Race Day!

Even though I had 26.2 miles and over 4 hours to think of this post, I am not sure where to start. Do I start with the weather or the beautiful course, or my goofy friends who popped up and cheered at every other mile or all of the money that we raised for the kids in Ethiopia.

This is me at the start! All photos are provided by Erin Korsvall, photographer and cheerleader extraordinaire.

Saturday, November 15, 2008 I completed my fourth marathon, it was by far the most painful, the longest, and torturous marathon of them all. But at the same time it was also the greatest, the most rewarding and the most fun.

I guess I will start with the weather. According to ALL of the weather resources the forecast was supposed to be ugly. Thunderstorms in the morning followed by showers in the afternoon. Rain, rain followed by more rain. It wasn't ideal but I was mentally prepared for having cold, raisin toes pushing towards the finish. Much to my surprise, however, not a drop of rain fell the entire run, in fact it was steamy and hot--really steamy. The humidity level must have been 100000% and at one point I think it hit 82 degrees. Not soon after hitting the high temp for the day, the temperature dropped dramatically and the wind gusts came in. It was so windy that there was a tornado warning, I needed goggles to protect my eyes from all of the dust that blew into my face. Seriously, how are you supposed to run in a tornado?

I had trained for and was ready to run the race in 3 hours and 40 minutes. I started off strong and on pace, well at least the first mile or two. By mile three my left knee began to hurt, the tendinitis began to rear its ugly head again. I had hoped that the recent weeks of TLC and my spiffy new knee band cured the injury, but I was wrong. So less than 30 minutes into the race I abandoned all desire to finish in a certain time and just concentrated on finishing. I had been so overwhelmed with support and encouragement from so many people that I just couldn't quit. Even if I walked the last half, I was determined to finish.

Once I changed perspectives from racing to just putting one foot in front of the other, it was so nice. The course was beautiful, the spectators were friendly and I could almost laugh at the crazy weather, almost.

The BEST part of the race by far was seeing my fabulous friends and Mike throughout the race. I am not sure if you have ever been to a marathon before, but because it is so long (ahem, 26.2 miles) it is really difficult to be a spectator if you are tracking a specific runner. In most scenarios you only see the runner 1-2 times during the race, because you have to walk so far to see them along the course. This was not the case with Eric, Erin and Mike. Somehow Eric scored a fantastic parking place (unlike Mike--sorry dude) and they drove around and watched me run by like 15 times. It was fantastic. Especially towards the end when I was really hurting, seeing familiar, happy faces was just the extra dose of encouragement I needed to keep going. Then around mile 17 or 18 Mike saw how desperate I was, so he tied up his sneaks and ran the rest of the way with me. Having Mike run (and a lot of walking) with me was like finding a $100 bill in my coat pocket. Seriously, he refilled my water bottle, filled my head with happy thoughts, and kept telling me how proud of me he was. Mike is the best.

In this pic it looks like I am just mid-stride with my left leg on the ground. That isn't the case, in reality I was dragging it along like dead weight!

As I hobbled along for all of those miles, I tried every mental trick in the book to not think of the piercing pain in my knee. The thing that I thought about the most was how grateful I am.

I am so overwhelmed and grateful for everyone who loved and encouraged me not only by giving to the poverty stricken people of Ethiopia but also their happy encouragement.

I am humbled by the number of children that will be able to eat because of this run. Nearly 100 children lived an extra month because of what we did. That is awesome.

Strangers gave. My old office mates gave. My current coworkers gave too. Old neighbors as well as new. My best friends gave. My not-so-best friends gave. Family from all over the country gave. Friends from high school whom I haven't seen in years gave. Friends gave flowers and offered us places to stay while in Richmond. We had friends and family help us take care of our pups. I even have a wonderful friend who brought dinner over tonight.

Thank you all. I am blessed. I am sorry that it took some pain in my knee to realize just how fortunate I am.

This is the week

I have neglected this blog recently. I am sorry for all one or two of you who are reading it. It is much easier for me to update the food blog than this one. With this blog, my marathon prep gets intermingled with the reality of hunger, poverty, injustice and the long wait until we can go pick up our child.

However, it is time to give a quick running update. The Richmond Marathon is this weekend. WAHOO! I am looking forward for it to be over and I am praying for good weather. My last few long runs have been good. The 18 miler was fantastic, I easily could have run a full 26.2 that day. The 20 miler was lonely and very, very, very wet. It literally poured all 2 hours and 40 minutes that it took me to run 20 miles. Since the long wet run, my hamstrings and left knee have been really bugging me, so I have taken it super easy these past couple of weeks. I am hoping that the rest will give me fresh legs for the race on Saturday.

Since my last post I watched a movie called Call and Response, have you seen it? The movie focuses on modern day slavery. The statistics and numbers are shocking; for example did you know that there are more slaves today than any other point in our history? Crazy isn't it. It reminded me that we live in a wonderful, beautiful, bubble, but not far away there are children who are working for 13 hours a day for less than one dollar. And brothels filled with children. I haven't been able to turn off what I learned, it was too scary and paralyzing. I want to help, in some way but am completely overwhelmed with what to do. So, I have been reading this fantastic book called "Just Courage" written by the founder of the International Justice Mission. The book is so powerful, it gives real direction and real reasons why this is happening in our world. I highly suggest it.

I also wanted to thank everyone for giving to the kiddos from Ethiopia, we have raised A LOT of money that is literally helping the children right now. We are feeding them. We are helping to build wells. Thank you. I really appreciate it and pray that the people of Ethiopia will find hope through your gifts.

So next week at this time, the race will be over, it was a bittersweet realization. I am certainly excited to take a break from running but it is a bit sad because the Run 4 Ethiopia will be over. I have decided to keep it going. My next plan is to design blogs and to give the money to a new charity each month. I think that Charity Water will be the next beneficary. They are so cool. Charity Water builds wells in Ethiopia and they webcast the whole event so that we can watch the water flow. How cool is that?

Running Friends.

I am a happy solo runner. Never, have I ever minded turning on my Ipod and just going. Just me and my two feet taking me where ever the road may lead. On my run I plan out my day, I solve the worlds problems, I alphabetize the states, I do all sorts of mental gymnastics.

Running alone gets lonely after awhile though, especially after 10 miles. Once you hit the 10 mile mark (at least for me) the songs all sound the same and it is difficult to focus. Plus it is boring.

Luckily just in time for my loooooong training runs. I found a new running friend, Emily. She is a running beast. An animal. A really-hard-core-distance-runner-girl. She is my new running friend. I heart her.

I love running with Emily because she is better than an iPod--she is full of great stories, adventures and interesting ideas. The dilemma is that we maintain such a speedy pace that I can hardly breathe, much less actually speak, I am a HUGE bore to her. Seriously I just nod and give one syllable answers because I can't muster anything else. I know her history. I could probably fill out one of those chain emails, "How well do you know your friends...." yet I am not sure that she knows my last name. How unfair is that? When I told Mike about this, he could hardly believe it--"You, Meg, not talking?" He asked, unbelieving. Yet, it is so true. There just isn't enough oxygen in my lungs. I can't do it.

So here is to all you runners out there who run with us slow pokes. Thank you. We appreciate you. You push us to be quick on our toes and are training our lungs to run on less oxygen.

Emily, seriously you rock. And Boston, you better watch out, here she comes.

Long run tomorrow

This will be a quickie. I am excited that I have a nice long run tomorrow and it is supposed to be perfect fall running conditions. Cool. A little wet. Not hot. Can't wait. I have 16 miles on the schedule first thing in the morning. Watch out WOD, here I come.

I suppose I need to swap out my glass of wine for some water...but it just tastes so good. I will pay for it tomorrow.

People can be amazing.

This has been one of those weeks at work.

I work with people and that can be good, but this week it was pretty bad.

I manage web design projects--timelines, designs, functionality requirements and etc. For each project there are hundreds of pieces that need to work together seamlessly in order for a project to be successful. Each piece requires at least one conversation or email or both. There are a lot of details for each job and most of the time the projects flow through our shop beautifully. We are a well-oiled team.

Project-wise everything was on pace this week. Client-wise not so much. Unfortunately, I witnessed the ugly-side of people this week, it is a wildly defeating feeling when you work so hard and in return you get the worst of the worst.

As discouraging as this can be, I was also inspired this week. My faith in humanity is restored. I like people again.

Recently I have reconnected with an old gal-pal from high school. As we chatted online, I learned that she started a group called Hope Shines. Check it out. It is cool and so is my friend April. I could write a LOT about Hope Shines, but I will keep it brief. Not long ago, April traveled to Rwanda for her job at Macy's. During her brief stay, she saw a need there and she decided to do something about it. She didn't just think about it. She didn't just talk about it. She did it. And she is still doing something.

How often in life do you see a need and just leave it, for various reasons. Some even good reasons. Because you are too busy or you don't have time or you don't know how or you don't have this or that.

I challenge you to slow down and to look around, I bet you will see a lot of needs. Big ones and little ones. Do something about it. Sometimes people can be ugly, but more often than not people can be inspiring. The great thing is you get to choose who you get to be.

Nice Shirt.

Check it out. Ru 4 Ethiopia shirts now available on Zazzle.

I will add to this gallery often! All proceeds will go directly to UNICEF to help the kiddos!

What is your motivation?

Why do you get up everyday? What is your motivation to keep on grinding away at the daily grind? We all do it. We all get up early. Sit in traffic. Put up with annoying coworkers, clients, work, customers, crying babies...you name it. How come? Don't you feel like you are just arranging chairs on the Titanic sometimes? What is your passion?

I am motivated by the knowledge that there is more to this world then having the perfect home and having what society calls the ideal family. I am motivated by the belief that hope and passion can influence change. I am motivated by knowing that God created poverty so that we would fix it. God wants to do things about poverty and injustice and he wants to do them through us.

I get that the children of Ethiopia is my new thing. I understand an outsiders perspective thinking that I suddenly care about these children because my child is one of them. That is a partial truth. This adoption process has opened my eyes to the world around me. I know that it sounds cliche. But it has changed me. Their pain has changed me. These desperate people who have nothing, have hope. They have passion. They have a passion for life far greater then I often have. That is cool. That is motivating.