Finishers

This past weekend, T and my brother ran the Monumental Mini Marathon on Saturday.   Well, if you recall, T was actually training for the full marathon.  He had been training since June, and the longest training run he had gotten himself up to was 18  miles.   It was shortly after then that he started having pain in his lower leg, around his shins.  He ran the Wine at the Line race a week later and got a personal best, but then the pain got worse.  He attempted the 3 1/2 hour long training run, but only made it 7 miles before the pain was too much. 

 

 

We were worried he gave himself a stress fracture, so he went to the doctor, got an MRI done, and thankfully, there was no stress fracture.  And of course, the doctor told him not to do the race.  It was two weeks away from when he went to the doctor, and he was struggling with the decision on what to do.  He had trained so hard, and he so wanted to cross this off his bucket list.  But if he ran the 26.2 miles, he could injure himself to the point where he could be forced to give up running. 

 

 

He took time off for a week or so, and three days before the race, he did a three mile run and had a lot of pain afterwards.  So he made the tough decision to not run the marathon, but he decided to run the mini.  It really freaked me out, I'm not going to lie.  He was all "Oh, I can't do the marathon, but 13.1 miles, I guess I can do that."  Like 13.1 miles is just nothing, right?  But then I'd also find him saying things like "I can't believe I'm only doing 13.1 miles."  I was about to stage an intervention.  Because that is just delusional speaking. 

 

 

I made him sign up for this program where I would get text alerts when he crossed certain point.  I think the only alert was at 10k which was halfway or so, but I just wanted to make sure he was okay.  Aside from attaching a GPS tracking device, I was stuck.  So Saturday morning, Aubrey and I got up, and we nervously headed downtown.  I was nervous, and I knew T was scared to death.  After the race started, Aubrey and I found our way inside, somewhere warm, and waited out till the finish.  I had a vague idea of how long it would take  him to get to the 10k and watched my watch until then.  But I never got the alert.  Ever.  I don't know if the system malfunctioned or what, but I was picture T on a stretcher being hauled off the hospital with no way to communicate with me because I had both of our cell phones.

 

 

T had said that he would finish roughly in 2 1/2 hours, so when it got to 2 hours, I headed there.  That's when I found them.  My brother and T had finished in 2:00:18.  I was so disappointed I didn't get to see him cross the finish line, but I was super impressed with how quickly he finished.  That's one of his best times, and he did it while injured.  I was shocked to see him finish so soon.  But I couldn't have been prouder.  And more relieved :-)

   

   

So I am thankful today for 1) the fact that T finished his race in one piece; 2) he has the courage to say "Hey, I don't think I can do what I originally set out to do, no matter how much it sucks and 3) his perseverance.  He never gave up, and that's what I love about him.

 

 

Now I am forcing him to take at least a month off.  Rest, T, rest!