Pre Race Jitters
Its early in the morning of Sunday April 26, 2015 when
pre-race jitters once again have me up before the 4:00 am alarm and in my race
day gear ready to go well before the 6:30 am start of the Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon. As me and my running partner Jessie (Read Find Your Jessie) make our way to the
starting line, via hotel shuttle bus, we find ourselves on the first shuttle of
the day, weaving our way to downtown Oklahoma City with other first time
participants. The mood is light yet reflective as runners nervously laugh with
each other as a video plays on the bus reminding us to remember why we are running
today. I sit back in my seat wondering if I’ve done everything I could to complete the task
ahead. Can I finish?
We arrive downtown and begin making our way to the Survivor Tree where we have planned to take part in a sunrise worship service at the
site of the bombing of the federal building some 20 years earlier. As we enter
the memorial in darkness we can see two large walls illuminating the time of
the bombing and the time first responders arrived. The air is cold as the wind
moves through the memorial courtyard. We find our way to the tree that was so
painstakingly cared for after the bombing and we find a place behind a retaining
wall to break the bite of the cold wind. It was as we sat down I noticed the
168 monument chairs illuminated on this dark cold morning in remembrance of those who
died that day. Some chairs were shorter than others, signifying those who were
children. I realize that keeping my emotions in check was in jeopardy.
Flash Back
As I sat with Jessie worshiping and reflecting, my
mind raced back in time. It was one year ago to the day that Lucinda and I went to support
Jessie in her first half-marathon. In watching her that day I was inspired and
began considering how I should have been out there running with her. In just
two short weeks we would begin our running journey together, when I told her,
“I was thinking it would be great to run with you sometime?” Within an hour I
was in new running shoes as we took our first run together, To the Stop Sign and Back. (Read the story here) I told myself that I would not be emotional this day, however, the back drop of
illuminated memorial chairs and the memories of the past year running and sharing together
stirred the wells of emotion within me. I would turn from her to hide the tears.
After the service was over we then made our way to the
stating corral pushing our way through 25,500 other people who had gathered
that cold April morning to remember the bombing victims, their families and perhaps their own stories
with 168 seconds of silence, the national anthem, and then the starting gun
sent us all off on our own 26.2-mile journey together. The electricity from the
crowd, the rush of being with so many other runners, and the fan fare was so
much to take in. We ran taking in every moment, giving high fives to children, thanking
firefighters, volunteers, and policeman, taking time to visit with other runners
from those who were running their first marathon, to completing a marathon in each sate for
the third time, or in a wheelchair, all the while taking time to tap on home made signs
held by children so we could have more power. I noticed something that was
happening on this run that had not happened before; we were not talking this
time. Believe me! We would have had no problem being in continual conversation
for five plus hours and yet this time it was different. Not that we didn’t have
things to say, but that we finally had this moment time to take in everything that
we had been working for over the last year and enjoy it in each others company.
Carried to the Finish
When you have a running partner who you train and race with
you run across those times, more often than not, when one of the partners
carries the other to the finish. In this race it was Jessie’s turn to carry me!
Even though you train, eat, sleep, and hydrate well it is still 26.2 miles and
as I fought the mental war in my mind to quit I watched as she patiently waited
up for me and took unplanned breaks along the way. She was the stronger runner
that day and deserved to finish well ahead of me. Yet unselfishly in what
started together in running to the Stop Sign and Back less than a year earlier we
now had finished together hand in hand crossing the finish line of our first
marathon.
Thanks my wide-eyed enthusiastic running partner this was truly a run to remember! We did
it!!
