Dog Tags

Tonight was our team send-off dinner.  It was great fun, filled with energy, laughter, and lots of info.  Coaches gave out silly certificates for different things...best team smile, best jokes, etc.  I guess you can say the team honored patient is/was a man named Pete.  He's always mentioned at team runs, his sons are big TNT participants.  Pete died a few years ago just weeks before an event.  In his honor, the Long Island Chapter has dog tags (3 sets) that have Pete's mantra on it "ucandoit" as well as his name.  At each send-off the coaches/mentors/TC's vote on who they want to wear the tags at the events being run.  The criteria is "TNT spirit, someone who 'get's it', someone who represents why we run, why we train, why we do this."  That TNT member wears Pete's tags at the event, then returns them so the next team member can wear them at the next race.  You can imagine my surprise and my tears when they handed them to me.  I'm honored, I'm humbled, I'm shocked.  I wear them proudly.

The tears have started already and I'm still in NY.  I told you I was going to be a sloppy mess through all this!