Our first contributor is Paul Peavy. Paul is a former stand up comedian turned psychotherapist. He is a veteran Ironman athlete married to an accomplished IronWoman athlete and father to a state ranked high school swimmer. You can imagine the travel he and his family have under their belts.
Thank you, Paul, for being the guinea pig of the series. The two insights, both literal and figurative, are a unique look into the life of a father/athlete and ourselves. Wow! We are looking forward to your future contributions and to those of the Big Bend running community.
Suitcase Stories: Literal and Figurative
By Paul Peavy
The one true, literal suitcase story I have in my running career is that I went to do the Disney Triathlon with my daughter Lauren and another family. Lauren and I would be having fun at Disney while my wife Sherrie had a girls’ trip to Mexico to do a Half-Ironman there.
I take great pride in being a very involved and emotionally and physically available father. The night before the Disney Triathlon we were going to be trick or treating in DisneyWorld! How cool was that? Lauren carefully packed her Halloween costume into her pink and white polka dotted suitcase. I checked and double checked that we had everything and we headed to the happiest place on earth for the happiest father-daughter time possible!
When we got there we excitedly unpacked the car. It was then that we noticed that I had forgotten only one thing. Not bad. Just one little thing. What was the teeniny, itsy bitsy, little tiny thing? It was only Lauren’s pink and white polka dotted suitcase. With everything she could ever need in it.
This is too literal to have any symbolic meaning. If there was a moral here is what it would sound like, “Hey, idiot if you go somewhere remember people’s suitcases!”
Here is my real suitcase story. It is my favorite line from a country song.
“Wherever you go, there you are.”
Your suitcase is packed in between your ears. It is packed in your chest cavity. It is in you. It is you.
You may start by running from something. You may work through that so that you are running to something. In the end I hope you will find that you don’t have to run to or from anything. You can just run.
You may be in the stage of being a RUNbot. You have gauges on your wrist and straps on your chest that beep when you’re going too fast and boop when you are going too slow and beeboop when your toast should pop up. I hope sometimes you leave the radar equipment at home and just go for a run and hear your heart and lungs heaving and your feet hitting the ground.
You may have programmed music into your sound system that makes you run harder. I hope you also program music that makes you think, that makes you grateful. I mostly hope you program music that makes you dance. Nothing makes a run more fun than a mid-run freakdance breakout!
You may have to run in the rain at some point. That’s how other people would phrase it. I hope you frequently have the joy and the freedom to run in a soaking, torrential downpour. Nothing cleanses your soul like a run in the rain.
Sometimes run with friends. Sometimes run alone. If you are in a group you may run with an enemy. You may run with that group so much that the person becomes your friendemy. Then one day when you are struggling and that person agrees to walk with you they become just your friend, no –emy.
Running for each of us is different. As different as each of our souls. Just count yourself blessed if a couple of times a week you get to pack your suitcase and get out for a run.
- Paul Peavy and his family: daughter - Lauren, wife - Sherrie
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