Life isn't a sprint. It's a marathon!

It's the night before my second marathon, and the nerves have set in big time. I tell myself repeatedly that I am ready for this. I have trained for months for this. But what about all of the things that could go wrong that are out of my control? I could get food poisoning the night before, we could face all sorts of ugly weather, I could get sick, or I could wake up race morning and my body just may not want to move. I spend hours arranging my clothes, supplies, planning for every possible scenario. After checking and rechecking my alarm about 50 times, I lay down and hope that I can get some sleep.

I wake up on the big day and it's as if the heavens have opened up and it's dumping rain on us as hard as it possibly can. The weather report predicted thunderstorms with highs in the 50s. I decide not to dress too warm but grab a hat to protect me from the rain (ok so I failed in my planning. A poncho would have done wonders!) We get to the start line and within seconds are drenched to the bone. They push back the start time by 30 minutes hoping the rain will let up. 25,000 runners in downtown OKC were all scrambling to find some shelter and waited for the race to start.

The first 13 miles were pretty miserable. It was raining so hard and we were all FREEZING. We just had to laugh at how insane the situation was. We were laughing that we kept trying to avoid the puddles even though it wasn't possible to get more wet than we already were. Most of the big hills were also towards the beginning of the race. When we hit around mile 13 we had a short break in the rain and I also got my second wind. After that it went pretty smoothly. When I reached mile 20 I was still feeling pretty good. That was also about the time it decided to thunder and hail, which just made us want to sprint to the finish. The last 3 miles were not my happy place. I just had to put one foot in front of the other and I started talking to myself, saying things like, "just keep running, just keep running..." and "you've got this!" My time was about an hour slower than my last marathon, but I was expecting that. I was there to run with my friend and to just enjoy the journey! My dear friend and running partner Myra ended up getting hypothermia after we finished and wasn't able to move her legs. She gave me quite the scare. She spent about an hour in the med tent getting warmed up and having her legs massaged. The tent was full of chattering, shivering, cramped up runners. And at this point you readers are thinking that we are all mentally insane. And you would be right.

This marathon is unique in that it is to remember the 168 men, women, and children who were killed in the Oklahoma City bombing. They had banners with each victim's name hanging along the route, and we finished the race at the memorial site. When I rounded the corner and saw the finish line, I got very emotional. That was also when I saw a group of firefighters in their full uniforms marching to the finish line (they had walked the half marathon) and then I got REALLY emotional and started the ugly crying. So even though we had to battle mother nature, I had a great experience and was happy to run in memory of those who lost their lives. Their motto is: "It's not about running. It's about life." And how incredible that we had 25,000 people this morning celebrating life together! It was totally worth it!

Because we had to leave all cameras, iPods, phones, etc, behind (no way to keep them dry) we didn't get any pictures. However, Brian thought it would be funny to take a picture of my blue lips while I was standing in the bathroom shivering, waiting to take a hot bath.

The kids braved the cold to come cheer me on, then spent the rest of the day

under blankets trying to get warm :) They were troopers!

"The miracle isn't that I finished. The miracle is that I had the courage to start." -John Bingham