A Full Circle Moment and Some Geneology

This weekend I traveled up to Boston with my mom for my cousin David's graduation party. On the way up there I was filling her in on the marathon and was talking about how happy I was to be running for Team Children's Hospital Boston. My mom said to me "You had your feet fixed there.". I was shocked. Years ago when I was a really young child...between 1 and 3 years old I had feet that turned in so they were facing each other so I had a really difficult time walking. I knew this but I was way to young to remember anything about it. My mom told me that it was about 18 months of physical therapy and special shoes before my feet were corrected and this all took place at Children's Hospital Boston. Now about 30 years later...I am running the NYC Marathon for Children's Hospital Boston....with those feet that were corrected there and I had no idea. If that isn't a full circle moment I don't know what is!

We also stopped in and visited my moms parents since we were in Boston. I was talking to my Grandpa Salenius about the marathon and he told me that in the 60's the Finnish dominated the Boston Marathon. The most famous Finn was Eino Oksanen who won three years in a row - this was before the Kenyans began dominating the race. He told me that he has no doubt I will do a great job at the marathon because of my Finnish blood...which by the way comes from him! He said that the Finnish have a word that describes me perfectly and it is "Sisu"...which roughly translated means a "deep ingrained will and inner strength".

Wikpedia: Sisu is a Finnish term that could be roughly translated into English as strength of will, determination, perseverance, and acting rationally in the face of adversity. The equivalent in English is "to have guts", and indeed, the word derives from sisus, which means something inner or interior. However, sisu has a long-term element in it; it is not momentary courage, but the ability to sustain the same.

I just thought this was pretty cool...I knew the Finns could fish but I never imagined that running would be something that could be coming through me via my Finnish genealogy!

I headed to Cape Cod on Saturday afternoon and had the nice surprise of my brother, sister in law and nephew showing up. So I got to spend a wonderful day at the beach with little Cameron on Sunday. My family is so amazing and supportive of my training schedule and made a point of waiting for me to finish my run before we all had breakfast together. I was planning on doing a 4 mile run but instead went out for a faster pace and many hills on a 2.5 mile run. The sun was beating down very hot but I was able to finish it easily and at about a 10 minute mile pace which with all the hills was very good for me. So the training is on track..I have a dinner tomorrow night with a friend so I am getting to the gym in the morning to get my run in then.

What an interesting weekend!

So far so good.......

XO,
Jen