how the race is won

Time cast a spell on you
But you won’t forget me

~Stevie Nicks

Here we go again, working for Race Weekend!

My original and extended family along with friends & honorary family members gather every spring to participate in a 5K run and this year marks our tenth event. It all began in 2004.

It was early in the month of May 2004 that Ed Manion’s cancer was to have the final say in their on-going conversation. He was an unforgettable son, a brother, a husband, a father, an uncle, a grandfather, business owner, active community member and friend to many.

Three weeks after saying our goodbyes to this force of nature, we ran, walked, strolled or rolled across the finish line at our first ever family Race Weekend to raise funds for an endowment fund set up in Ed’s name at the hospital that cared for him in his final months.

What a difference a decade makes.

We still run to remember the man who modeled how to never give in and never give up. To remember that races are to be run with others and that winning is in showing up at the starting line. We run to remember and to forget the ache of loss and to dull the fear of forgetting.

Then after the race is run, we gather at our family home to break bread, tell stories, give compassionate space for wistful moments and raise a glass to the man, who in going to sleep, albeit it reluctantly, urged us to wake up to our lives.

With family. With friends. And with intention.

Showing up at the starting line really is the best way to remember someone.