Dig Deep

So this past weekend, Eric and I went to VB to watch the sis complete her first (and only ever) marathon. She has been training all winter up in Michigan which is crazy to begin with. She did most of her long runs-17 and 18 miles on a treadmill. Just the fact that she can run for 3 hours on a treadmill says something about her mental strength. We spent Saturday with her and her hubby just hanging out and went to dinner and watching a little bball. Sunday morning E took her down and watched the start and then came back and the three of us went down for our trek of seeing how many times we could see her go by.

We drove down to where we thought was mile 6 and mile 8 so we could see her go by twice. However, we were not where we thought we were and were actually at mile 2 or 3. So we had missed everyone go by. But we did not realize it...we walked around aimlessly wondering where we were and what we were suppose to do. We ended up walking up to the finish (of the half marathon) and realized we were not at all close to her. Then we see the lead men run by a street over. So we head that way and start walking in the direction they are all coming from so eventually we will see my sister.

Meanwhile, as we are watching the fastest people, female #2 runs by and Eric and I look at eachother and say she looks familiar, like one of our friends from AR. Very strange, as I had a dream about them the night before. We keep walking another mile or so and decide to stop and wait. Sooner or later here she comes right with her 4 hour pacegroup looking good. She hands off her long sleeve shirt to us and keeps running. So we walk back to the car and start drving to go see her again.

We are following this road north and we come to a place where we can hop out and watch the race again, so we stop and watch the runners pass by. Not a minute after we arrived my sister runs by again...wooo hooo, wow we just barely made it!! So we get back inthe car and keep driving but find out we can't seem to get north. We spend a while trying to figure out how to get around this lake/bay, and finally make it around to the northern most part of the race-about mile 17/18. We get out and wait about 10 minutes and she runs by and says she is starting to get tired and breakdown and is ready for me to run with her.

We drive a little further down and walk up the road about 1 mile-and I keep going until I catch up with her, around mile 21 1/2 and start running with her. She is in some serious pain, her foot hurts real bad and she has kind of fallen off the 4:00 pace people. We talk a little bit and I try to encourage her, that she is doing awesome, and she is passing all these people that had been in front of her at other stops. She tells me we aren't stopping at any more aid stations as she is in a lot of pain and doesn't think she can get going again. The wind is at our back here which is nice so we don't get that added frustration of feeling like it is harder. I time our mile 22 to 23 and see 9:40, she is over 4 hour pace but she had a little cushion so we are ok. Our next mile is 10 minutes and she is starting to slow pretty bad. We pass a clock and see that we have to run a little faster than 10 minute pace to break 4 hours. I tell her that she didn't come all this way to just miss it and we start playing little games. Like lets just catch that guy in front of us, or lets just go 10 blocks, that is not that far. She starts to pick up the pace as she realized how close she is going to be.

We start haulin-and I can't believe she has got that energy in her. We keep passing people left and right and she just digs deep and puts it all on the line and runs as fast as she can the last mile to mile and a half. We cross the finish line and she shows me her watch- 3:59.31!!! Way to go! I am so proud of you! You are absolutely amazing. From the training on the treadmill to the deadication those last miles, you are my hero. She vows she will never do a marathon again and can't hardly walk. We all help her and she goes and drinks a beer. We take some pictures and then head back to the hotel.

We went to a nice rest on the beach for some good seafood and then say our goodbyes and head home. I felt like I had run a marathon on the way home-even though it had only been like 4 1/2 miles and a few miles of walking, so it was nice to get home. Great to see you guys and great job!! You are one tough cookie!!!

Oh-and that was our friend we saw running. She finished 3rd female overall!