Half Marathon #31 - St. Jude Memphis 12-2-17

I'm a tad late in writing this post.  I just can't seem to find the proper words to describe this race to me.  And maybe it's also a combination of having two deaths in our family recently.  I just seem to be at a loss and my emotions are all over the place.  Let me first say this is the 5th year in a row that I've ran for St. Jude.  From the very first time I was just blown away.  This race is so much more than running.  It's for a great cause.  

After watching my stepson recently pass away from an accident, this race even touches me more and I didn't think that was possible.  I truly can't imagine a parent dealing with a child that has cancer for months on end.  Going week after week for treatments that cause their children to be so sick.  It's heart wrenching.  It changes you forever to lose a child.  So as long as God is willing, I will be a ST. JUDE HERO and raise money so that maybe one day St. Jude can put an end to childhood cancer so that ALL kids may live out their life as a normal child.  

As we are coming to the close of 2017 and many of you are setting new goals for 2018, I encourage you to think about becoming a hero for St. Jude Children's Hospital.  There are many races you can pick from to run as a hero.  I've done Nashville and Memphis.  I LOVE Memphis because it is the home of St. Jude Children's Hospital.  This year there were over 26,000 runners that ran on 12-2-17.   It was amazing.  And we'd love to have you join Team Run4TheKids when you sign up as a hero.  

For the first time in 5 years, I did the half marathon instead of the full marathon.  With so many personal issues over the last 6 months I just didn't have the time to train for a full.  I was bummed about it at first, but then I remembered that this race is NOT about ME.  It's about the kids.  So no matter if you ran the 5K, 10K, half marathon or the full marathon as a hero... you were a HERO! 

Here are some of my favorite pictures from the weekend.  Every year I take my mom and daughter and we have a girls weekend at the Peabody.  They do the 5K together.  I'm so BLESSED with a wonderful family and great running friends. 

Going into the hospital...check out the crowd!

My daughter.. love her!

My mom and daughter after they finished the 5K.

Her name is Erin so of course she got a picture with the big E 

Elizabeth finishing her first half marathon with Sunshine's help.

Erin, Me and Mom took a carriage ride back to the Peabody... so cool. 

In front of the giant Christmas tree at the Peabody. 

My crazy mom. 

This is what it's all about!!!! Every time I run through the campus of St. Jude Hospital I have tears flowing. 

Sunshine.. :<>)

Our team raised over $30,000 this year!  So let me just recap the last 5 years for you on Team R4TK:

2013 - (just me)  $5,000

2014  - (team formed)  $23,000

2015 -  $43,000

2016 - $50,000

2017 - $30,000

Do you realize that is $151,000! WOW! I'm so amazed by my team members!  They are incredible people who give up so much of their personal time and money to be St. Jude HEROES.  GOD BLESS THEM ALL! 

THIS WAS THE TOTAL RAISED BY ALL HEROES!

MY MEDAL

My time.... not too bad considering my training has been mostly walking for several months... ha  and I took videos along the way.  Here's the link to the video I made:
St. Jude Memphis weekend 2017 Team R4TK

Looking forward to 2018 with Team R4TK.  Stay tuned for fundraisers we'll be having during the year to help us reach our hero goals. :<>)

Much love,
D

PS... post coming soon on Gulf Coast half marathon... Last one for 2017. 

Half Marathon #30 - RnR Las Vegas (Run the Strip at Night)

Run the Strip at Night! Half marathon #30 for me!

I had never been to Vegas so to say I was excited for months about this race would be an understatement.  However, 2 weeks prior to the race we lost my stepson.  It has been devastating to our family.  It was totally unexpected.  A freak accident!  So the week before the race I told my husband I would not go with my girlfriends to Vegas and stay home.  He told me there was no reason for me to cancel.  I had the trip planned for months and there was nothing I could do at home.  So I decided to go on with my friends in hope that it would take my mind off the situation for maybe just the weekend.  My husband's dad had just passed 3 months prior and now my husband's son.  Seems we've done nothing but cry at our house for months.  I even tried to get Gary to go with me so maybe he would get his mind off things for just a bit, but he said there was nothing going to help him.  He's lost a big part of himself.  He says he'll never be the same.  And I feel that I'd feel the same way if it was one of my kids.  My heart is just so heavy for the whole Clayton family.  I didn't even pack until the day we left for the trip.  Once on the plane I was so afraid I had left something because my mind just wasn't on the race.  I discovered I did actually leave something! My GoPro!!  I had charged it all morning and had a brand new memory card it in ready to go.  I was so sad because I had heard how much entertainment would be on the strip as we ran.  

We arrived late Friday night in Las Vegas.  We were tired and ready for bed.  A couple months before the half they offered a remix challenge.  If you did the 5K on Saturday night and the half or full marathon Sunday night, you would get an extra medal.  Of course us girls signed up.  This pictures says it all:

We LOVE some medals. :>) Penny would be doing the full marathon and Jennifer and I were doing the half marathon and all 3 of us were doing the 5K... so we all did the Remix Challenge. 

Count down till race time.  Jennifer is like 11 years younger than me, but she still allows me to hang out with her. :>) We had a blast! She helped take my mind off being so sad. 

Jennifer had not been to Vegas since she was a child and since I had never been we ended up walking like 15 miles Saturday during the day touring the city and getting to the expo which took forever!  The expo was so crowded when we got there that you could barely move around.  

Our view from our room... notice the coaster!

Our hotel / Casino ... we were directly at the start line for the half & full marathon on Sunday night. 

Beautiful statues all around town! My post would be huge if I posted all 350 pictures I took. LOL

Then we did the 5K that night.  Boy I was exhausted!!! I had no idea how I was going to do the half the next night! But we all 3 did!

Our 5K start photo.

Jennifer and I had someone capture this at the elevator going back to our room after the race.  Our 5K medals.  The 5K was not on the strip.  To me it was boring.  There were like 2,700 people in the 5K so it was not your normal little 5K back home.  I only did it for the extra medal. ha

We decided after cleaning up to go down to Fremont street.  Penny had mentioned it and of course we wanted to try to see everything in our short weekend.  I suggested an Uber so we would not have to walk.  Fremont Street was way down the end of the strip which meant about a 5 mile hike there and a 5 mile hike back.  That wasn't happening after all the miles we had already done on our feet that day! 

Fremont Street to me is just a party area... or it appeared to be that way Saturday night!  We saw some things that I'd rather not even mention. LOL  One lady was dancing in the middle of the street with nothing but a pair of shorts on.  And let's just say that she needed something to hold her top half up! 

You can zip line down the street at Fremont.  The roof is pretty cool.  We didn't zip line.  We basically just walked through to see what was there. 

We took a taxi back to the Belliago to see the fountains and the cost was almost double the Uber cost and the fountains were like half way to our hotel! So go Uber if you can! 

Oh the Strip at night is beautiful 

Everything was so CLEAN!

The fountains were amazing! You must see them at night!

We walked back to our room trying to find a place to eat.  Everything was so crowded.  We needed up at Taps in the MGM.  The hamburger alone was $19.50!  I was starving so I gladly paid the $19.50.  I knew I needed to eat because it had been hours since we had eaten anything and we had a half marathon to run the next day! LOL  

Sunday when we got up we decided to use the monorail to save our legs.  We also didn't try to rush around to see so much.  We only had a few places that we didn't get to on Saturday so we took our time.  I have so many pictures I could post, but I'll spare you. :<>)

Inside the Bellagio... you must go see.. they change it out every season.. nothing but flowers!

Inside Caesars Palace... the statues are amazing. 

 Our plan was to go back to our room around lunch time and maybe take a quick nap before we had to go to the start line for the half marathon.  They required everyone be at the start gates no later than 4:10pm for the 4:30pm start.  We go there around 3:30pm and it as so crowded and so much security due to the recent shooting in Vegas.  Took us forever to get inside our corral and then we were so tight in the corrals you could not bend/stretch or anything.  You just had room to stand.  My knees were killing me standing for like 35 minutes straight before starting.  Here is a video of the start:

Vegas Start Line

As you can see we were in there like sardines at the start line! 

 Penny was in corral 5.  She was doing the full and wanted to stay in that corral so she could make her 5 hour time limit.  Jennifer moved into corral 11 with me.  I told her she did not need to stay with me.  I planned to do my jog/walk program.  She said she wanted to practice that program in case she decided to use it for her first full next year, so she ended up staying with me the whole time.  It was nice to have someone to talk to especially around mile 10 when I was getting tired.  It was strange how I was able to run after all we had done sightseeing.  It was mainly just the bottom of my feet that were just plan sore.  Like they were bruised.  LOL  

The first 4 miles were quiet.  No bands, no entertainment, just quiet..... because we ran directly by the place where the shoot happen a few weeks ago (Mandalay Bay).  At the expo they had this huge banner made that people could sign and they placed in on the side of the street where we ran.  It was so cool.  I prayed for the victims families as we past this part.  What is the world coming to with all these shootings?  It's got to be close to time for Jesus to come back!

After the 4 quiet miles we were on the strip with all kinds of entertainment and people were lined down the streets cheering for us.  It was AMAZING.  Probably the most fun besides the NY marathon that I've ran.  So much crowd support.  It made it easy to run. I so wish I had my GoPro!  I could have made so many cute videos of the strip!  Oh well.. maybe next time. :>)

We finished in 2:36 (I believe... I forgot to stop my watch when we crossed).  The time surprised me with my jog/walk program.  

 Jennifer and I after the race.  Penny was still running... doing her 26.2 miles!  She did finish in her time limit!  I'm so proud of her! I don't think I could have ran 26.2 miles even if I had been in better  shape after all the sightseeing we did. 

 Our half and remix medal. 

We had booked a show close by our hotel.  I had thought we would have plenty of time after the half to get back to our hotel for a nice shower.  That didn't happen!  It took forever to get out of the race exit and back to our hotel.  We had like 45 minutes which included 15 minutes we needed to get back over to the MGM.  You couldn't just walk across the street! You had to take these fancy stairs/escalators and walk ways over the road so it was like a maze getting every where.  We had not eaten any supper either!  We took a quick spit bath.  We just barely made it to the show on time.  It was Fabulous! 

I highly recommend seeing a show if you go to Vegas.  I would have loved to see Celine...but we just didn't have time!

It was midnight by the time we got back to our room.  We didn't even eat supper.  We had popcorn at the show. LOL  Our tour bus for the Hoover Dam, Route 66 and Grand Canyon was picking us up at 6am on Monday so we needed to get in the bed. 

All I can say about our tour is ..... IT WAS AMAZING!!! I was in awe the whole time!  First the Hoover Dam!  Amazing ... man made!  Then Route 66 that use to be the main highway from Illinois to California! And then on to the Grand Canyon where we got to hike for 2 hours.  One of the 7 natural wonders of the world!  It was breathtaking!  I could not believe that I had never been there before!  Several times Drew's (my stepson) smile flashed in my mind and I fought back tears.  He loved planning trips with his girls.  I know he was smiling down at me being in such awe of everything. 

If God can create something this beautiful, I know that one day all our broken hearts will be healed.  We've just got to find the faith to stay strong in God's word.  

I had a fabulous time in Vegas with my friends.  But I was also ready go get home and check on my husband.  The grief of losing a child is just wrong.  It should not happen.  I pray for strength for Drew's wife, his 3 girls, his mom & dad, his brother, his grandmothers and everyone else that LOVED him.  He was a rare gem! I will forever miss him!

This is one of my favorites of them on one of their trips. 

They had just had their Christmas photos made before his accident.  Drew... I've told your dad he must continue to tell your girls stories about you so that they will always have a strong memory of their wonder dad!  Drew always had a smile on his face and was so kind and humble to every person he meet.  So many are mourning him.  I'm not sure my husband will ever get over this loss.

I want to say thanks to so many friends that I know are praying for the Clayton family! MUAH

Love,
D

P.S. The St. Jude Memphis race weekend is just 15 days away.  This year I'll be doing the half.  Due to all that's been going on in my life recently, there had not been enough time for me to train for a full.  I will however run strong for those precious kids of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital!  As of today, Team Run4TheKids has raised slightly over $26,000!  That makes around $130,000 over the 4 years that I've had this team.  Thank you God! We owe it all to you for allowing us to run and raise money for these kids.  

Hub City Hustle ~ Swim - Bike - Run ~

Hub City Hustle TRI -- last TRI for me in 2017 

LOVE THE SHIRT

  I was actually registered in the past for this race and decided not to do it at the last minute.  I believe because the MCM (Marine Corps Marathon) was the same month and I didn't want to risk a bike wreck.  I had heard the bike course was tough and hilly.  So this year I was looking forward to doing the race with no marathons directly after it.  It's local which meant no travel expenses. Yippie.  And the swim is in a lake where I skied almost every weekend as a teenager.  Race week however, I began to get nervous.  Everyone was talking about how hard the bike course was going to be.  So that plus me not really running (still doing my jog/walk intervals)... made me nervous about finishing within a decent time.  

Kathy texted me the night before to see what time I would be at the race site the next morning.  She likes to be early.  She always says she has nervous energy she needs to work out.  Heck... so do I when it comes to a TRI! I wish I could remember her exact words to another girl during the run segment.  The subject came up about how hard the run is and Kathy reminded the lady that the run for a TRI is not like a typical 5K race where you line up and just run.  We had to swim, then bike, and run last.... so it's basically a Swim, Bike, RUN. ...   Your legs feel differently after you've done two other sports before the run.  And they feel really different after a hard bike ride!

I arrived at race site .. Paul B. Johnson state park and Kathy was already basically set up and ready. :>)  She wanted to go jump in the water and get a little warm up swim so I quickly got my stuff in transition and we headed to the water.  Here's a picture of her by our bikes.

 She was pumped and ready to go.

My Bib

The water felt great.  Several people were out testing the water which made it nice.  I tend to get scared in dark water all alone.  I mean there are fish and stuff in there that can bite you!  I figure the more people in the water scares them away.  LOL  I remember when I was a teenager skiing in the lake, I would pray not to fall because the whole time I had to wait for the boat to turn around and come back and get me, I was kicking my feet / skis like crazy to keep stuff away from me. :>) 

Soon it was time for the race start.  We had to line up in number order.  Somehow I was in the 30s and they (Kathy, Serina, & JoAnn) were like in the late 70s.   I told them not to drown me as they swam past me. :>)   The swim started ok and then I was pushed under by another swimmer that was almost swimming on top of me.  I took in a ton of water and got chocked! It was all I could to to catch my breath.  I knew I didn't need to be up front with those fast swimmers!  Anyway, I turned over on my back and reminded myself of what Frosty said in the movie Chasing Mavericks.... Fear is ok, put Panic will kill ya.   So I begin taking deep breaths while still coughing from choking and trying to relax.  I spotted a canoe coming over and told myself I had to get a grip or he was going to pull me out.  So I turned back over and began swimming again.  I told myself to count 15-20 strokes and then raise my head to sight and just keep it steady.  Once I begin counting and focusing on that, I relaxed.  I didn't push it and just swam steady.  You may be physically strong, but you've also got to have your mind right to survive.  That's one reason I always talk about having a positive outlook.  Think positive .. no negatives.  When I exited the water my watch said 14 minutes.  I'd love to be around 10-12 minutes, but was happy to be at 14 at the moment.  We had to run up a hill to transition and the clock was still going on swim time because they didn't have the timing mat until the top of the hill before going into the transition area.  Oh it hurt my feet going up that hill! There were acorns and stuff on the ground.  Thankfully they had a few pieces of carpet at the very top to help.  When I finally crossed the mat, my watch said 14:50 on time.  I also noticed that none of my friends were in yet because their bikes were still on the rack.  I quickly got on my helmet and shoes and took off on the bike.  
Everyone said the first hill going out was a monster.... and YES it was!!! I was almost to the top when I passed a young guy .. His calf said 32 (yes, they put your age on your calf in TRI races) and he was huffing and puffing.  Which so was I, but I was still climbing.  I turned and told him they were not joking about the hill and he grinned and said GEEZ this is hard.  It made this 51 year old feel good to know that a younger person also had the same thoughts I was having at that moment.  :>)  
The bike course continued with continuous hills for 20 miles! I kept expecting Kathy to pass me at any moment.  She's very strong on the bike and I figured Serina may be hanging with JoAnn since this was her first TRI.  I finally pulled into transition and as soon has I got off my bike running in.....guess who came in behind me.. Kathy! We congratulated each other on a great bike ride and begin getting our running shoes on.  I left out of transition slightly ahead of her but knew she'd catch me on the run before too long.  It was probably about 3/4 mile into the run and she came up behind me.  I was stopping to walk some and she stopped too.  I told her to go on and not wait on me.  She just smiled and we walked together and then ran together.  We did this the entire run.  I ran way more than I had expected too.  I ignored my beeps on my watch which tell me when to walk and when to jog.  I so enjoyed having company and even when I wanted to walk, I continued on with her.  It's been so long since we ran together.  We chatted off and on and even meet up with Amanda who ran with us for a little while too.  Finally we had one more hill to run up with the finish line at the top of the hill.  Kathy asked me if I was ready to just run it on in and I told her I'd try my best.... she was  slightly ahead of me crossing ...... because boy I was tired by this point.  :<>)   I was so glad to cross that finish line!  This sprint TRI is slightly longer than most and I was thrilled to finish in 2 hours 3 minutes.

Kathy and I hung out at the finish line to cheer in Serina and JoAnn.  Serina wasn't too far behind us!  The three of us cheered JoAnn in and it was so nice to see her complete her first.  I had no doubt she would finish.  Heck she was in the military so I know she's tough!  We grabbed a couple of pictures afterwards.  

Waiting at the finish line for Jo Jo

All 4 of us .. Kathy, Serina, Me, & Jo Jo

Me and Serina

Kathy took this and said.. "you'll love the background". :>) 

JoJo Finishing! So Proud of her!

Serina coming in to the finish!

Me, Kathy, Amanda, & Serina ..... We took Amanda in... she was missing her swamp donkeys. :>)

Kathy placed 3rd in her age group.  Serina got 1st place in the Athena Division and Amanda and I got placed 4th in our age groups.  Below are my times.. I'm in age group 50-54:

Didn't even notice until I looked at this pic, but my cousin that is in age group 55-59 got 1st place.  I talked to her briefly at the race and wish I had grabbed a picture of us.  I was so focused on waiting for Jo Jo to finish I totally forgot about Pam being at the race after it started.  I have a one track mind sometimes. :<(

So that's a wrap for TRIs this year for me.  Not sure which ones I'll be doing next year .... however I sure hope to do Augusta next year.  It will be the 10th anniversary for the ironman race in Augusta, Ga and I'd love to be there.

MUAH! D