Super Duper Uber, Yabba Dabba Doo-ber, Double Platinum slow today during my morning wake up run. Just sluggish and lethargic and meh. A constant light spittle, never quite rain and never quite clear, accompanied me. Perhaps that weather contributes to my ongoing back pain. I know it’s non-mosh dive related but given the year milestone looming ever larger before me, age can’t be discounted.
Per my annual tradition here at the Honolulu Marathon, I snapped a shot of the construction saw horse barricades waiting to be deployed for the race day road closures. They get dropped off in packs at intersections the Friday before and like clockwork here they are again. I’m pretty sure I’ve posted a shot each year I’ve run to Facebook but this year it’s a RunKevinRun exclusive!
I cut my distance a little short as we needed to be outside our hotel at 6:20 am for our tour to Pearl Harbor. Turns out I needn’t have been worried as the bus didn’t pick us up until about 6:45. These things happen on island time and with island traffic.
We were at The Arizona Memorial a few years back when they finished the museum updates and upgrades. Going back for the 75th anniversary, I’m struck by how I always seem to see something new, learn a few new things, and always, always am reminded of how lucky I am to be an American and what a debt I owe to all those who came before, who are here now, and who are yet to do great things. That’s not just the brave men and women in government issued uniforms or serving in some capacity for first responders or healthcare. That’s everybody across the board who strives to make the world better and safer every day – teachers, parents, individuals from the lowest rung on a company organization chart to the top post, from CEO to groundskeeper and everything above, below, sideways.
It’s a solemn, humbling place, Pearl Harbor. Not only as a resting place for those who remain in its shallow waters but for all who have come and all who will come to remember, consider, and honor our past and future.
Reading placards and considering what was 75 years ago, more than ever I wonder about our nation and the world. Too many things can go wrong; we need leaders and people of the world to rise to the challenges of life not with empirical or xenophobic rhetoric, ambitions and actions. We need to be better, to strive for that city on the hill, for that more perfect union.
After a well done series of videos on the attack and an overview of context and meanings, we rode out to the iconic memorial afloat over the Arizona’s submerged hull. On our boat were two Pearl Harbor survivors and veterans. Later, I’d get a chance to briefly chat with Delton “Wally” Walling, who served on the USS Pennsylvania. On December 7, 1941, he was in a signal tower and witnessed the entire attack from 180 feet in the air. Decades later he would parachute out of a plane at 89 years young to beat George Bush’s record. He still has a firm handshake and is sharp as a tack. It was a privilege and honor to meet him. I thanked him for his service but much like the Memorial itself, the experience left me almost completely at a loss for words.
Words and photos can’t do justice to the experience and the emotions of the place. It left me humbled, saddened, contemplative, and even a little hopeful given that we as a people got back up after being do devastatingly knocked down. I did find myself comparing my emotional state after September 11th and wondering what Americans must have felt in December 1941… I assume though played for laughs that Spielberg’s movie isn’t too far removed from the chaotic paranoia and anxiety. Fear and tragedy have a way of uniting people, sometimes for ill and sometimes for good.
I think that’s why I continue to sign up for marathons – running a race is a unifying event, something that encourages people from all walks of life to come together and support individual accomplishments and achievements. Be it another runner with a word of encouragement or a stranger cheering on the side of the road or a volunteer handing out cups of water, everyone at a race is hoping for each person to have the best day possible — whatever that means. There aren’t a lot of moments so inherently skewed to supporting everyone in a quest to do his or her own best. Nobody is hoping for a win that causes another to lose (well, maybe in the elites… but I’m not exactly in that echelon or corral).
Tomorrow my mom embarks on her first ever official race. She’s going to have the best day possible and I’m going to be there every step of the way cheering her on, encouraging her, and snapping photos.
So many have sacrificed so much for me… and I don’t think anyone has sacrificed more than my Mom. I saw the names of a lot of heroes inscribed at the Arizona Memorial. But I’m lucky to be traveling with my own hero right now. Good luck tomorrow, Mom! You’re gonna do great!
