I had such a roller coaster of emotions this weekend. It's hard to put it all into words, but I will try to highlight the memorable moments.
1. I narrowly missed getting hit by a car that ran a red light while driving back from the expo. It literally was by inches. It was on my side and I was somehow, by the grace of God, able to swerve enough to avoid impact. I would have surely been hurt badly, covered with glass and my car would have been destroyed or at least not operable for the rest of the weekend. Not a way to start off race weekend.
2. Inspiration dinner: I was already starting off this week overly emotional, when I get to the dinner we listen to the staff speak and have some laughs about race day prep, then we get to here a mission moment. This was definitely a memorable mission moment for me. It was about a little boy named Bennett. He was diagnosed with Leukemia when he was just 10 months old. He is now 18 months and his mother showed us all the beads he has earned from all that he has endured. He had 4 strands of beads and each one represented something that he went through, 75 beads for how many sticks with needles, 12 beads for overnight stays in the hospital, 8 beads for rounds of chemo, 7 beads for never complaining, etc. There were 4. FULL. STRANDS of these. I can't recall all the meanings and the numbers of each, but I, at that moment, cried. I wept for that little boy and all that he has gone through. I remembered my youngest son Dalton at that age and it made my heart ache with pain for Bennett. I am drying my eyes as I am typing this. His parents formed a team in his honor and between 3 people raised over $60,000 for Bennett's Buddies! It was so incredibly inspiring to me!
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| Me and my best friend in the whole world |
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| COACH Jessica and me - red carpet |
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| Katie and me |
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| Dann and Jennifer |
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| David and Leslie |
3. What to wear: The forecast called for 90% chance of rain, well, there was no optimistic 10% chance. Nada, it was an all out rain day. So, we had to dress for what we were going to get. This caused tremendous stress for me. Oh dear Lord, it caused me stress! I am always a minimalist when it comes to running gear. Last year I wore TNT shirt, arm sleeves and a skirt, a trash bag to keep warm at the beginning. This year it was, tights, TNT shirt, arm sleeves, gloves, hat, ear warmers, hand warmers and a rain proof jacket. I also put on a rain poncho that they were giving away at the start. I struggled with wear to pin my bib, would I get hot and have to shed the jacket? Should I wear my TNT shirt on top of my jacket (I did try that, it wasn't working out), should I pin my bib to my new jacket and leave pin holes? Oh. THE. HUMANITY! I just didn't know what to do! Seriously, I NEVER have so much trouble with what to wear. I ended up wearing the jacket the whole time and my bib on my shirt. That's just how it had to be. So, I didn't get to represent with too much purple. I did have on a purple TNT ear warmer over my hat and purple gloves and you could see the purple peak out of my jacket. Next, rain proof gloves would be nice and rain proof shoes!
4. Pre-race: We stayed at the Crown Plaza and were pretty well rested. Got up at 5, had a nice pre-race oatmeal and a banana. Then we met in the lobby at 6:15 to take the Dart rail to Fair Park. I saw a lot of our team in the lobby. You could feel the nervous jitters in the air. We were about to embark on a journey together, rain or shine, or in our case, rain and rain!
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| Josh and Eric - my fellow 26.2ers! First timers! |
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| Nicole and Danielle |
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| Katie, Tina and Andy |
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| COACH Jessica, Serene and Me |
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Me and my partner in crime, Roy
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Once we got to Fair Park, we checked in with the TNT tent and then headed to bag check. After that we settled in at the Automobile building to stay warm. The rain really hadn't started yet. There we waited. When it was finally time to go we headed for the corrals. We were supposed to be in D3, we stopped at the port-a-potties one last time and then we realized there was no way to get in the corrals, so we had to go all the way to the end and go through the gate. There were only a few ways in and we missed the closer point. There were 2 chain link fences to get through and only a few openings, oh well, we ended up way at the end, closer to the end of E corral, which is dead last. Oh well, here we go! We crossed the start at 8:35, so it really wasn't too bad.
4. We started off with a pretty good pace, I was trying to hold myself back a lot, I don't need a PR on the half, just steady pace is what I needed. I think the minute we started, here comes the rain, of course it is! I won't bore you with the whole 26.2 miles, but the gist is miles 1-11, felt pretty good, kept steady, good mood. Miles 12-20, I hated this part, I really did! This was all around the lake. There were not many people there cheering anyone on. It was gray, cold, raining and getting depressing. I was starting to get irritated by little things. I come upon this guy who is skipping. THIS just made me mad. I thought he was treating it like a joke for a minute and then we overheard someone say he was trying to break the Guinness Book of World Records for skipping a marathon in less than 6 hours! Hey, whatever rows your boat, right?! That made me less annoyed when I heard that, even more so when I ran past him. Mile 14ish, I see a light at the end of the tunnel, It's Meg!!! Oh, how I wanted to see Meg. It was like the dark clouds lifted and this smiling face came and lit up the world for a few minutes. I guess I was in a dark place. Did I mention that I really hated the lake?! When we rounded about mile 19, there was another ray of light, it was David Burdette!!! Yay, I am getting more pep in my step. Then we hit the Dolly Parton hills. Oh forget about trying to run that! I was going to save my energy and just walk fast up those. I see another happy face, little Landon!!!! Oh how much I just adore all those Burdettes!
5. Mile 22: Ok, I am not sure I hit a wall,but I did get overwhelmed by my emotions and cried. I don't know why I cried, it felt better to do it. I didn't want to run, I just wanted to walk, I didn't want to quit at all, but I just wanted to be warm and dry. My feet were killing me, my heel was bleeding, I had some cut on my heel since mile 7 and it was just raw. I told Roy to tell me some jokes, he couldn't come up with anything. Note to self, Roy is not good at stand-up. AT. ALL. It was hard to keep going, but I reminded myself, It's not chemo, it's not chemo, it's not chemo. I did come to a realization though. Running a marathon is just like childbirth, it hurts like hell when you are doing it, but the rewards you reap from it are immeasurable. You forget the pain and then you want to do it all over again! So for anyone that has done natural childbirth, mile 22 is exactly like being at a 7 during transition!
6. Mile 24: I think I started getting a 2nd wind. I was seeing the end, I was away from that dang lake and there was more crowd support. It really means a lot to see people standing in the rain willing you to continue on. Cheering for you to not give up and you can do it. Those words give great comfort. I do have to add that seeing our team out there cheering us on at various points meant a lot to me. Albert, in particular, was by the lake and I ran up to him and gave him a big hug. I really needed to see him there!
7. The finish line: I finally arrived, despite all the obstacles, the rain, the pain, the tears, the cold, the watch dying, I came around the chute and I see our TNT family elite runner, Tony Collins, standing there and he is cheering "Go Ponders, Go!". I was got huge tears welling up in my eyes to see that bright yellow finish line coming closer and closer and people are screaming and cheering. So hand in hand, Roy and I crossed the finish line together. He was my rock and I know that quitting would have been easy without him by my side, cheering me on, giving me the sheer will to finish. Again, just like labor, he was right there rubbing my back and telling me how proud he was of me and that I could do it.
If you have read this far, you must really like me ;) I know it was long, but there was so much I had to share. I want to thank you all for all your support, love, admiration and donations during my Team in Training Winter season. It was hard and it hurt like hell, but I will be back next winter to do it all again!!!
