We went to bed early-ish on Saturday night. Ella and Luke were both having sleep-overs.The alarm was set for a 4 am wake-up.
I could not sleep. I was dreading it. In a rash moment I had signed both Eric and I up to run for charity in the Denver Colfax Marathon as part of 3 X 5-man relay teams. It seemed like a good idea at the time, but the reality was a cold, rainy, dark and way too early Sunday morning.
We were both awakened at 3am to what sounded like someone banging on our door 3 times. Eric went to investigate, while I peeked out of the window into the garden. It was nothing. We dozed until the alarm went off. An hour has never passed so quickly I don't think.
Coffee, cereal, banana and peanut butter on toast. I never know when I'm next going to be able to eat at these events. Then out the door dressed for every eventuality. We met our teams at the rendez-vous and car-pooled Downtown for the 6 am race start.
Traffic and parking was choc-a-block around City Park with some 8,000 runners scrambling to get to the race start. We dropped off Leg No. 1 runners at the race start, parked and then made our way through the drizzle to the beginning of Leg 2. All I could think was, what were we thinking?
It was cold. I had on 4 layers, and I was still cold. I detest being cold.
Then my friend Vince, and his wife Stacy, found us while we waited for the first leg runners to come through the gate. Vince is such a positive guy and he said something to me that I will never forget. And he's definitely not a scrapbooker, though he totally could be...
His words went some like this:
It's all about the memories, Anna. You could be home doing the same thing you do every Sunday. That would be a day that would fall into the humdrum of any other day and you will not remember it. Today you will remember for the rest of your life. You are making memories that will last a lifetime.
He changed my entire perspective.
I went from a grumpy and cold Anna to feeling like I was doing something totally extraordinary. Somehow it didn't seem as cold anymore and I found greater purpose in just being in the moment and making the most of this crazy situation. When I looked around me I couldn't help but be inspired by the 8,000 runners who had shown up to make a difference.
It was pretty awesome.
Vince then took this photo, shortly before we headed out on our 6.37 mile stretch through the streets of urban Denver.
It was a slow start. I fell behind as I was faffing around getting my music set up and the first 2 miles are always slow for me until I warm up. Eric slowed down so I could catch up but my pace is much faster than his. Eventually, he told me to run on ahead, and I did. My troublesome knees of late felt great, having taken some Aleve with breakfast, and I got that feeling of flying I sometimes get when I'm having a great run. I was passing everyone and it was fun! I caught up with the other girl we'd started running with and then settled in with the 4.00 hour marathon pacer for the last 2 miles.
So glad I did it, and with a positive attitude.
I want to do something extraordinary again soon.
