I have to start this post by first talking about my team! As most of you know, I started a run team called Team Run4TheKids 3 years ago. Each year we have grown and raised more money for St. Jude. This year our team quickly grew to over 70 members! That number includes kids of team members that also ran in Memphis and contributed to the whopping $50,000 we raised! Yes, you read that right. We raised slightly over $50,000 this year!!
Even I get tired during the year asking people for donations. Sometimes I want to just take a break. Raising money is hard work, BUT then I'm always hit by the reminder of all those kids fighting cancer. I'm sure they get tired and they probably just want to say .. "I'm over this.. I'm taking a break..etc". But they don't! They NEVER give up. They fight constantly. So when I'm feeling burnt out on raising money or asking for donations, I remind myself of why I'm doing it. It's not for me or about me. IT'S FOR THE KIDS.
I had hoped our team would reach $40,000 earlier in the year and was simply blown away on race week when our total hit $50,000. God sure shows out when he wants to. Doesn't he? :>) After seeing that total, I was even more anxious to get to Memphis to run for those sweet kids. All week the forecast for the weekend was not looking good at all. It was calling for rain on race day. :(
I wasn't going to let a little rain get me down though! There is always a silver lining to the clouds! This year was even more special for me because my mom and daughter were both doing the 5K as heroes! We left Thursday when I got off work and headed to Memphis to stay at our favorite place the Peabody. Oh how beautiful it was again this year! They go all out with the Christmas decorations.
Friday was beautiful. We kept saying how we wished that had been race day. It was perfect. We had thought about going to see Graceland after leaving the race expo, but decided to rest our legs. I let my mom shop at the expo. She was thrilled to get her a Christmas ornament with her name and 5K written on it. I soaked up her joy of her first time. It was thrilling to listen to her talk about the race.
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| Erin, Mom & me at Expo |
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| Sellers tribe! So proud of ALL! My SIL is 6 months prego and she completed the half marathon along with my niece (her daughter)! |
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| Erin at the van that everyone painted on at the expo |
Friday night pasta dinner for heroes is always special to me. It's not about the free pasta meal, it's every year I learn something new. This year a parent of a St. Jude patient spoke about her daughter. It was very touching. See her daughter didn't survive cancer. She had recently passed away, so I can't even image how hard it must of been for her to stand up there in front of 2,300 people and speak. My eyes were once again filled with tears. Something she said really stuck. Did you know that on average 1.5 families walk into St. Jude's door 7 days a week and hear the words "your child has cancer"? WOW! that is 7 days a week! Even on Christmas day someone will hear the words, "your child has cancer". Now if that isn't a reason to become a hero for St. Jude then I don't know what is. This neat picture was taken during the dinner where we were asked to turn on our phone flashlights and hold them up. This is us showing light of hope. I'm honored to be in this picture. That's what heroes do..they give these kids a light of hope to fight their cancer. Check it out.
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| Me and mom at pasta dinner |
Friday night is usually the night I'm getting all my stuff out so on race morning all I got to do is grab it while they (mom & Erin) normally sleep. Well, not this year! It was so much fun watching them debate on what they were going to wear and them laying out all their stuff in a neat little area in our room. They were both excited. Even my daughter joked how in the past she had always moaned when I would wake them up getting ready early for the race and now they would be up earlier than me because their 5K started at 7am and my marathon didn't start till 8:30am! YIPPIE.
Race morning was cold, windy and COLD. The rain had not started and we all were hoping it would hold off until we finished the marathon. The sky was GREY. Not a peak of the sun. I walked mom & Erin to the start line, grabbed a picture of them and then went back to my room to stay warm.
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| Leaving the hotel for start line. |
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| They ready to start the 5K |
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| Aren't they cute! |
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| Can you tell my mom & Erin had fun? :>) |
I ended up missing a couple of my teammates that I normally like to run with before the marathon started. I guess most of us were in our rooms waiting until the last minute due to the cold and several went to see their children at the 5K. I did however, get with Shine. We had previously discussed that we would run together. She told me that it would be slow. Said she had only gotten in a 15-16 mile training run due to her going back to work. The dang oil field crash as affected so many of my friends!
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| CRAZY PIC B4 RACE |
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| JUST 23,000 RUNNERS |
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| ALL SMILES BEFORE THE WORK STARTED! |
Shine and I started out a little too fast in my opinion. We both felt good. I love to run when it's cooler temps. However, by the halfway mark we had slowed down a good bit and even ended up walking most of the last 7-8 miles. She even started a song at each mile .... "20 mile shuffle.." ha OH and did I mention that the misting of rain started about halfway into our marathon!! GRRRR
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| We ran into some reindeer |
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| Even Santa ran |
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| Santa cheering us |
I had ditched my gloves early on when my hands got warm thinking the temp would continue to warm up. That DID NOT happen! It felt as if it got colder the longer we ran. My fingers were numb the last 5-6 miles. I couldn't even tear open a peanut butter pouch. My fingers would not work right. I was so ready to be done. I must say that it was the first marathon I've done where I've been that cold at the end.
The cheers you get from families standing out on the street at the St. Jude Hospital is simply amazing. I can barely run thru the campus without crying every year. One kid was wrapped up in his wheelchair holding a sign that said, "you are helping save my life". Talk about getting chocked up! Shine and I were hollering out thank you to all of them for being out in the cold damp weather to cheer us and one boy hollered back real loudly... "NO, THANK YOU!". At that point I couldn't hold it together. Shine either. We couldn't even look at each other we were so chocked up. That just motivated us to keep pushing even with our bodies wanting to quit. You know they say sometimes the biggest problem is in your head! You've got to BELIEVE. I tell that to all my friends that ask me how do you actually run 26.2 miles.
We ended up doing a 5:42 marathon. My longest time, but hey I finished. That's all that counts really. I do sometimes have a person's voice in the back of my head saying "race results are forever on the Internet and people look at your times", but I just laugh now when I hear that voice. I think I've mellowed since turning 50. Hee Hee. My only goal is to finish and cross that finish line. I'm proud of Sunshine. We could have turned at the half, but we didn't. We were determined to do the full marathon. A couple of times she asked if we were going to finish in the 6 hour time limit and I would reassure her we were going to. Even if I had to pull her across the finish line. :>) That's that teammates do, right?
The cheers you get from families standing out on the street at the St. Jude Hospital is simply amazing. I can barely run thru the campus without crying every year. One kid was wrapped up in his wheelchair holding a sign that said, "you are helping save my life". Talk about getting chocked up! Shine and I were hollering out thank you to all of them for being out in the cold damp weather to cheer us and one boy hollered back real loudly... "NO, THANK YOU!". At that point I couldn't hold it together. Shine either. We couldn't even look at each other we were so chocked up. That just motivated us to keep pushing even with our bodies wanting to quit. You know they say sometimes the biggest problem is in your head! You've got to BELIEVE. I tell that to all my friends that ask me how do you actually run 26.2 miles.
We ended up doing a 5:42 marathon. My longest time, but hey I finished. That's all that counts really. I do sometimes have a person's voice in the back of my head saying "race results are forever on the Internet and people look at your times", but I just laugh now when I hear that voice. I think I've mellowed since turning 50. Hee Hee. My only goal is to finish and cross that finish line. I'm proud of Sunshine. We could have turned at the half, but we didn't. We were determined to do the full marathon. A couple of times she asked if we were going to finish in the 6 hour time limit and I would reassure her we were going to. Even if I had to pull her across the finish line. :>) That's that teammates do, right?
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| Shine taking off her shoe...foot bothering her again.. hee hee |
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| WE FINISHED!!! |
Took me and hour to warm up. I went back to my room and sat in a hot tub forever until I could finally work my fingers. Mom, Erin and I went out for an early supper and was back at the Peabody having coffee and desserts by 8pm. The rain never stopped. We decided not to go walk on Beale or try to go see any Christmas lights due to the rain. We were all laid up in bed by 9pm. Guess we all getting OLD.. hee hee
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| St. Jude Dessert made at Peabody |
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| Can you tell she's happy. LOVE |
I'm so proud of my mom and Erin for doing the 5K. It was my mom's first 5K! She was so proud of her medal. I'm also so proud of the team. We had a couple that either had to switch to the half instead of the full due to injury or didn't get to come to Memphis... BUT each one of them helped raise that $50,000! AMAZING!
I'm ready to start planning 2017. I have people ask me sometimes if I'm going to keep doing this every year and my response is.. "YES, AS LONG AS GOD ALLOWS ME TO RUN/WALK, I WILL BE AT ST. JUDE IN MEMPHIS WITH A TEAM."
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| 4 Years of being a hero and MORE to come! |
What's the meaning of life? Are we here for a reason? YES... I believe one reason is to help others. I will continue to help St. Jude kids as long as possible.
Happy training peeps! Remember... consistency is the key. We all have bad days. Just don't give up! I've got to get ready for Dopey now and one more half marathon before the end of the year. Oh and Mom's doing the 5K with me at Disney too! Can't wait!!
MUAH, D
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