"My Dad in Georgia"

My dad came to the United States in 1965 to be a medical intern in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. My mom was also a medical intern living in Youngstown, Ohio. They met in the United States, two Korean immigrants who had come to America for a better education and started to date.

Then it was time to introduce my dad to the family. The only family my mom had in the States was her oldest sister and her husband who lived in Decatur, Georgia because he was a Professor of Engineering at Georgia Tech. So my dad made the drive down to Georgia.

He pulled over at a rest stop to go to the bathroom. He stopped short of the restroom doorway. There were two entrances, one marked "White" the other "Colored". He stood there for a long minute. Was he white or was he colored? He had to make a decision because he really had to go to the bathroom. So he went into the white bathroom. Without incident.

My dad once told me, "When I see a minority or a woman in a position of authority, I think that person must be really excellent at their job. Because it's twice as hard for a minority to make it that far than it is for a white person. That's just the way it is in this country. Maybe in your lifetime, there could be a black president. Maybe, but I doubt it. Definitely not in my lifetime. No way." I remember feeling disappointed when he said this to me.

Late at night on Tuesday, November 4, 2008 I called my dad and asked him if he remembered having that conversation with me.

He said, "You know what. I was listening to his acceptance speech and for some reason my eyes were wet. I reached up to my eyes and they were wet. And I realized I was crying. I can't believe. I can't believe it."

I said, "I'm so happy for you, Dad. That you're seeing this in your lifetime."

"Yeah, I know. Congratulations, Fred."

"Congratulations, Dad."

Running

I started running about a year ago.

Before I ran I used to go to the gym and lift weights. I would warm up on the treadmill and run about 2 miles at a 7.5 min/mile pace. I hated running, but it was probably the most healthy part of my workout.

I quit my gym one day because I would only go sporadically for a few weeks at a time. I’d get into a groove then inevitably catch a cold, be out for a week or two and then be out of my groove, making it harder to get back into the gym and start it all over again.

I liked how efficient and low maintenance running was. All you needed was a nice pair of running shoes; no gym membership, just go outside and start running. I used mapmyrun.com to keep track of my routes and how far I was running.

I discovered that running outside is a lot more of a workout than running on a treadmill and built more muscle than I expected. Duh. I registered for my first 5K race called the Banana Chase Race which is held close to my house.

I ran it in about 21:14 minutes which I was happy with since I had no notion of what a ‘good’ time for me was. I signed up for more 5K races determined to beat that time.

The next race was the Komen Breast Cancer race and my time wa something like 21:35. I decided to train harder for my next 5K race and looked up training regimens for 5K races online. The next race was an SF Dolphins Running club 5K and my time was something like 21:55. I resolved to run one more time and train my butt off for it. The Kaiser Permanente race… 22:10.

I gave up running a while and started doing pushups instead.

Then a few months ago, I saw that the Banana Chase Race was coming around again. The Banana Chase Race is interesting in that they have a children’s race after the adults race at Kezar Stadium. My two boys really wanted to run with their dad so I signed myself up for the 5K and signed them up for the kids race.

It was a lot of fun. I really enjoyed it and the kids had a blast. I still have no idea what time I ran because I forgot to look at the billboard as I was crossing the finish line.

I may run more 5K’s in the future but for now I’m going to just run 3-4 miles every other day. I’m getting used to it.