My mother always said you need to appreciate everyday and that as we age time goes by so quickly. Of course when you’re 8 years old and it’s still 28 days before Christmas you find that hard to believe as you wish for the days to go by even faster. Now that I’m in my mid-40’s with 3 kids going in many different directions every day, I too can attest to how fast time goes by and even covet that feeling I had when I was 8 when the days seemingly drug by so slowly.

This time of year is officially the “off-season” for multisport racing but what does that really mean for most of us? All of us have very busy lives and to say any season of our life is “off” is not even close to reality. Currently, the “off-season” for the Kurek’s involves homeschooling our 2 boys, coaching our 13 year olds basketball team, volunteering at our 8 year olds wrestling practices and shuttling our daugher to both basketball and AWANA’s! Throw in a mandatory mid-week date night so Jennifer and I can talk for more than 5 minutes without getting interrupted and our “off-season” looks like just about everybody elses!

I was challenged by my pastor on Sunday to look at ALL of the above much differently. Sure it’s easy to look at being crazy busy as a negative, especially when you miss how many workouts? Kidding…a little. My pastor challenged us all to have a grateful heart for the things you’ve been blessed with. I’ve certainly been blessed with so much. I came into church on Sunday with a business burden that was consuming my thoughts and was certainly not in a grateful frame of mind. However, after hearing my pastors encouraging words I left feeling “grateful” and also knowing I wanted to share this with my blog readers.

So without further ado “HFP Man’s Top 10 Things I’m Thankful For”:
#10 – “Currently” being injury free!!!
#9 – The incredible customers of HFP Racing…what a great demographic to be surrounded by each and every race weekend.
#8 – My morning cup of coffee and the 30 minutes of calm before my day starts
#7 – Random texts from buddies that I no longer see on a regular basis but their encouraging words, out of the blue, come at seemingly the right time when I need them.
#6 – My longtime teammates on Team HFP Mark Lemmon, Curt Haywood and Todd Ricketts that have been my sounding boards for almost every major race related decision I’ve made over the last 2 decades. Thanks for your honesty!
#5 – Living the life of Riley at the helm of HFP Racing for over 25 years
#4 – Long Slow Distance runs at the Denison Bio Reserve next to my home
#3 – That I still have passion for racing after 28 years…looking forward to the 2015 season.
#2 – A supportive family that “understands” my need for a daily training fix…really I can quit anytime I just chose not to 😉
#1 – Living the dream! Bring it!

Have a great Thanksgiving!