Taking Flight with MTT

Sheesh, it's been a while since I posted here, but we've been busy this summer. I need to catch up on Teddy's birthday adventures and medical mishap, but I first want to share our most recent adventures this weekend.

Oshkosh holds a week-long air show every year that attracts more than 500,000 visitors. The past two years, Teddy and I did the 5k run on the runway. This year I convinced a couple of my friends from Moms Run This Town (MRTT) to join me in racing with Teddy with MyTEAM Triumph (MTT). Making friends is not an easy thing for me, but I now have quite a few running friends from MRTT who are amazing ladies who not only run the miles and share the stories with me but are friends beyond the running ... at least as much as we have time outside of our busy lives.

This was the second race this year where I convinced MRTT friends to run with Teddy and I, and there's something special about combining my friends with Teddy. Heck, there's something special about running with MTT. I loved seeing my friends post that this race wasn't about the time but was about spending time with Captain Teddy.

Minda and Maureen with Captain Teddy. 

For his part, Teddy likes the EAA run because there's lots of cool things to see with planes literally lining both sides of the course. As exciting as that is, there's so many golf carts! Teddy ran across the finish line with my friend Minda and I while my friend Maureen captured video, and it was such a special moment to share with friends. But then I had to convince Teddy to walk back to his race chair, which was quite the feat with all those tempting golf carts. He'd throw himself to the ground when I wouldn't let him get on golf carts, and I'd try to explain that we couldn't ride those golf carts.

That was so rough that Maureen went to get Teddy's chair for him, and I told Teddy yet again that we couldn't ride that golf cart. And the man driving it said, "Why not? He can ride." That man was Teddy's best friend (and mine, honestly) for the time it took to drive us the 20 feet to his race chair. I love that he was willing to do something so small that was something so huge for Teddy and me.

When it was time to get off, Teddy practically sat in the nice guy's lap to avoid me. 

I thought that would have been the highlight of Teddy's race adventures, but that was topped by one of the other MTT parents offering Teddy a ride in his brother's Jeep. I thought we were only going about a block to the parking area, but instead we got to ride all the way to town with Teddy absolutely thrilled about the wind blowing in his hair in this cool Jeep with no doors. It was hard to tell if Teddy or Don, the parent, was enjoying the ride more. That ride was the highlight of Teddy's adventures at EAA, and Don said the exact same thing when I talked to him at the training run tonight.

Teddy thought he was pretty darn cool. Let's be honest. He was.

There's something incredible about other people just embracing your children. It's something we take for granted with our typical children, that they're welcome to sleepovers, to play at friend's houses and to go on excursions because it's a normal part of life for them. With a child like Teddy, it takes extra effort to do excursions, to play at friend's houses and, well, he doesn't sleep that well in the first place. MTT is such an incredible organization because it gives us so many opportunities ... from someone at MTT telling us to go get the VIP tour of the firetruck (which oddly freaked Teddy out) to Don giving Teddy the Jeep ride to Don taking Teddy tonight at the training run and playing at the park with him halfway through the run. MTT isn't about running. It's that, but it's so much more. It's the inclusion into real life. It's the relationships that have meaning for angels, captains and their families.

Heck, the only downside to Don taking Teddy tonight was that I volunteered to push an angel other than Teddy. And I realized quickly what I already knew. Teddy's a lightweight compared to an older captain. Or I'm a wimp.

#runlikeangels #mttambassador