Run Like Linc Is Watching

This entry is from Linc’s dad, Sam.

I had this entry written already. I wrote it days ago. It was long and philosophical and dealt with the shape of human personalities. Nature and Nurture and rebellion against both. I had a great post written.

And then I watched my wife finish a half marathon this morning.

I decided to chunk the other version and write this instead…

Lincoln is guided by his biology. His whole life he will have to deal with his extra chromosome. He will have to find ways to works with it, and to use it to his advantage. But there will also be days, hard days, where he will have to overcome it.

When Liz crossed that finish line today, she showed him that it can be done.

Liz is beautiful and strong. She is the one who deals with the power tools in our house, she builds the things that we need and fixes them when they break. Her body was made to lift weights. Men in the gym regularly have to lower the amount of weight on the apparatus when Liz is done with a machine. She’s kind of a badass. She is many wonderful things and I am madly in love with her.

But she is not a natural runner.

She was not gifted with long sleek runner’s muscles. Doing a half marathon goes against everything her body wants her to do. Her biology fought her every step of the way this morning. It was grueling and unnatural for her. But she did it anyway. She decided to do something that she thought was almost impossible and she chose to do it precisely because it was hard.

And Lincoln watched her do it.

For the rest of his life, he will be able to think of this morning and draw inspiration from it. He has no excuses now. He can overcome anything his biology throws at him. He just has to tap into the determination and drive that he saw in his mother today, and he can do it too.

My wife may not be a natural runner, but she is one hell of a mother.

 Run, baby. Run!