Yay!

Yay, I finished the race!!

Although my goal WAS to finish the race, I was a bit disappointed in myself for not doing it a bit faster. I felt better after realizing that 4 of my 8 5K split times were much faster than my first 5K race last September 2008. Also, I finished ahead of 2,010 people and there were another 1,184 who did not finish at all.

Thank you again so much for your support. This whole thing has made me incredibly grateful. It was a great weekend as it became very clear that the marathon was a team effort between me and Jim, and also highlighted the importance of encouragement from others. I had always heard of people drawing parallels between life and running but until recent months had never seen it so clearly.

Jim not only made sure I had all the time I needed for training (which was a lot) but he took care of me all of this weekend, including driving me around, getting me everywhere I needed to be on time (2 1/2 hours early for the race! Those of you who know us well may be more impressed by that fact than the fact that I ran a marathon!) He made decisions for me when I was too frazzled to think straight, and got all of the worries out of my head so I could sleep the night before. Then he waited in 34 degree weather for almost 6 hours for me to cross the finish line, and he cried when he saw me. I am so blessed.

We are so blessed to have family and friends like you who support us not only with donations to the CF Foundation, but with your words of encouragement. Our Team CF raised over $80,000 for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, which will go to research for new treatments and advancing the work of finding a cure. THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart.

The Time is Now

Well, I'm pretty much a nervous wreck, but after I post this I'm going to lay down and take a nap! :-) This was a rough week in that Jim was running a fever and was looking pretty close to being back on IV meds, and not being able to accompany me to Chicago this weekend. However, he's turned around the corner and our plans are back on for him coming with me tomorrow morning. I will go downtown on Saturday to pick up my race packet, and then we'll stay at my parents' house on Saturday night. We have to drive to Crystal Lake to catch a 4:40 am train Sunday to arrive downtown at 5:55. The race begins at 7:30 but my wave probably won't start until close to 8:00. I've been reviewing the course and making sure that I am not distracted with logistics. We are chip timed so my race time will still be accurate. If you want to track my run you can sign up at www.chicagomarathon.com and look at Event Information then Runner Tracking. My sister is keeping Josie for the weekend as it's too difficult to maneuver with her in large crowds, and it's already going to be pretty difficult for Jim to find me at the Finish Line.

I am disappointed to have missed out on full training for the past several weeks, but am still confident that I can finish the race. I have been doing my "runs" on the elliptical machine because my foot still hurts, and not wearing heels at work. But the doc said that I won't seriously damage my foot with the marathon, so I am pumped! The weather should be in the low 30s as we start, and in the high 40s when we finish. They originally predicted rain but it looks like that has changed to partly cloudy - yay!!!

I received an interesting email for first-time marathoners last week. It said that during the training phase it is 90% physical and 10% mental - You are just working your body hard. But during the race it is the exact opposite - 90% mental and 10% physical - Your body is trained, rested, and ready to go. Your mind is in charge on race day. I'm pretty sure I've been experiencing "taper madness" where you have all this extra energy because you're not working your body so hard. I am sooooo restless!!! I have great music downloaded onto my ipod, and had a very encouraging surprise yesterday from some friends in Virginia. I believe I am ready. :-)

Thanks again for your support!