This last weekend my 24 year old son chose to run an ultra-marathon. To those of you, like me, who did not know what an ultra-marathon is, it is a run longer than a 26 mile marathon. My son decided to run a 51 MILE trail run (basically 2 marathons) with crazy 10,000 feet of elevation.

This is not something I encouraged. This would not be my choice. I cannot see how such a run could be healthy for anyone.
But guess what?
He is an independent adult who makes his own choices, all I can do then is respect his decision and support him.
It took him 16 hours. 16 strenuous hours for him, and nerve wracking hours for my husband and I. His race was in Idaho and we are in Massachusetts.
As soon as the race started and I realized how stressed I am, I regretted that one of us didn’t fly out there.
At mile 30, 8.5 hours into the race, I received a message from someone I don’t know saying that she is a friend of my son’s and that he is doing well. I was so thankful to hear that he was ok that my response was: “Thank you! I don’t know who you are but I love you!”

My son finished the race. He is happy.
He is wearing the special recovery socks I sent him.

I am proud of him for setting himself a goal, sticking with the training and challenging himself. Yes, I do hope that he does not do it again…

There are many situations in life where others make choices we do not like but have to support. Here it was a family member. At work, sometimes decisions are made to take on projects, solve a problem or head in a direction we do not necessarily agree with.

How do you react in these situations?
Can you see the other people’s perspective?

Can you find some positive aspects to relate to and hang on to?