New respect

I have a new respect for all you parents of young children training for the Big Sur Marathon. I say this because most of the past nine days I've spent with three of my nephews, ages 10, 8 and 6. Now, they are great kids and I wouldn't trade them for the world, but being with them, geez, and I thought going up the final hill at Big Sur was the ultimate gut check. Try standing in a Disneyland line for 45 minutes - in the rain - with three emotionally spent boys, "Unca Dave, when's it going to be our turn? How come the line is so slow? When is it going to stop raining? When's Dad going to come back with our hot chocolate?" Shortly after the kids crashed each night and sometimes before, my head hit the pillow. Now, it wasn't like I was handling the kids alone. Their mom and dad were there too, as was my wife and daughter. We all pitched in. But it sucked out all my energy, leaving me feeling, well, like those days when my kids were their age. So, how do you find the energy to train and still bring up kids (I just read in Runner's World about the mother of three shooting for a spot on the olympic marathon team)? Luckily, the bulk of my training is behind me. I went on a 22-mile run (in the rain, of course) with many big hills before the kids arrived. All went well (although not as fast as I had hoped), and I have to say I had a lot more energy left after that run then I did after a day at Disneyland with the nephews.