Building a deck, and other marathons

Deck project is finally done.  It was a long project, seeing as I’ve never built a deck before.  Sure, I’ve helped others, but that’s easy being the helper.  Do this, nail that, cut this, etc.  Not much thought or planning involved if you’re the helper.  This deck I tackled by myself, well, with Nancy helping out.  Not that she’s built a deck before, but at times when I was stumped (quite often) she’d come up with some alternative ideas about how to tackle a certain part, and it seemed to work out well.  There was a lot of head scratching and standing back looking at it from different angles, levels, to make sure it was done correctly and was solid.  We took our time and made sure it was done right. 

With 2 kids in soccer, running 3 days a week and both of us working full time, we only had weekends and the occasional night after 6 pm to work on it.  It took the month of June (plus the July long weekend) to complete the deck.

The whole process reminded me of what I think training for a marathon is going to be like.  Both are long projects that require a lot of work.  You can’t just throw up a deck (or run a marathon) all willy-nilly with no thought or planning or you end up with crap.  You need to lay the groundwork (good base of running/support beams), study it from different angles, plan and take your time.  Both require a lot of patience, endurance, and perseverance.  At times you feel like giving up, you don’t know how it's all going to come together, and you’re so frustrated that things just aren’t working out as you originally planned.  Just keep building your deck/training and soon you’ll see what you need to do to make the pieces fit together.

Marriage is like a marathon as well.  It takes all the patience, endurance and perseverance that you can muster.  Some times it does not go well and you want to throw in the towel.  Just keep building. 

When Nancy and I first got married, Nancy’s mom thought it was a great idea for us to setup the Christmas tree together.  This task as akin to putting up a dining room tent (aka divorce tent), or wallpapering together.  It was a mitigated disaster.  We fought like cats & dogs attempting any of these jobs trying to work together in the past.  But lately we seemed to have found a way to work together and not cuss each other out.  And I’ve got to say, it’s rather nice.  But we didn’t just get to this point overnight.  It took years of learning what NOT to do. 

Sure, we’re not in that “puppy love” stage where it’s all adorably sweet and cute (and I do miss that; who doesn’t?)  This is a much deeper love now.  A love born out of years of being together and really appreciating each other for what the other brings to the table.  I still piss her off at times, and she drives me nuts with her quirks, but we’ve learned to look past these trivial issues and come together as a team, focusing on the good parts.

And I think that is what marathon is training is going to be like.  There will be some tough runs, blistering heat where I think I just can’t do it, what was I thinking signing up for such a colossal distance?  I’m already there with the last long run, which is only our second long run, and yet one of the shortest (18k).  My feet were incredibly aching for the last few km.  I don’t know how I’m going to manage it all, but I just keep running, enjoying the runs that go well, hoping it'll all work out in the end when we toe the line in October.  And with Nancy at my side, I need to have faith that the training will get us there and fit all the pieces together. 

Raising kids is another type of marathon. More like an ultra-marathon.  A long journey requiring immense patience, where at times you fight a lot of uphill battles, but it's all in hopes that the kids turn out alright in the end.

And now that the deck marathon is completely done, I’m enjoying a Caesar while typing this on the deck, basking in the fruits of our labour.

Time for a refill.