Onward Christian Solider

If it's Sunday{and I'm not in Boston!}it must be an extended extended out and back along Cobbs Creek Parkway today.
This brought my weekly mileage up to 45 miles for the week,from here on in for the coming weeks and months a plateau of 40,45,50 miles will be my weekly average.
Hit the CCP at 12pm, a beautifully sunny day which seemed right and propper for Easter Sunday,at the top of Cedar Ave on the corner of Cedar Ave and Cobbs Creek is St Cyprians Catholic church which I always bless myself when I run by it.
On my way home midday mass must've let out as the congregation were outside,I feel a pang of guilt{Irish Catholic it goes w/ the territory!} I hadn't attended Easter Sunday mass,but I refuse to be a hypocrite,I don't attend mass on any Sunday so why put on an act today?

In some ways my running is my tribute to God,I used to have an old Runners World quote from former Olympic/World Champion and former World Record holder Noureddine Morceli on my door that said"I truly believe I am gifted from God"it's a quote that's stuck w/ all these years and long b4 the days of my blog I kept a running log,on the inside cover I'd write Quotable Quotes from runners and that's one I've applied to myself.
I feel my running is a God given talent and one of the things that got me back into my running in 01 after a 5 year hiatus was while I suffered a crisis of faith I felt my running put me back on good ground w/ the Lord,frankly as a runner and a Catholic I've never looked back so while a case can be made against me for not going to mass each Sunday I'd like to think I honour God w/ my running.

On Friday I mentioned that Easter is a three part celebration for me,Good Friday,Easter Sunday and Easter Monday,so here's my Easter Sunday story.
Way back when I was either 6 or 7 my parents separated,I won't overload you w/ all the gory details but surfice to say it was a stressful time for all,I didn't see my dad for weeks{I 'm sure it seemed longer being that young}but Easter Sunday would reunite us.
Be it 69 or 70 religion was a far more powerful force back then and Easter Sunday or not there were probably 9 masses held on a Sunday at my church it just so happened that my mother and father chose 10am to go.
I don't know who saw who first but I do know that when the priest uttered the line"the mass has ended go in peace" I was quickly out of the blocks to the church entrance where my father was waiting for me and I can still picture him scooping me up in his arms,whatever had gone on between Eileen and Kevin to lead to a separation they were not about to air their laundry outside St Saviours church on Easter Sunday.

W/ protocol and decorum the watch words Eileen and Kevin spoke to each other for the first time in weeks,Eileen offered Kevin a ride home which he duly accepted,halfway between the church and my father's apartment was a newsagents,Kevin asked Eileen if she could stop the car so he could grab a Sunday paper.....he later emerged w/ said Sunday paper under his arm but also w/ the biggest Easter Egg they probably had in there.
All these years later I still remember that Easter Sunday it was w/out doubt the turning point in the cold war between my parents,not long after that reunion Eileen and Kevin came to an arrangement where I'd live w/ her during the week and w/ him on the weekends, this went on for 12 years b4 I opted to live w/ my father full time and in of it's self allow my mother and I to hatch the relationship we share to this day.

So there you have it,why Easter Sunday means alot to me,the final entry of the Top Cat Easter Trilogy will be tomorrow.