sense of it all. While we had no immediate plans to do races in large cities, we've tabled that idea at least for now. We've also decided to stick with our plans to run the OC Half in May. I'm inspired by posts of other runners who have dedicated their training runs to the victims of the recent events. Not having run in 4 weeks due to bronchitis, any pain or discomfort I have in training now seems slight. Our thoughts are with our fellow runners and their families and those impacted by these events.