Saturday, March 27, 2010

Accomplished.

I just texted my Jamaican sprinter: "Can you bring Advil?"

Let's back up shall we? This morning at o dark hundred hours, literally, I was off for the longest run I had ever done, 14 miles. As I took off, I knew I had to run at least decent, I had to be somewhere this morning and couldn't be late. "Hi I was late because my jiggly butt couldn't run any faster" wasn't going to cut it. So I ran and I thought to myself, in less then 2 hours and 15 minutes I will be home in the shower, I hope. This was a run I knew I had to do, just for the sheer fact of knowing I could run more then 13 miles.

At mile 7 I saw a clock in a business I was running by, 8:07am. NOOOOOOOOOOOOO! I was running so slow the grandma next to me could have passed me. How could this happen? I didn't think I was running that bad. I knew if I didn't step it up I wouldn't be able to make my time cutoff and I would have to stop early. What could be worse then that? Hi I just ran 12.5 miles and I just didn't have time to run any further. Ugh! This was not happening, I thought. Then, as if God heard my frustration, at mile 7.75 I saw a bank clock, 8:04am. "Wait, what? What time was it? Ah, I am so confused." Nothing is worst then being completely dead to the world tired and being confused. You have no brain power to be able to reason and figure out what time it actually is. To my happiness on a downhill stretch I figured out it was actually 8:04am. Thank you Jesus! At mile 8 I saw A with water, I was feeling horrible. Sick to my stomach and slow, so slow. When he asked how I was doing, this disgusting noise came out of my mouth, "Ahhhh ewwww, nrothfuierebfd, horrible." I am sure it took AA everything in him to a) not laugh and b) slap me in the butt like a cow and tell me to "keep moving slacker!" Let me just say I love him, because he chose not to do either of those.

At mile 11 A found me again, I got some water, and I tried to figure out how I was going to wrap my brain around running three more miles. But you know the great part, I didn't have to. Sing it with me.... "just keep running, just keep running." A would tell me when to turn around and when I could stop. Thank goodness because I did not have one brain cell left to figure out anything other then right foot, left foot, repeat.

At mile 13 I was going to check my watch to see my time, to see if I had run a half marathon in less then 2 hours, something I had never done before. But then I remembered, a half marathon was 13.1 miles. So I watched my watch for .1 miles, hoping that if a dog, person or small child was coming right for me, my Jamaican sprinter would help out. At 13.1 miles I looked at the time....1 hour 59 minutes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I tried to tell A and I think I did, but to tell you the truth I have no idea what came out of my mouth, because the guy walking the opposite direction from me gave me the worst look once I got done mumbling whatever I did.

Then with 1 mile to go I realized that I had done it. Something that I had told so many I could never do. After that 1 miles, I had ran 14 miles. I know I will still need to run 12 MORE miles for the full marathon, but small victories people, small victories.

Do you want to know something so funny? No, well fine go away! But for those of you that do, I can clearly remember when I finished my first 4 miles. I had never ran that far, EVER. That was years ago when I was training for my first half marathon. I called Yenster to tell her and again I think it took everything in her body not to laugh. Small victories people.

Thank you Jesus for getting me through this run today. Lord I pray the pain I have in my feet, neck and head go away. Lord I pray that my running can somehow glorify You. Lord I love You so much. Thank You for today.

1 comment:

  1. Yea!!! Shelb's!!!! I love how A finds you along the way and I totally understand the inability to figure things out when you are dead tired! 'Life's Short, Run Long!'

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