Racing for Hope Journal Entry 16

Marathon 5

Here we are a few days away from marathon number 6, and I’m just now able to put into words what marathon 5 was to me. We will start with it was hard, so so incredibly hard! It was my second slowest marathon ever at 6 hours 2 minutes and 23 seconds. After the halfway mark, I couldn’t run for more than 1 minute at a time. With it not being a race (I was running around my community), I could have given up at any time! Who would have known? It was in the ’90s, and I was barely keeping water down. I couldn’t cool off enough, and I was miserable. But all the names on the back of my singlet didn’t get to give up their fight when it got hard, so I wouldn’t either.

This was another neighborhood marathon and at about mile 5, I had a runner from one of the area running groups join me. She ran from there until around mile 11. She pushed me and kept me from walking much earlier in the race than I wanted to. Thank you, Jennifer! Then about 1/4 mile after that, I had someone else join in! I have to say that he was a lifesaver! He had read about and listened to my story of why, and he wanted to run some miles with me. We didn’t get to run much, but he did walk/run with me until mile 26. Christopher, I can’t thank you enough! The miles you did with me, keeping me going, and sharing stories with me helped more than you will ever know!

When he left me at mile 26, I had just that .2 left. I did all I could to run them. I finished to my wife, my girls, and a neighbor. I went inside my house and laid on the floor until I felt cool enough to even go shower. So it wasn’t pretty, but marathon 5 is in the books! Now we are on the way to Duluth, MN, and Grandma’s Marathon for number 6!