The Route 66 Marathon

 Nicole and I have each birthed four children.  We honestly had nothing to prove.  Every couple of years we have a baby and this year instead of having a baby, we trained for and ran a marathon.  I was really grateful that I'd already experienced labor and delivery, because pushing through the end of that marathon came pretty close to the same mental toughness it takes to finish.  From about mile 18-25.5 I almost closed my eyes (I could still see the road), calmed my face, tried to relax my shoulders (everything was tight and hurting at that point) and pushed through.  When we came up that last hill (there were a lot of hills) and saw our families cheering for us at the finish line, it took everything in me to hold back the ugly cry.  My official finish time was 5:14:21.  In two more years, when the next "baby" is due, it'll be even faster.

My best cheerleader/supporter through it all took me to Wolf Gang Puck for the celebratory dinner.  It was fabulous.

To make all of this possible, my parents kept the kids for the weekend and gave David and I a huge birthday gift ...drum roll please ... 2 nights at the Mayo in the heart of downtown and only a couple of blocks from the starting line.  Then my sweet sister and brother-in-law drove us from the finish line to QT for ice and back to the hotel where I packed my legs in ice, showered in this huge shower with three different shower heads, then collapsed for a while in a king size bed with a crazy-high-count on some sheets.  Serious bliss.  After our dinner that night I hit the sack early and slept for 12 hours straight.  We hit Brookside by Day for breakfast and got a head start on our Christmas shopping.  Felt great to stay loose through the day.  I taught my class Monday night (a little on the crazy side there), and it's back to the real world.

I am a marathoner.