Perfection...sucks

A perfect smile!

Lately it seems I keep hearing people talk about their "perfect" baby. Whether it's because their child is in the 50th percentile or a chromosomal disorder was suspected, but ended up not being the case. I know at least most people making these statements don't mean anything by it, but sometimes I just want to shake these people and say "my child was born with Ds and is in the <1 percentile and yep, he's pretty darn
perfect!" It's just something that's been irking me lately. I think James is perfectly James. And really I'm pretty sure none of us are perfect. All these other so called "perfect" kids will end up having some sort of "imperfection".

I've been watching "Unbreakable" while running on the treadmill quite a bit lately. Seriously this film never gets old. Without fail every time I watch Geoff Roes come back from bonking to take the lead at mile 93 I can't help grin from ear to ear and start charging the pace. Kilian Jornet makes the statement "in winning its not always good because its just perfect, but in losing is when you learn". I apparently have done a lot of learning. But it makes me realize that maybe perfection isn't the goal. Maybe we celebrate our imperfections and learn more about ourselves.

I certainly learned about myself last year when I DNFd at Leadville. Far from a perfect race! I learned more about how to train better, better nutrition during a race and mostly how to be stronger mentally. I'm still working on this mental part, but since I haven't run a perfect race yet that means I'm still learning and growing.

Pssh...of course I've got this heart healing thing!

James' heart imperfection has forced us both to learn and grow. Even though James not be aware of it yet, he's learning to be a fighter, to not give up. This week we went back to the cardiologist for another follow-up. And this little champion has been hard at work trying to fix his imperfection. His VSD is closing and they suspect he will not need open heart surgery. Now that would be perfect! He will likely still need to have a stent placed in his pulmonary artery at some point, but I'll take that over open heart any day!

This week my running was far from perfect. I got in some good hill repeats and was really feeling good, but with moving my long run fell way short. With two more hard weeks of training before the Leadville marathon it's time to step it up. I may be living in a far from perfect house for awhile so I can train, but so are the choices in life right?

Week June 3 - 9

Miles Running: 17.5
Hours Running and Hiking: 3.5

Perfectly mischievous