Finally, the RACE!

by Suzy

Wow, where to even begin? There is so much to tell about the weekend as a whole, the Cure JM events, the other families, the kid's race...

More about all that to come, but let's cut to the chase and get right to the main event, the half marathon on Sunday morning! Mamajoggers met up bright and early, squealed a bit over the fabulous embellishments Kirsten and Steph made to their Cure JM shirts, gathered some snacks, piled into the rented PT Cruiser (oh yeah!) and made our way to the shopping center parking lot that was the starting point of the race. A little traffic, a little bit of weird looping around due to the race-related road closure, then we parked and walked through the shopping mall (weird!) to get to the right area.

I had a really thrilling moment when we were approaching the start; we turned a corner or something and suddenly we could see all of the thousands of runners stretched out into the distance. Soooo fun. A sea of people. And about 90% seemed to be waiting in line at the porta-potties. Dozens and dozens of porta-potties - maybe hundreds? -- and lines of people for each.

We found the area for our "wave" (the race was divided into waves depending on your estimated pace, to help avoid traffic jams, jostling, etc. - we were Wave 5), stretched a bit, and waited for things to get rolling. It was a delightful surprise when the lovely Julie Caine strolled up, camera in hand. Julie generously joined us for the weekend to shoot the events for Cure JM, cheer us on, and generally be a fantastically supportive friend to my whole family, and I'm so grateful. Anyhow, she had no idea what wave we were in, so she just dove into the throng and eventually found us out of at least 9,000 people. It was so great to see her smiling face and pose for a few snaps! At this point, I was feeling super giddy and excited, so glad to see the day finally arrive, swept up in the excitement of the huge crowd and the anticipation. I am so glad that we had already run 14 miles as part of our training, because I wasn't nervous at all about the actual running part. I felt confident; I KNEW I could do it - it was just a matter of how much it would hurt! I was hopeful that it wouldn't hurt too much, but prepared to just do it (uh, thanks, Nike) no matter what.

We started moving forward, Wave 5 moving to the start line! There was an announcer giving a rolling commentary on things to keep the crowd amused, and I was glad to hear him mention Cure JM a couple of times - and when we walked past his booth to get to the start line, I waved my hat around to get his attention and another mention - and got it. Yeah! It's kind of like when you're a kid and you try to get the truckers to blow their big horn when they drive by, and they actually do it. Strangely satisfying.

Finally, we started! Woo hoo! It was really crowded and Steph made a comment like "I just don't want to lose you guys". I thought, pshaw! We couldn't possible lose one another! And within the first mile, due to a miscommunication about stopping for water/potty, we lost one another! Such a bummer - Kirsten and I were left behind, Nicole and Steph swept forward. K and I started booking it to try and catch up, and we did before too long... and all was right with the world again. ; )

Around mile 3 we passed the water station manned by Cure JM. Needless to say, it was AWESOME to see all those blue Cure JM shirts and hear all their cheers. Lenny found me and gave me a kiss. I found Mielle and gave her a kiss, and I was relieved that she seemed to be having a good time among the crowds and the chaos. We were still kind of giddy so we flew through the station pretty quickly, and it was only after we passed through that I realized I'd forgotten poor Lucien in all the excitement, and he got NO kiss. Such is the life of the second child... poor little guy! (Lenny's sister Angel was there and was loving on him, so he was doing just fine.)

At this point the course ran along the ocean, so it was stunningly beautiful. Waves crashing, beams of sunlight streaming through holes in the clouds, the whole bit. We just chugged along for quite a while; don't know about the other gals, but I was still kind of buzzing from all the excitement.


Potty break just before the halfway mark, and then the turn-around (it was a there-and-back course). Things still felt really good and we planned to keep on going until we hit the Cure JM water station again. At that point, we'd have about 2.5 miles to go.

For me, it is just at that point in the race where the feeling of heaviness kicks in. On the training runs, the last couple of miles on all of the final long runs were pretty tough. To hit the Cure JM water station at that point in the race, to see all those smiling, cheering faces, was an indescribable feeling. I found Mielle, who was standing along the route ringing a cow bell. Gave her a big hug and a kiss and this time found Lucien, too! It was the best possible timing for a big spiritual boost, the culmination of all my training and imagining and hoping, and love for my daughter, and the immeasurable gratitude I have toward the people that have worked so hard to help children with this dreaded disease. This amazing moment uplifted and rejuvenated me.


Then we kept on running. I still felt tired, but somehow energized at the same time. It's hard to describe, because the fatigue was still there, but... it just didn't seem to matter. I was floating. I was in some kind of alternate reality. I still had energy to wave and hoot when onlookers read our shirts and I was still chatty with the ladies. I noticed that they'd gotten sort of quiet and I worried that my peppy-ness might be really annoying! But I couldn't contain myself. Despite the fatigue, I felt absolutely wonderful.

When there was maybe a mile left, there was a pretty steep little downhill section. At this point, our group split up - Nicole broke away, I was behind her, and Kirsten and Steph stayed back a bit. At the bottom of the hill, I realized how close we were to the finish, and I actually felt like I had some kick left in me - a totally new experience for a long run! In runs past, it was all I could do to just zone out, keep putting one foot in front of the other, and wait for it to be over. But this time I could feel that I had something extra still in me.

I had to go with it. I always had this idea of our group crossing the finish line all together, but we'd already separated and I felt like I simply had to go with what I was feeling, just to see what I could do. So I did. I cranked it up as much as I could, and it felt like flying.

Don't get me wrong, I don't think I was actually running all that fast, but... for me, at that point in the race, to do anything beyond a trudge-with-a-little-bounce FELT like flying. And I'm pretty sure I had a big silly grin on my face the whole time.

And then I finished, and in a few moments came Nicole, and a few moments after that Kirsten and Steph. Hugs, elation! Medals! Snacks! And no good place to stretch (the one major flaw in the design of the race). But we made do. As you can already tell, I was enjoying my best runner's high ever (it lasted about 4 days).

So... Half Marathon Mission Accomplished. Later, big fat juicy burgers, fries, fruit, beer. A toast, to Mamajoggers... and a big, heartfelt THANK YOU to Kirsten, Steph, Nicole & Claudia, their families, and EVERYONE who supported us in this endeavor. It was a raging success in more ways than we ever could have anticipated. As ever, I am humbled and grateful.