{"id":5366,"date":"2018-05-19T20:30:59","date_gmt":"2018-05-20T01:30:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/w0ep.us\/TM\/?p=5366"},"modified":"2018-05-19T20:30:59","modified_gmt":"2018-05-20T01:30:59","slug":"best-visit-ever-irun4aiden","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/w0ep.us\/TM\/?p=5366","title":{"rendered":"Best. Visit. Ever. #IRun4Aiden"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you remember back to April, I had mentioned that it was Aiden’s and my 3rd Matchaversary.\u00a0 April 9, 2015, Aiden and I were matched through the IRun4Michael program.\u00a0 This is a FB group that matches runners with people who for some medical challenge are unable to run themselves.\u00a0 Those of us who are the “runners” dedicated our training miles and races to our “buddies.”<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.whoirun4.com\/<\/p>\n

Aiden is my buddy.\u00a0 I am his runner and I have to say, I was blessed being matched with Aiden!\u00a0 I tell him all the time he is the best of the best when it comes to running buddies and I try my hardest to be a good runner for him.\u00a0 Getting to know this sweet guy and his parents the past three years has been a life changing thing.<\/p>\n

Running can be a selfish sport.\u00a0 There’s no other way to put it. We’re always looking out for our goals, our PR’s, the next race, how we can improved, trying to place at events (if you’re a talented enough of a runner), etc….\u00a0 Being matched with Aiden put an entirely different focus on my running.\u00a0 Sure, I tried my best to run well but the sole purpose of running wasn’t all about me anymore.\u00a0 My focus did a 360.\u00a0 I wanted to be a good runner for Aiden!\u00a0 More than anything I didn’t want Aiden or his family to think they got matched with a dud runner.\u00a0 I didn’t want them to be embarrassed that I was their son’s runner.\u00a0 The only way to do that was to do my best every. single. time. and to toe the starting line well prepared.<\/p>\n

In 2016, right after Grandma’s Marathon, MFH (My Favorite Husband) and I made a detour on our way home.\u00a0 We had decided to make the trip north a vacation and had asked if it would be possible to meet Aiden and his family on our way home.\u00a0 It was so awesome when all of that worked out!!!<\/p>\n

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We met up for dinner and had a lovely evening.\u00a0 It was terrific to finally get to meet these amazing people who so very generously shared their family with mine!<\/p>\n

Fast forward two years and this time Aiden and his family were going on vacation.\u00a0 This was super exciting because this was Aiden’s first vacation ever! I know it had been quite a few years since his mom and dad were able to go on a vacation as well so this was a Big. Deal. Trip!<\/p>\n

Now, this sweet family live in the northern mid west and were heading to Colorado.\u00a0 They contacted me and asked if they could swing by on their way home.\u00a0 I was over the moon excited!!!\u00a0 Then again, I thought, “Wait a minute!\u00a0 Out west…Mississippi….that’s nowhere NEAR on their way home!\u00a0 That’s a whole lot (as in two days driving, whole lot) out of their way!\u00a0 I mentioned that and got the, “No big deal.\u00a0 It’s only X extra hours.<\/p>\n

That’s all it took to convince me!\u00a0 Even though it meant *finally* cleaning the house a bit, I was soooo excited at the prospect of them visiting!!!<\/p>\n

The countdown to the trip began.\u00a0 The countdown numbers got smaller.\u00a0 They started packing.\u00a0 I procrastinated on cleaning (I do that).\u00a0 They traveled west and had a fabulous time, then they turned the car south.<\/p>\n

Panic Mode!\u00a0 Time to clean the house!!!<\/p>\n

I guess I work best under pressure?\u00a0 Doesn’t matter, the house was quasi presentable when you consider a few weeks ago I had ripped up the carpeting in the house.\u00a0 They would see the house with bare, paint splotched floors.\u00a0 Oh well~the bare concrete was a lot better than the old carpeting and I consoled myself in that thought.<\/p>\n

MFH and I decided to board Tess during their visit.\u00a0 Tess is a sweetheart but she can be a *tad* protective and I, quite frankly, didn’t want to have to worry about her.\u00a0 The day before their arrival, off she went to the boarders.\u00a0 She was a grumpy puppy but she’s forgiven me already.<\/p>\n

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Soon, the doorbell rang and they were here!\u00a0 YAY!!!\u00a0 Holy cow, I was soooo excited!<\/p>\n

I’m telling you, their ears are probably still ringing from my constant chatter.\u00a0 They’re probably still amazed that one person can talk that much!!!\u00a0 LOL!!!<\/p>\n

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We had dinner that evening and I gave Aiden his Matchaversary present.<\/p>\n

He had just gotten a fancy new bed and they had rearranged his room.\u00a0 His mom had sent me pics of his room and in the pics I noticed that both of his medal hangers were full!\u00a0 Aiden needed a new medal hanger so I started searching for just the right one.<\/p>\n

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Now, what’s the fun of a new medal hanger if you don’t have any medals to hang on it?\u00a0 I signed up for a few races to solve that little problem.<\/p>\n

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Aiden looks good in race bling, doesn’t he?\u00a0 I need to earn some more for him!<\/p>\n

We called it a night after that.\u00a0 We had some plans for the next day.<\/p>\n

Around noon-o’clock, we met up for some souvenir shopping and then a tour of an Antebellum home.<\/p>\n

A few\u00a0 years back, MFH and I had toured three Antebellum homes in our town.\u00a0 The tours were amazing and educational….and sad when you consider the time in US history surrounding these homes.\u00a0 Anyway, I was expecting more of the same when I booked the tour of this home:<\/p>\n

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The house, itself, was beautiful!\u00a0 The tour was a dud.\u00a0 We’ll just leave it at that.\u00a0 Still, got a great pic of Aiden, his parents and his grandma in front of the house.<\/p>\n

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There were soooo many things I would have loved to have shown them and I could’ve easily talked a mile a minute for a solid month if given the chance but it was time for them to head home.<\/p>\n

It was an amazing visit and one I will always cherish.<\/p>\n

Thank you so much for taking the time out of your vacation to travel to Mississippi!!!\u00a0 You’ll never know how much that meant to MFH and myself!\u00a0 Y’all are the best!<\/p>\n

#IRun4Aiden<\/p>\n

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If you remember back to April, I had mentioned that it was Aiden’s and my 3rd Matchaversary.\u00a0 April 9, 2015, Aiden and I were matched through the IRun4Michael program.\u00a0 This is a FB group that matches runners with people who for some medical challenge are unable to run themselves.\u00a0 Those of us who are the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[21,22,6,8,3,25],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/w0ep.us\/TM\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5366"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/w0ep.us\/TM\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/w0ep.us\/TM\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/w0ep.us\/TM\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/w0ep.us\/TM\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5366"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/w0ep.us\/TM\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5366\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5375,"href":"http:\/\/w0ep.us\/TM\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5366\/revisions\/5375"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/w0ep.us\/TM\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5366"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/w0ep.us\/TM\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5366"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/w0ep.us\/TM\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5366"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}