I Could Cry at the Flick of a Switch Over This... Thursday, March 26

I woke up this morning hoping this would be the longest day of my life.  I didn't want time to fly like it usually does and I didn't want the day to end.  It ending meant I wouldn't see Wow again for another six months.  In two years I have never even gone 6 days without seeing him and during the week it's more like 6 hours.  We usually see him numerous times during our work days -- before, during and often after work too.

Wow is wow and everyone who knows him knows just how fulfilling of the title "Wow" he is.

I've only had a day or so to digest the fact that for the next 6 months Wow will be MIA.  He's noted to Snickers that he may send a plane ticket for him to visit but I want Wow here.  Save Snickers' plane ticket and fly yourself back here for our weekend Hulk dinner meetings, for days when we need extra advice about Hulk's, for business meetings regarding setting up Phase 2.  Fly yourself back so that you can yell at me during my first full marathon and then be there at the finish line to catch me when I collapse with exhaustion.  

Today Wow showed up for training and he went over numerous things regarding my marathon.  He's always been a big part of my races, not only with the planning and preparing but also with race day, and I'm having a hard time accepting that he won't be a part of my biggest race ever.  He once ran beside me in a race, just to push me through it and he wasn't even signed up to participate in it.  That's Wow for you, always going so beyond what's expected so that he can support you.  Today we went over what I should wear and what I should take to the race.  We even went over some finer details like how I could cut up and repackage my Cliff Blocs so that I don't have to fumble around with the store packaging while running.  

I sat down at the juice bar today and wrote him a letter in Korean.  I should have done it earlier or at least in private, like in my bedroom, because it ended up being a rather emotional thing for me to do. Consequently, a few Hulkies noticed my change in demeanour and refrained from asking me to coach them in crossfit.  How do you say thank you to the very man who not so long ago was a complete stranger but who has helped to make your dream a reality and every day continually and unconditionally supports you?!  Harder though is how do you say goodbye to such a person when the goodbye is clearly not a goodbye but instead a sad bye and a please don't go?!  

I had talked to a couple of select Hulkies yesterday about Wow leaving and what this meant to me, what he means to me.  I guess what I said was more sentimental than they expected because they both broke down in tears.  I was shocked.  I was shocked not only by their reaction but by my realization of just how big of a role in my life Wow plays.  My former coach, Junior Mint, was always the one I went to.  For about 7-8 years it was always him and me but now he's gone.  Wow has definitely stepped up to fill in much of the roles Junior Mint used to play in my life but he's gone beyond them and introduced extra roles that he so successfully plays.  Being that he is a huge sport enthusiast, excelling in now boxing but also running, a married man of many years, a father of two university-aged boys, and an entrepreneur who has three successful businesses, he is an amazing resource of ideas, information and inspiration.  He knows what he's talking about and we do talk a lot together. 

When I swung by Wow's restaurant tonight to give him the letter I had written to him, I didn't stay long.  I couldn't stay long, thank God, because the club was still open and I was technically still on the clock for training members.  I knew if I had stayed I would have made quite the spectacle of myself and my tough boxing girl image would have been absolutely slaughtered and washed down the drain with all my tears.  I stayed just long enough to get choked up and then I nudged Snickers, signalling that I wouldn't be able to fight off the tears much longer unless he got me out of there.  We then excused ourselves and rushed to our truck.  Wow walked outside with us, opened my door and then stood there waving to me as we drove away.  I couldn't look at him... and I can't even write this silly homepage entry without getting teary-eyed.  

It was close to 1am when I decided to go to bed and call it an early night.  The day was over, Wow will be gone in the morning but now he's probably packing his stuff. There was nothing I could do but accept that tomorrow he'll be leaving us so I just wanted to go to sleep and not think about it. Then I got a text message from Wow, a long text message.  He wrote in response to my letter.  It definitely made it all that harder to go to sleep after receiving that, wow.... wow Wow.