Toni's Mug

A simple brown box arrived in the mailbox today with nary a numeral used in it's return address. That's the first thing I did as I stood beside the mailbox, to look to see who had sent it.

Inside was a coffee mug from Toni. And in her part of the U.K. folks don't receive their mail with a string of numbers, but instead go by whose barn you live near on a lonesome country lane.

It isn't the first box I've gotten from her either. After my Eugene marathon in 2008 she had sent me two mugs with my finishing time nicely engraved on the side of each. She had made two and couldn't decide which to send and so packaged up both to let me choose; which I did...one I keep at home and the other is my at work mug.

I get comments and questions about it all the time, which is really fun. It admittedly doesn't get washed very often and frequently will sit overnight or the entire weekend with a cold thick sludge of once proud brew in it, which gives it an ever increasing mottled patina on the inside. This melds well with what I see as it's wonderful uniqueness and handmade charm, but Toni would only refer to as "ugly", which it most certainly is not.

So this third mug has arrived and I can see from it the stylish artistic evolution that Toni has made on the potters wheel. This newer cup is taller with a more substantial feel in my hand. Like the others it has my marathon PR on one side, this time 3:30:03, but this one also has the letters BQ on the other.

I can't begin to say how much this gift means to me, not just because of the generosity, but because of who it is from. Another person who sees the world a lot like I see it; on a journey of exploration and giving, reaching out from a good heart to someone so far away and virtually unknown, but with a shared love of running and living. She began her own blog a little while before mine with a wish to chronicle her progress in running and pottery and this gift is a reminder to me of both of those things about her. It's become my mug of choice after whipping up a thick steamy hazelnut latte on a cool winter afternoon.

She kidded me that I had better not set a new PR or she'll have to throw yet another mug on the potters wheel, and I assured her that that is not very likely. My current time just might be my high water mark, and that's okay with me. I guess race times are sort of like Toni's street address on that little brown box. Numbers just aren't important.