The Wrong Words

I have started this entry so many times, and have been unable to finish it. I find it just about impossible to put our experiences into words. It seems that I can’t find the right words to express the emotions that we felt this weekend.

Let me start by saying that WE FINISHED!!!!!!!!!!!!! We are both so proud of ourselves, each other, and our fellow teammates! I finished the half marathon in a little more than 4 hours, and Dan finished the full marathon in 6 hrs, 43 mins. Even more of an accomplishment is that, nationally, the San Diego Marathon Team In Training raised 12.5 million dollars for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society! Wow! Thank you to everyone who was a part of that. If you donated $5, $50, or $500--- together we made a difference!

We arrived in San Diego on Friday morning, and took a bus over to our hotel. During the weekend, we traveled as a division—Southeast PA, Delaware, and New Jersey. After checking in to our rooms and getting settled, the team went to the Marathon Expo and picked up our race numbers. Dan and I each got T-shirts to commemorate our 1st marathon.

Friday night, the team (with our adopted teammate Beth) went on a Scavenger Hunt Tour of the Gaslight district in downtown San Diego. It was A LOT of walking—I think all of us were a little worried that we would be worn out for the marathon on Sunday, but it was a good way to warm up and stay loose. The last stop on the tour was the SIDEBAR, where we had really good pizza and drinks. We went home at about 9pm—we were really tired after a full day of travel and sightseeing.

Saturday morning, we met Beth and took her over to the Expo (her flights were a mess, and she didn’t get to CA until 4:00pm Friday). We stopped at Starbucks for breakfast with our new friend Steve, who has run in 10 marathons! Steve and his wife Renee are part of the New Jersey section of our division, and they were on our team for the scavenger hunt. We walked through Seaport Village on the way back to the hotel—a cute little shopping area near the harbor.

Dan and I took the bus over to the Team In Training Pasta party that afternoon. Our coaches had said they would meet us there—which was strange since all the other activities had been done as a team. We stood in line with thousands of other TNT members. As we got closer to the entrance, we heard cheers and cowbells and saw a sea of purple and green balloons! We realized that it was our coaches and mentors. All the staff and support crew were there from all over the country to cheer us on! It was overwhelming to see all those people that believe in you! When our group saw Dan and me, they went NUTS! I hugged one of our mentors, Sam, and started to cry! Other coaches and mentors who didn’t even know me saw this and started cheering for me as well—“Go Sara! Great Job Sara!” I have tears in my eyes just remembering the moment.

The pasta party was great. There were a couple of speakers during the afternoon. One guy is called “The Penguin”. I guess he’s pretty famous in running circles—famous for being SLOW. He’s my kind of guy! He had advice for all of us first time marathoners: “Get in line for the port-a-potty early and when you’re done get right back in line”, “If they give you 7 hours to finish the marathon, why would you try to do it any faster?” We also heard from Jill, a TNT member from Canada. She was diagnosed with a blood cancer 4 years ago, and her friend ran the marathon for her. Recently, Jill went into remission, and was running the marathon on Sunday for herself (her friend came back to do it for a second time)! Jill’s story was a great reminder of our purpose for fundraising. We all returned to the hotel and had our final team meeting. The coaches gave us some great “pep talks” and we decorated our singlets for the race. We also took a moment to remember 4 very special heroes to our team. 3 of our teammates lost spouses or fiancés to blood cancers in the last 12+ months. We also celebrated our teammate and mentor Randee, who battles chronic leukemia every day. Randee completed her 3rd marathon on Sunday with us!

That night, we went out to dinner with Beth and her brother & sister in law. We had great Italian food—nothing better than carb loading! We went back to the hotel, laid out all our gear, and went to bed. We woke up at 3:30am the morning of the race. I’ll make a separate post about race day, since there is SO much to tell you! Sunday night we went to the victory party and then out to a dueling piano bar with our team. We had a great time!

On Monday, we slept in and packed all our stuff. The hotel held our bags for us, since our flight didn’t leave until 10pm. We had lunch with Beth at the hotel and then went on the trolley tour of San Diego with our head coach Jerry, his wife and season coordinator Robyn, and our assistant coach Linda. It was a really nice and relaxing day. We went all over the city and then over to Coronado. We visited the Hotel Del Coronado (the Grand Floridian in Disney was modeled on this hotel) and Linda and I dipped our toes in the Pacific Ocean. Even though the rest of the day was overcast and cool, the sun came out for about 2 hours, and we were able to enjoy the a drink on the porch of the hotel!

Our flight home on Monday night was pretty uneventful. I set off the metal detector because I forgot to take off my race medal—it was pretty funny because I was checking my pockets to see if I had keys or something on me, and the security guard says “Um, ma’am, it might be that large medal around your neck.” Duh. Some blondes never change…

So that’s it in a nutshell. I will post a race play-by-play sometime soon. I think I am still processing the day… All I can say is this: It was the toughest, most wonderful experience of my life. And I can’t wait to do it again.

-Sara

ps: you can check out some pictures from our friend Karen at her website. Karen lost her husband Trevor to blood cancer, and she completed the marathon in his memory. When she introduced us to her mom, Karen said "this is Dan, he's the fastest guy on our team. And this is his wife, Sara, she's the... um... most IMPROVED on our team". Ha!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/kabs77/sets/72157600309217991/