Did I Ever Tell You Why I Run?

This picture has nothing to do with it, but I thought I should post kids in costumes.
Anyway. Have I ever told you the story of why I wanted to start running? It was 2003 and 2 of 6 was about 22 months old, 3 of 6 was a few months old. We decided to take a trip up to ID to see Trent's grandparents. We were driving this old Plymouth Acclaim that sputtered a lot, and had given us a little trouble on the way up. His uncle knew that these cars lost their alternators about 130 miles or so, so we decided to replace it while we were there. The part store was just around the corner, so we asked if we could leave the baby sleeping, and the 2 older kids playing while we ran there and back. We were gone for about 15 minutes and upon our return, I went looking for the kids, (I have always needed to know exactly where the kids were and what they are doing) to make eye contact with them. There's 1 of 6 sitting on the couch reading a book with GMA, but no 2 of 6. He's not in any room. Then I notice the back door is open. My heart sinks. I go out back and the gate to the garden is open, it sinks deeper. On the other side of the garden is an irrigation canal, at peak capacity. I bolt, yelling for someone to get Trent. GMA was behind me because when I went down stairs and asked where 2 of 6 was, she realized she hadn't seen him for a few minutes and followed me up to look for him. Their yard was a good half to three quarter acre, so it took me a few minutes to get to the canal. I immediately started looking at the bottom of the canal. There is truly nothing worse than looking for your 2 yr old son, thinking he had drowned.
The canal went under the road a few yards down, and got rough, so I started to panic more when I saw the water turned to rapids. I got to the road and looked up the road a bit, and noticed and older man with something in his arms walking towards me. It was him. He was dry, and smiling, and happy. He had wandered out of the house, through the yard and garden, along the canal (someone was holding his hand and keeping him out of the water, what 2 yr old doesn;t automatically go for the water) then down the road, looking for "his GMA who lived in the trees". GMA lives in a neighborhood with 100 yr old maples. After my adrenaline stopped pumping, my chest hurt, and I felt like I was going to be sick. I was so out of shape. I decided then and there, that I wanted to be able to run and not faint, in case my kids ever needed me.
It took a few years to reach that goal, but I can tell you I feel much more at ease, knowing I could run if I needed to.