Some days you run for you..... and some days you run for others!

Y'all knew they'd be a blog post after the race today... Didn't ya? :<>)

Let me start by saying .. WOW!! What an incredible experience!  All week I was so excited, but also a little nervous.  It's a big deal to take someone else's child and push them during a half marathon and maybe a bigger deal to take a child with disabilities.  First of all two hours is a long time.  Some of these kids can get upset at the smallest things.  Not knowing the child personally can make it even harder.  You may not know the right words or actions to use if the child was to become upset, agitated or even sick during the race.  So yes, I was nervous.

Friday night I ran to get my race shirt and bib and just happen to meet the mother of the little girl that I was supposed to help push.  OH ....the mother was so excited for her child! She said Mackenzie was a real joy and that she would love the race.  She told me how she was non-verbal, but that I would be able to understand her if she tried to tell me something.  This mother really put me at ease.  I went home and felt really good about pushing her daughter.  She had laughed and told me that her daughter who is 8 was going to do a half marathon before her.

Well then this morning when I arrived for our meeting with the Ainsley Angel group and parents for our instructions pre-race, we were informed that little Mackenzie was sick and wasn't going to make it.  My heart just sank.  Her mother was so very excited about this opportunity.  We were told that they would try to get us a kid.  I was thinking there is no way at 6am that they'd find one ready to ride....... BUT I was wrong! Christie, who is a parent of one of the children and also a triathlete!, told me that they had Drew coming.  She assured me that he'd be fine.  He arrived and was ready to get in the chair and go.  Our team had the biggest chair! It was like a LIMO compared to the others.  It was long and big. :>)  Drew would just smile every time I asked him if he was ready to go.  OH and it was windy and COLD.  We were all freezing standing around.  Even Brody, Christie's son, said it was COLD> :>)

We started 5 minutes before the other racers.  We decided that we would switch every mile on who was pushing so that no one person pushed for a long time.  I was very excited about that after my first mile push. hee hee  Boy them hills were TOUGH! When we started out we were going like 9:30, 9:10, 9:15, ....... you get the picture..  I was like what the heck are we going so fast for when we got so many miles left to go.  I guess we were just excited.  We slowed down a little, but still maintained a pace slightly under 10 minutes even when we stopped and took pictures and drank water! So that just tells you that we didn't slow down much when actually running.  My sciatic nerve pain has been so bad the past few weeks that I was just hoping that I could finish without too much pain.  Somehow in all the excitement and sheer joy of watching Drew's face, I totally forgot my pain.

People would call out his name or give him a high five as we passed them and he ate it up!  It was awesome!!!  I'm so glad I took my GoPro and grabbed several pictures!  I made a video with several pictures in it.  I hope Drew gets to see it.  I think he'll LOVE it!  He love Seymour!

I don't know what me and Kathy would have done without Eric, our partner, on the hills.  He was so much taller than us that he could push his weight down on the stroller and push harder up the hills.  He did ease up the last 2 miles and as soon as the race was over he came up to us and said he just wanted to tell us that we were two of the toughest women he knew! Boy that made us smile! :>)  I told Kathy we got an upper and lower workout today!  She said we should get double miles on our team mileage challenge.  I agree.. hee hee  

I love what the ARC does in Hattiesburg and I LOVE that I was given the opportunity to be apart of pushing the kids.  It's something that I will cherish forever!  There was even one runner that came up to us during the race and asked if we needed break.  We told him we were fine, but what a nice gesture! I saw him again at the finish line and we congratulated each other and I wish I had gotten his name!

So another half in the books for 2016! If you ever get a chance to be apart of the Ainsley Angel group..... DO IT! I have a new respect for anybody that pushes a stroller for 13.1 miles!  And what beautiful scenery running through USM's campus today!

That's a wrap for now! Got to go take care of my son who had his wisdom teeth out yesterday.  Think I'll get him a big baked potatoe to eat.  He may be 22, but he's still my baby! My heart is so sad for a family in my hometown that lost a child yesterday in a car accident.  Please pray for them.  The grandfather was driving so it's going to be a hard road for them.  May God comfort them all.

Have a bless day! Love, D

Acts 20:35 By all these things, I have shown you that by working in this way we must help the weak, and remember the words of the Lord Jesus that he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.'”