Week 18: mission accomplished

It's hard to believe that this journey is over. I've learned so much about myself over the last 18 weeks. I accomplished a goal that I didn't think was possible so many times during training runs. Someone told me that those bad, painful runs would help me come race day, and they did! I ran through pains during those runs that I didn't feel today. Before I talk about the race, let me talk about my last training runs.

On Monday, I did my last solo run before race day. It was a gorgeous Fall day, and I got to run in shorts and a t-shirt. I found my old iPod and decided that I would run with it on race day. It had all of the songs from my youth, and I knew it would be the distraction that I needed for 4 plus hours. My pace that day was a little faster than I wanted to be because I got caught up in the music. 

Tuesday was another cross training day that consisted of volleyball. Didn't take any shots of my mad hops this week because Jadynn didn't go. 

On Wednesday, Jadynn's friend, Hannah, joined me for a two mile run. I enjoyed running with someone new and hearing all of her future plans. The two mile run was over before I even realized it.

My final training run was with Kevin on Friday. He started my journey with me in South Carolina, so it was only fitting that we ran my last run together. Since we were both training, we didn't get to do a lot of runs together. This run reminded me how important those runs are to me. 

Race day: where to start? I brought oatmeal to the hotel to eat my typical breakfast, but there was no microwave to use. Strike one was my first thought. Luckily, Kevin brought bagels, so I had one and a half with a banana. I was hoping that would be enough to get me through the race. It took 25 minutes for me to get to the start line, so that gave me extra time to get nervous. I wasn't sure I'd be able to finish on my own. In all of my training runs that sucked, there was someone there to push me. This time I was flying solo. Then I remembered that my brother and sister-in-law would be in the crowd, Kevin would be on the course, and I had a lot of people praying for me and sending positive vibes my way. Most importantly, I had a piece of my friend, Mike, with me. Mike ran his first full over a year ago, and now he is fighting a courageous fight with cancer. I was wearing the shirt our relay team wore in April to honor his run and allow him to cross the finish line again as a marathoner. His wife also gave me his hat to wear that he wore in his marathon. I knew that I would focus on him and others that cannot run when I wanted to give up. I said one last prayer to God and asked for him to allow my body to finish this race, and I was instantly filled with a peace that I've never felt before on race day! I knew He was with me, and I would finish. By this point, I started receiving texts from my friends. It was awesome. Some sent texts the entire time I was running. This helped me because I knew they were thinking of me and gave me boosts when I needed them. While I was running, my heart was touched by so many of my fellow runners. I saw a blind man running with his wife. I saw an amputee running. I saw several runners continuing with sheer pain and agony on their faces. I saw runners of all shapes and sizes pushing their bodies to finish a marathon. I focused on these individuals when the miles started getting tough. I knew that I would have to walk up hills in order to save my hips. I walked through a couple water stops, too. Other than those moments, I ran the entire marathon. I never thought this would happen. Just proof that I was running for something bigger than myself. When I got to mile 20, I waited for the Hell that everyone warned me about. It never happened. I got caught up encouraging runners that were on the other side of the street. They were several miles behind me, but they were out their owning their miles. Before I knew it, I only had a 5k to go. At mile 25, my sister-in-law joined me for a mile even though she isn't cleared to run. This was supposed to be our adventure together, and I'm so thankful for that one mile. After she left, I had .2 miles to go. The finish line was in sight. My goal was almost accomplished! Crossing that finish line was amazing! It was something I would've never dreamed possible in the past. It just proved to me that we all have an inner beast living inside of us. It proved that we can accomplish dreams if we put in the time and effort. 

Will I ever run another one? No! This past 18 weeks showed me what it felt like to be on cloud nine and what it feel like to be in the valley of despair. It taught me how to be stronger and how to fight for a dream. I wouldn't change this experience for anything, but I'm not willing to do it all again. It was a once in a lifetime experience. Looking forward to having time to do whatever I want and resting my body! Thank you so much for following my journey and for all of your encouragement along the way!