Miracles Do Happen

I have never professed to be the most sane person in world. Over a year ago I started running on and off. I got pretty serious in the spring, until I did something to my hip. Then I took the summer off. In the fall I started training for the Vegas Half Marathon. Everything was going great, that is until I hit the 5 mile mark on my treadmill. I have found that the worst torture for me is staring at my neighbor's drive way for that long. With the knowledge that I would have to keep increasing to 13 miles, death was starting to sound better. I started getting bogged down with insane stuff at school and my running dwindled.

I think I ran a few times in December, but nothing steady. In January, some of my friends mentioned that they were thinking about doing a 5k race in a few weeks. I hadn't run, and didn't dream that I would be able to because of my kids. About a week before the race, they all decided to sign up. Before I had a chance to talk myself out of it, I jumped online and registered! Then it dawned on me that I probably should run a little bit before the race.

On Tuesday I ran a mile and then I ran two miles on Thursday. No problem, the race was only 3.1 miles. Piece of cake, right? A 5k just sounded like a short little race. I mean I had ran up to 5 miles on my treadmill.

As I get older, I realize that I am just a carbon copy of my mom. I think we both survive on less sleep than most people. We both are professional procrastinators. When ever there is an important event or trip, my mother can't sleep. This is especially true when it's an early morning event. My mom almost never sleeps the night before a flight. I think she worries she will not wake up or that something will go wrong. I am also a little paranoid about waking up on time for things. I have been known to turn off and alarm because I have worked it into my dream and it made sense at the time. That night I set my alarm for 5 a.m. My nanny was going to come over at 5:30 a.m. so that gave me enough time to get ready before she got there. My friend, Joni, was picking me up at 5:45 a.m. Everything was set and I went to bed.

I FREAKED out when I woke up and saw that it was 8:30 a.m. At first I didn't think anything of it, but then 5 seconds later I realized that I was supposed to get up at 5 a.m. I have never felt so sick in my life. I knew the race was over by that point. Just when you think it can't get worse, it does. I realized that meant that my nanny got up at a horrendous hour to drive all the way over to my house, and then I didn't even hear the door. I had told her I would open it for her when I woke up. I knew she would be mad. Then I wondered if my friends had stopped by to get me.

I ran downstairs and I saw a note sticking through the door. My friends had been there and left me a note telling me where the race was (on the other side of Vegas) and said that they would just meet me there if I was still coming. I was just about to break into tears. I couldn't believe I missed the race I had been so excited about. Then it hit me--there is NO way in hell my boys would sleep until 8:30 a.m. That's when I realized that I was sleeping and it really was only 4:30 a.m. So much for a good night's sleep!

Everything else went off without a hitch. Suzanne showed up at 5:30 a.m. My friends were a bit late, but we made it with time to spare. The one thing I had not counted on, was how much colder it was on that side of town. We were FREEZING!! Joni and I took refuge in Wendy's car for a few minutes.



The third grade teachers rock! Cathy, Julie, Wendy, and Joni


It was finally time to begin the race! We were all grouped together at the starting line, but still freezing our butts off. I was very thankful that they gave us those sweatshirts, or I would have been dying.



I think I was so focused on the fact that I was freezing, that I missed a lot of what the announcer said. Then the race began. It took about 20 seconds to understand why a lot of people told me you can't train on a treadmill. I was finding it hard to breathe since it was so cold and windy. I was also used to running on a flat surface that gave me no choice of slowing down without the thought of landing on my face as the belt kept going. On the road I had to push off with every step and it was NOT flat. I just kept praying that I would make it to the finish line.

I was quite relieved to see the Boy Scouts passing out water at a water station. I didn't take any, though. I could just see me trying to run and drink at the same time, not a pretty picture! I was just thrilled to know that it was the half way mark. At that moment I knew I could make it.

I had no idea where we were running, as I never saw the race mapped out. So far we had just made half a square. When we took our third right, we didn't run all the way down, we just ran half way, and then took another right. We were now running parallel with the main entrance of the park. I knew that we must be getting closer to the finish line. It was at that moment that my heart broke. Just when I saw the park, our race path took a right turn and headed back to those same Boy Scouts. I couldn't believe it--we were running AWAY from the park. UGH! That straight way to the scouts was a series of hills for water ditches, which didn't make me any happier.

Once again I passed those scouts and their offerings of water, but I didn't have that same cheerful attitude that I did the first time I passed them. It was at that point I realized that they were at the mile markers, the first time we had just ran a mile, and now I had just completed a little over 2 miles. There was one good part though, I could see that we were definitely heading back to the park this time. I just kept on pushing along, keeping my pace right behind this other lady that I had been following most of the race. I am a little irritated I didn't pass her when I could. It turned out that she was in my age group and she got third place. I missed a certificate by a few seconds! Oh well, I was just thrilled to run through that finishing line ALIVE!



I was proud of everyone for their great races, but I was especially proud of Joni, Jay, me, and Susan. It was our first 5k race and we all did awesome!