mom's story
Oklahoma was a great trip for me. The Route 66 Marathon in Tulsa marked my 20th race in my 15th state this year. Over a quarter of the journey completed and still going strong. The trip began with a 9 hour drive to St. Louis, and then an early (3:30am) trip to Tulsa to set up for Friday’s Health Expo.
Day one at the Expo was relatively slow, however the many people that I spoke with were very interested in our story and helping to find cures for Optic Nerve Disease. I met several individuals who had family and friends who they believed to also be affected by OND’s. While I am always saddened to see people affected by the loss of their sight, it is comforting to see more and more people understanding what people are going through and wanting to help out with the cause. After a LONG day one at the expo, I headed off to my CouchSurfing friends place for a much needed extra long sleep.
Day two of the Route 66 Health and Fitness Expo was much busier and gave me more opportunities to meet and greet with the thousands of runners who would be braving the streets of Tulsa for the Full Marathon, Half Marathon, 5k, and kids one mile fun run. I spent 8 hours talking to people non stop raising money and awareness. Not only were the runners great to me, but so to were all the vendors around me. I want to thank the ladies who fed me on Saturday to make sure I would have the energy survive the day and have the energy for the run Sunday.
After two long days, the race day was finally upon me. I was up early and arrived at the race an hour be
fore the run. I felt good, and thanks to my host was ready to go. The weather was a big warm for a marathon, but the “breeze” seemed to cool things down a bit. Once on the course though, around the 10k mark, it was clear that today was not going to be the best of runs for me. After a week of being sick, 15 hours of driving, and two full days working at the health expo, my body just didn’t have the energy for this type of run. Because of the fact that there was an actual death during the event, I will not go into the details of my struggles throughout the run, because they are not relevant in the grand scheme of things. I will say that I managed to push through my pain and finished the race.
My goal was to complete a marathon on my 30th birthday, and I did. It was a great day for me, but a devastating one for the family of a young man, who after seeing a picture in the paper, looks like one of the many people I spoke with at the race. My thoughts and prayers go out to his family. We all forget sometimes just how precious life is, and on this day I am reminded that everyday is a gift and we should live it to the fullest and do what we love. That being said I will be spending this holiday season with family and friends, and will be back doing what I love … Running and helping fight for a good cause.
Check out pictures from this weeks race on our facebook page at: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=45479&id=172123116132894&ref=mf
