Thank you family for supporting me during training and for showing up on race day to cheer me on. Every Saturday morning for the last 16+ weeks, they've given me the time for my long run which sometimes interfered with ballet lessons or yummy Saturday breakfasts.
On Saturday we dragged London and Violet to the city in terrible traffic to get to the expo to pick up my bib. The kids had the sillies which can be fun at times or really annoying in he car. Worse, they decided to have a fart fest so they were both annoying and smelly.
My little family dropped me off at my dad's new city apartment and headed home. At dad's I was spoiled with dinner and my favorite pre-race breakfast: PB&J. Better, I scored a ride to the start line and was able to sleep in as much as possible.
The race was so hard. I felt every mile. Mostly because I had stopped running the prior three weeks because of a back injury. I went into the race not knowing if I could run 5 miles let alone finish.
I met up with my training group for the first six miles and then headed out alone. Some "stomach issues" slowed me a bit but seeing all of the Oasis (my charity) cheerers along the way helped a ton. But best was meeting my friend Erica at mile 19. She ran the rest of the race with me and helped me keep my mind off of my discomfort and helped me stretch out a wacky IT band at mile 25.
My family saw me close to the end but I missed them. I saw my dad just before I turned the corner to the finish which helped to give me the final boost that I needed.
My finish was much better than I expected but I really felt it. I started walking to where my charity group was meeting and realized that I better get my family and gear - and cell phone - first. When I found them I could tell that the kids and Blu were done. Patience had been lost by all and they would never make the long walk through a big crowd. So we left and headed to my dad's for a much needed shower.
I don't know if it's worth dragging them to see me. Maybe next year I'll give them a break and catch a ride home without having them chase me around. I guess we'll see.