I am so excited to finally write about this marathon.  I first of all want to thank everyone who supported my run and Chai Lifeline in memory of my Sonia Chaya.  With your help, I surpassed my goal of $1,000 and am pleased to have reached $1,489!  This money goes towards a camp for children with special needs, some of whom spend all of their lives in hospitals or nursing care.  My Sonia never left her hospital, so I can understand how special this camp is for these kids.  If you are still interested in supporting this cause, visit www.chailifeline.org

As for the marathon, well, it was amazing.  Most of you know I first registered for the Marine Corps marathon in ‘06 before I got pregnant with Sonia.  I didn’t run it that year but trained for it again during Sonia’s life.  Running had become my therapy and my feel-good drug of choice.  Having that race in my sights got me through the bumpy road we faced during her life.  When Sonia died in September of 2007, I had to put my training and the Marine Corps marathon aside again.  In December of 2007, I ran the Vegas Half marathon in her memory.

Even before Gavin was born in January of this year, I knew I would be training for the 2009 Marine Corps Marathon.  I couldn’t imagine anything getting in my way of crossing that finish line once and for all.  So when I finally crossed that finish line after 3 years of dreaming about it, 4 months of dedicated training, so many tendinitis and pain issues, having to run “no matter what” including 18 miles on a treadmill, 2 hours of sleep the night before, and finally 26.2 patriotic miles in our capitol, it was one of the proudest moments of my life.

The experience could not have been more perfect (except maybe if I would have brought a sweater to the starting line).  My brother Ryan and my friend Caitlyn (who inspired me to run marathons in the first place) were by my side the entire race.  We laughed, cried (well maybe just me), sang, joked, and inspired one another through it all.  Many people ran for fallen service members, and that was emotional to see.  I also teared up as we passed the Arlington cemetery and I thought of our friend Brian Deforge who was buried there.  I think many people had a hard time reading my shirt, which had a photo of sweet Sonia and her birth and death date.  Although her early death is sad to see, it was with pride and joy that I wore that photo for all to see my sweet girl.

My friend Valerie told me about a technique she uses of praying for or thinking about people in her life along the way.  We used this many times throughout our race, telling each other about someone special and then all of us gathering our strength to run for that person.  I ran many miles for my sweet Sonia and her friends, both living and passed, who have struggled with birth defects and disease.   I thought about Kiersten Hickman-Perfetti who made me laugh and brought me joy at the Ronald McDonald House in Philly, despite the chemo and cancer that was giving her hell.  I also thought about my friend Lisa who is  fighting that awful battle with cancer and for the strength she has to use to live every single day.  I thought about Austin whose parents were told he couldn’t survive the brain tumor and condition of having half a heart he was born with.  He is 2 now and doing so well.  When we came to a tough moment in the race, the three of us would talk about these great lives and then run even harder just for them.

Although none of us were running for time, and stopped whenever one of us needed to walk or to hug our families, we made amazing time.  I kept a faster pace (ave. 12 min. mile or less) than I did during any of my training runs, and took 45 minutes off my first marathon time.  I struggled between miles 16-18 when we couldn’t find our families and it was just starting to get hard.  I was anxious because I didn’t get much sleep and I wasn’t able to eat anything with all of my butterflies.  Once I saw my family at mile 19, though, I was home free.  They gave me the boost I needed to run the last 7 miles with a big smile on my face and all the energy I needed.  Thank you mom and dad for taking such good care of my babies and supporting me in so many ways before and after the race!

The most surprising thing about the marathon was how fun it was!  There were school bands and regular bands playing music all along the way, tons of people who came out just to see us run the thing and cheer us on, many Marines encouraging us all along the way, the most beautiful sights of our national capital, and a mob of people to run with!  To top it off, I had the best running buddies by my side to share every moment.  It was phenomenal.

I cannot end without mentioning a special gift made and given to me by my husband.  It came a box labeled “Superhero Warehouse” with the funniest instructions I have ever seen.  The story is that Jason felt pretty bad about missing this race.  Being the Marine that he is, he was on a ship out in the Atlantic when I ran my race.  With this in mind, and wanting to show his support, my sweet man made me a “Super Mom” cape.  The home made instructions started with a warning: “This cape is only to be used by a Mom with extraordinary abilities.  Use by a woman without children or a standard mother may result in serious injury or dismemberment.”  This man is really amazing.  While I didn’t bring the cape with me on the race (for I planned to use my super running and not flying abilities), I made sure to show it off at the finish, when I really needed it!

While I think my body needs a bit of a break from this intense training, I already have my sights set on the Virginia Beach Shamrock half in March.  I will definitely run the Marine Corps marathon again and hopefully many other marathons over the coming years.  I am admitting it now, I have an addiction and I don’t think I can stop.  Thank you again for all of your support along the way!  All of those little words of encouragement and excitement from so many of you helped to make this race so sweet.

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