So last Saturday Andy, and his whole family, and I drove on up to Cincinnati to run in the Flying Pig Marathon on Sunday. We arrived and went right to the Expo and got our bib numbers, t-shirt and all the free stuff that we could fit in our bags. Then we headed on over to the hotel. Well, I got to the room first and when I opened the door I headed right for my bed and plopped my stuff on the bed and immediately started going through all of the goodies that I got at the Expo. Andy followed behind and he said, "Wow, these are some pretty flowers!" I turned around to see a beautiful floral arrangement that he had sent to the hotel for my birthday. I had just walked right past them without even seeing them. Am I terrible or what? So funny, but he really is a sweet hubby and the flowers were/are beautiful.
We went to dinner that night at this really neat Italian restaurant in Cincy somewhere. The only bad part about it was we were put in this really big room that they use for big parties. Well we thought that our party of 25 was big, but there were 3 other parties just as big IN THE SAME ROOM! It was so loud the whole time that we could barely talk much less hear ourselves think. Andy's parents were so sweet and had two cakes (we had 25 people to feed) they brought with them to celebrate my birthday. The restaurant sang to me, I could not stop laughing and will have to show you pictures from that later, and I opened my presents. It was wonderful. One of the best presents that I got that night made me cry. I have been eyeing this picture that Bill took of Andy at the beach when Andy was about 3 years old. I actually have threatened to steal it off of the wall at both Amy and Gigi's houses. Well, Amy said that she was at Bill's office recently and saw another copy of the picture. She took it off the wall and gave it to me. I started crying when I saw it and am so happy. Now I just have to find the perfect place to hang it in our house. Thank you so much Bill and Amy for a wonderful birthday and a wonderful gift. After dinner we headed home and went right to bed, not that I slept but...
It is a good thing that I slept for 11 hours the night before because the night before the marathon I don't think that I slept longer than 2.5 hours. We had to wake up at 4:30 and be out the door at 5:00am to make sure that we got parked before they started closing down the roads. If I thought that my stomach was in knots before we ever left Knoxville, I was wrong. I have never felt more knots than I did that morning. When we got to the start of the race we headed into the football stadium for cover. It was sprinkling a little and I do not like to get wet. We waited in there for about an hour. Andy and Bill said that they were going to run to find a bathroom real quickly. The next thing that I realized was someone said that it was about 20 min til the start of the race and the group started to disburse. Did you hear me say I was nervous? The group was LEAVING, I had no idea where Bill and Andy were and I knew that if I left that spot that I would never find them. I also knew that I would not make the entire 26.2 miles without them. I started to cry. Yep right there in the middle of everything, tears were streaming down my face. Did you hear me, I STARTED TO CRY... BEFORE THE RACE! Luckily Amy turned around and saw how upset I was and told me that it would be okay and that she would wait until they came back. It seemed like forever, it was probably just a min, but Andy and Bill both showed up. Andy looked at me like I was nuts but told me that everything was going to be fine and we headed to the start line. We had to weave in and out of about a million people to get to the place where we thought that we needed to start. We got ready and before I knew it the lady on the microphone said, "10 seconds to the gun!" I turned to Bill and Andy and said, "I think that I want to throw up!" They just laughed and the gun went off and we were off and running.
The race was great and not half as bad as I thought. We started in Ohio, ran across to Kentucky and then back to Ohio all before the 5 mile mark. Here we are at 5 miles, thank you Bill for covering my face.
Andy was focused. This was right before we headed up the BIG HILLS. It was about 3 miles of gradual climbing. I had been nervous and this section of the course but once we reached the top, I still felt great and was ready for the rest. We left the half marathoners at the 9 mile mark and we were happy about that. Most of the people were running the half and as you can tell from the above picture it was pretty packed. When we split the running crowd was a lot smaller. Andy and Bill ran off to the bathroom at mile 13 and somehow in the mix Andy and I lost Bill. I was a bit nervous about losing him because Andy had mentioned that he may run off and leave me. He didn't. We stayed together for the whole race. Even our split times were exactly the same, pretty weird. I did hit the wall at mile 24 and did not think that I could run any further, but Andy was there to cheer me on and tell me that I was doing great. We made it to the Finish Swine with a time of 3:42.04. I was 65 second from qualifying for Boston. That was not my goal but gives me a reason to run another marathon. I know Andy is up for it, Bill what do you think? You want to do it again?
All in all we had a great time. I really want to say a BIG THANK YOU to a couple of people:
Megan,Granddaddy and Gigi: Thanks you so much for coming all the way to Ohio to cheer us on. It was so nice to have our personal cheering section and we love you all. Meg, can't wait to run with you in the next race.
Amy, Scott, Jeff, Danielle, and Cally- thanks for running. It was so much fun to do this as a FAMILY. I can't wait until the next race, whatever that may be. Now we just have to figure out what to talk about when we are together. :)
Bill: Thank you so much for going on all of the training runs with us. For keeping me positive and letting me know that it was okay to not always feel well. You were so nice to always stop for me and to listen and talk back even when I know you did not want to. I am not sure that I would have made it through all of those LONG runs without you. I really appreciate you and am so lucky to have you as a Dad! Thank you so much!
Andy: Not sure where to start. I have tears in my eyes. It is your fault that I ran this crazy thing and I love you for it. I love and thank you for pushing me further than I thought that I could push myself. Thank you for believing that I could run that far, that fast. Thank you for keeping me motivated and getting me out for each of those training runs. Thank you for never letting me back out of running (except that one time when I cried after 3 miles, but that was the only time), never letting me give up, and always giving your best and encouraging me to do the same. I love you more than you know. I love you! Thank you, thank you, thank you. I am so lucky to have you as my husband and can't wait for marathon number 2!!!!!
Here is our post-race picture, to show you that we did indeed survive. Next week I will tell you the post-race story, it is pretty funny!!! For more pictures of Andy and I during the race go here:
http://www.runphotos.com/browse.cfm?race_id=157&bib_number=4129
Love always,
1 comment:
Wow Cameron! I am SO impressed!!! Congratulations!
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