After 16 weeks of training, Tom and I dropped the kids off with their Aunt Carol & Uncle Marcelo and drove to the Napa Valley. During the training, I ran my weekday runs with Michelle, Mark and Melanie from work. The weekend long runs were with my husband. We often would push YaYa in the job stroller, while BoBo would ride his bike ahead of us. We would stop, along the trail, at the playgrounds to give the kids a break. It was tough because the long runs too a really long time. We got a sitter when the run reached the higher mileage, and the weather was rainy. It was fun to compare aches and pains after the runs. Even though we didn’t run the same pace, the training still had a way of bringing us closer together.
I don’t remember every detail of that race, but I do remember the feeling of crossing the marathon finish line for the first time. If you haven’t had this live experience yet, it is well worth the training and the pain involved with that. There is nothing like it. But let me go back to the start and tell you the whole story – at least as much of it as I can remember.