We came home from vacation two nights before the race. I fell ill with a head cold on the drive from beautiful Southern California (nice souvineer...even nicer spelling ;) My thought on Friday was "I really shouldn't run this race". That was the same thought I had at 11:30 p.m. friday night (too late a bed time for a race!), early Saturday morning when I got out of bed, and at the start of the race. It was the thought I had at about mile 2 when I had to walk in order to tie up my pants (never try anything new-no new clothing, no new sports drink, not even new music for a race!). It was my thought to quit at mile 7 and it was definately my thought to quit at mile 10. At all of those moments I thought of John saying "have a good run" as I would leave at 5:30 a.m. to train/run with the girls. At all of those moments I thought of him finishing the marathon last year, and how he said he'd " give me a turn" to race again. Ok, at mile 10 I also thought of the fact that my only ride home was at the finish line. So, I cranked the tunes John had programed for me on my Ipod (I have never before been thankful for EM N EM, I think that's how you say it) the night before and made it to the finish. Soar, tired, sick and frustrated, I finished. And John was there to snap this picture. And he was proud of me even though my finish time stunk. And I was motivated to do better next time, to take better care of myself and to try harder, run smarter (NO new stuff next time!) and find a way to run WITH John, not instead of him.
I finished.
4 comments:
way to go girl! what an amazing feat! i just ran my first 5k...not anything close to a ½ marathon! and actually, i only ran it because bonnie wanted to run it (and she's only 10!) and brad was running it and convinced me that it would be a good thing for us to do together (i am NOT the running type!)
the lessons we learned were to set a reasonable pace from the start, and also that it's a good idea to try running before the day of the race! we did it cold turkey, no preparation, and it was tough. but we let bonnie set the pace and crossed the finish line in 41 minutes. not bad for first-timers. a long way from a ½ though!
nice post about mason too, by the way! wish my brandon could have been there for the backyard game of animal pirates...his favorite thing in the world is playing pirates (but not many friends around here are into that!)
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Bike race next? :)
I think both you and John are amazing, no kids here and I am certainly NOT getting up at 5:30 to RUN! I would be happy to help with the kids if you and John want to get out and run together, but don't ask me to come at 5:30.
I had no idea that you were in for a half marathon after a huge vacation. You Rock girl!! I am so gald you did it who cares about your time my goodness, you had a crazy week. Thanks for being an example to Tyler & I, with one kid we think we have our handful and exhausted. But we relly have no idea. You & John are quite the parents, your kids are lucky.
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