See You at the Finish Line

There are only ten days left before the San Antonio Rock and Roll Marathon and Half Marathon. My husband and I are signed up and planning on being there. This will be my fifth half marathon and his tenth.  And we have never felt more unprepared.

In years past, we had spreadsheets calculating our every training session.  I would go to great lengths not to miss any of them. I often found myself at the gym at ten o’clock at night to fit them in. We would carefully keep track of the foods we would eat and how many ounces of water we were drinking with each training run.

This year has been much different. It has been a year of so many outside stresses and painful losses of family members. We just haven’t been as dedicated to training.

My husband ‘s hip has been bothering him so he physically hasn’t been able to push himself to run much faster. And after losing my mother in September, quite frankly, I haven’t had the desire to be on a treadmill very often.

We have pretty much decided to make our participation in this year’s half marathon a leisurely walk.  It might be such a slow walk that we won’t even qualify for a medal. So be it. This year will be known as our year of survival.

One of my favorite parts of participating in the event has been meeting all the people before the race.  There are typically around 30,000 that sign up for the San Antonio event and there are so many inspirational stories among them.

From the professional runners in the first corral to the people that signed up to raise funds to honor a family member that has cancer or who has died from some other disease; inspiration will be everywhere.

My plan this year is to talk to some of them, take their picture and later tell their story on my blog. I guess this is what is considered live blogging!

Although we won’t set any records and will more than likely appear at the very bottom of the race’s time sheets, we will have done together.  It will help close out a year that we will be more than happy to put behind us.

And in all our years of participating in these races together, it will be the first instance that we cross the finish line at the same time; a symbol of strength and our commitment to one another.

For better for worse, for richer or for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish until death do us part.

I love you big Stud and even more with every passing year.

See you at the finish line.

Stay Sassy Y’all.