what a weekend!!!

it's good when you finish a weekend with your family and you look back and you say to yourself... "i'm glad we did that."

as i mentioned before... scott & esther were phenomenal hosts. our time at the track watching "holme equity" was a lot of fun... and fascinating!

then esther threw a "simple" pre-race meal together for us. esther never does anything "simple"... or at least, her "simple" makes martha beg for more jail time. tasty appies... unbelievable chicken... homemade spaghetti sauce... amish sourcream apple pie from scratch (she apologized later for using a store bought crust). it was all incredible.

then race day...

3:00 a.m. - i'm awake... Lord... please help me go back to sleep!

5:15 a.m. - alarm

5:25 a.m. - get up... shave... clean-up... wake dave up

6:15 a.m. - personally chauffeured to the start line by scott...my private doctor... (not exactly sure why he insisted in taking the day off and following me around for the entire run... i probably would have felt better if he hadn't have carried his little black doctor bag and that AED device with him everywhere he went.)

7:10 a.m. - meet up with lance (westwinds elder and fellow early morning grumbler)

7:20 a.m. - meet up with old friends, ty & dave... pray together by buckingham fountain

7:30 a.m. - hmmmm... ...those trees over there look thirsty

7:35a.m. - line-up!

8:00 a.m. - the race begins!!! (at least... that's what they told us)

8:18 a.m. - we finally cross the "start" line after walking over tons of clothes stripped off by the runners ahead of us

then... for the next 5+ hours i pass mile after mile of cheering fans... volunteers galore... colorful runners like the super hero running group... the guy with the blonde afro and super tight blue jean 70's outfit... thing 1 & thing 2... mutant ninja turtles... and of course tons of charity runners and fans for lymphoma, american cancer society, st. jude, aids and on an on.

the music was great (best in the hispanic district though), weather was cool to cold, windy, but at least the rain held off.

awesome to run by my family on a couple of ocassions. (would have been more... if they hadn't have stopped at every starbucks along the route)

incredible to hear the cheers from westwinds on my phone during both fusions while i ran. and many many emails and voicemails that came in on my blackberry as i ran. all wonderful and encouraging. they really helped me keep my mind in the sane category.

mile 22 is where i began to really feel the pain. since i was running without my glasses... i had no hope of finding lance and dave. it gets quite humbling when the speed walkers are passing you... but my right knee was bothering me (which had never happened in training) and my left foot was giving me some trouble too.

people had warned me that there would come a point at which i would have to mentally work to just put one foot in front of the other. there was a guy with a bright orange illini hat and a cool running shirt a few feet ahead who was walking. he was much younger than i... and looked more fit than i... so i figured he must be having trouble... and so as i passed him i encouraged him a bit and kept running. after i did... i seconded guessed my words because i thought maybe if someone said something to me that i would have socked them.

not terribly far down the course, i started walking a bit... and it wasn't long before the guy with the orange hat and cool shirt passed me.

troubled that he was walking faster than i was... i started this mental game. i'd run past him until i couldn't take running anymore and would begin to walk. then he'd pass me... and whenever he'd get about 10 yards in front of me... i'd start running again. this repeated itself for pretty much the rest of the race. and at one point he encouraged me as he passed me... walking.

so, finally, we're both about a half mile out... and i ran up to him and thanked him for being my "mark" for the last few miles... and encouraged him that he had helped me finish. he quickly responded that i had done the same for him... and then he started running with me... and we crossed the line together... did the guy hug thing... and said good-bye. it was pretty cool.

and in 5:38:39 it was all over.

well... not really... meeting my family and friends... getting some pics... hobbling to the car... reading emails and listening to voicemails... taking a shower... eating some of esther's homemade chocolate chip cookies... listening to my son navigate in the front seat while my wife drives... talking on the phone to people i love. in spite of the pain... it was all good.

okay...

so maybe my time wasn't as good as robert cheruiyot's...

but i did finish...

and... ...i might add...

...a bit more gracefully

Comments

[Rick Lingenfelter]

You are my new hero. As a child my heros were always big, strong, handsome, tough guys. Now they are guys like you, Randy. Way to go there young(ish) fellow. Hope any soreness is temporary. Maybe next year I will join you. Maybe not.

[randy]

thanks! i think... :)

[joel]

What an accomplishment... proud of you. Sticking it out for 26.2 miles... and all the hundreds of miles it took to prepare to run those 26 miles takes a lot of determination. Just like the race of the abundant life. You're a great role model. Congratulations!