I've heard it many times, "life is a marathon not a sprint." I didn't fully understand that saying until after running my first marathon.
Throughout my training, my coach would tell us, "on any given run you will have your ups and downs, some runs you'll feel great all the way through, some runs you might only feel good for the first mile, and other runs you will have a mixture of both." This mental nugget was helpful for me, in a couple of ways. First, it made me realize I'm not the only one who has great runs and not so great runs sometimes, I'm not alone. Second, I realized that if I can run through a bad patch undoubtedly I will eventually get through to the other side of it.
While I was training to run the Boston Marathon for Tedy's Team and the American Stroke Association, I met my dear friend Melissa. We ran our first training run together (that's when we met), it was supposed to be six miles but we went the scenic seven and a half. Any training run after that through to the marathon finish line we were side by side, chatting, listening, laughing, singing, cursing or just running. It wasn't just Melissa and I though, she and I have the fortune to run the same pace, but there's Nate, together we make up the "Boston Three Party." And to top it off there was, Angela, Jackie, Jenn, Jenn, Johnnie, Matty, Melinda, Nick and Page that was the Saturday crew. We shared the experience together, the joy, the pain, and heartbreak hill (numerous times)! My point is, we did it together. It doesn't matter that we all ran difference paces, we all had a common goal and were cheerleaders for each other.
Throughout the five hours eighteen minutes and seven seconds that it took me to run the marathon I ran the gamut of emotions. It was like being on a roller coaster that I was powering. Sounds fun right?! When I look back on it it was and I'll do it again. There are some of things that really stick out for me on Marathon Monday. It was hot. The water stops on the left side of the road were way less crowded. For whatever reason, mile 11 is where I remember everything that went wrong did but I could be totally wrong. At mile 11, Melissa's iPod stopped working so I turned my music off (we always ran with one ear in) , my hip flexor issue kicked in and my blister started. I think I hate mile 11. When we got to mile 16 it was familiar territory, Woodland, the T-stop in Newton where heartbreak hill commences, that was a boost! I liked knowing where we were and it meant only four more miles until we saw our coach, John. After seeing John which was awesome, only one more mile until we reached our families!! I had a great surprise right before we hit our families, my best friend greeted me with hugs and kisses and waved me on to where David, my mom, her husband, my sister in law, niece and nephew and Melissa's family were. It was just what the doctor ordered!! I needed that! I never thought of quitting but I was dreading continuing, I wanted it to be over. The high from seeing them lasted about three miles for me. The last two miles were grueling. Boylston Street has never felt so long in my life. The team photographer told us plenty of times "look up when you get to the Lenox," I knew if we got to the Lenox we were getting to the finish. Obviously, we did and it was one of the greatest feelings of accomplishment. Almost as great as delivering my babies!
This is what I feel we need in life, people to go through it with, our friends, our family. The people that will pick you up when you fall, cheer you on through your own personal heartbreak hills, know your flaws and still love you, the people that let you know you're not alone. I am blessed with wonderful people in my life. Life is a marathon, there will be ups and downs and I believe the downs make me appreciate the ups. Sometimes it's grueling and painful but what's happiness having never known pain. There's a high that comes with hard work, I like that high. Now the question is, what's next?
