I have dreams of running this race someday - I'm just a tad slower than I need to be though to stay in front of the rolling road openings so I have always been concerned about signing up. I'm going to do what I can this year and see if I can swing it in 2012! One great thing about it is race day falls very near my birthday! I signed up to run on a relay team and I was assigned to Leg #3 this year. Leg 3 is from right about the half way mark (mile 13ish to right after mile 20 - total mileage 7.1 miles). This year meant a lot to me to be out there - my son Matt was running his first full marathon and he has only been running about a year!
One challenge I had was I had never met the person that was doing leg 2 so I told her to look for me in my tutu and it's a good thing I did - I wasn't paying attention until she was standing right in front of me asking if I was Sabrina!
I started out running and I had been watching for Matt and was pretty sure he hadn't passed me so I thought he might pass me somewhere along my run and I was super excited! I would run some, walk some and keep looking behind me to see if I saw him coming! I saw my daughter in law at mile 15ish and she told me he was just behind me somewhere but I needed to keep moving so off I went! Our running group had an aid station at mile 17.5 and I stopped there to chit chat with my buddies and kept looking out for Matt. I was just getting ready to leave to aid station and told my friend to keep an eye out for him and tell him where I was when I saw his headed towards me! I was so excited! I started running with him not knowing if I was going to keep up or not since he is at least 1 1/2 minutes faster than me and was doing longer intervals than I'm used to but I figured I would give it a try! I ended up keeping up with him and ran 2 1/2 miles with him! We talked along the way and It was the greatest feeling in the world! I was all emotional anyway - I fought back tears when I first saw him because I knew he still had a long road ahead of him and of course being mom you kinda have to worry about him as well.
We passed the mile 20 marker and could see the relay point where I would leave Matt and stop and hand off to the person running leg 4 and Matt told me at that point "So you know - 703 days ago I almost died and here I am today running a marathon." I completely lost it and I handed off and knelt down in the road and cried. We are so lucky to have him still and he has such a great attitude about life. I hopped in my friends car and hightailed it to close to the start line - parked in the first spot I saw and ran almost a mile to get to about mile 25. His wife, Jess was running with him and he had hit a wall and had a couple of rough miles but when I saw him he looked better and only had a mile to go!
Mom and Son running in - this is right at mile 26 - the finish line is right around the corner!! - right after this he took off fast and I knelt down in the street and cried again!
My son Matt - Marathoner!!
Proud (and lucky!!) mom!!
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2 comments:
I am *literally* wiping tears from my face. I cannot imagine hearing those words come from my child's mouth. No matter what age. What an awesome blessing to be able to run a leg of this race with him!
PS....what is stopping you from running this race???? You can do this, Sabrina! With all of those running buddies you have, I'm positive one of them would be willing to pace you. I just know it. :)
Bre, I love this post. I saw Matt and you after the marathon in the food area and I could see both of you were very proud. I was so happy for Matt that I hugged him and he must of thought I was insane since I've never really spoke with him. I was so excited for him to have completed his first marathon that I couldn't help it.
My husband David and I have our sites on this year's CIM. I would suggest that we run together but you're too fast for me. You helped me to a PR in last year's Shamrock'n. I don't know if you remember running with us a bit between mile 9-12. That race is still my PR half at 3:06. I'm not as worried about the time limit on CIM. My friend Nancy came in at 6:17 and was just ahead of the roads opening. I figure if I'm just behind the roads opening in downtown, I will be ok. Either way, I'm doing it not matter what.
You and your family are amazing and like Heather, I was also wiping tears from my face. You are all so inspiring. ~Karyn
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