Wind Beneath My Wings

I had to find the cheesiest song lyrics possible for titling this blog. SUCCESS!!! Now that I can go on feeling satisfied with that life accomplishment, let's get to the point.

There is so much that I want to write about the experience that was the New York City Marathon. In short, it was the most challenging, most incredible, most indescribable experience of my entire life. Definitely more on that to come…but the thing that must come first is a blog of gratitude. Never in my entire life have I felt so loved and cared for as I did in the days before and after the race. I’m definitely one of those people who has days where I feel like the song “nobody likes me, everybody hates me, guess I’ll go eat worms” (anybody out there remember that one from their childhood? Shout out 1988!?!?!) applies to my life. While I know this is silly and I know I have awesome people that I can call my “community”, I guess it’s just sometimes easy to forget that people care as much about you as you do about them. Here’s a look at the “short” list of things that touched my heart throughout “marathon week”.

*every single positive thought, prayer, word of encouragement that came my way the weeks leading up to the race when it came to my knee injury (see previous blog)
*my roommate creating a goodie bag for my trip (yes I’ve mentioned this before but it was just that awesome)
*my fellow running friends in the “core four” that wrote me the sweetest letters, loaned me their race belts, gave me sayings and verses that I literally read every night before I went to bed the entire time I was in NYC, and put up with my moments of panic
*my principal, and friend, who gave me a card with a sticky note for every day she wouldn’t see me – I can’t say how much I looked forward to every morning where I would get to see the sweet words for that day
*my two BFF’s who came to NYC, ran with me before the race to decide if it was even going to happen, gave me a tshirt and card, trudged down to the basement and stole a cart to bring me bags of ice for a post race ice bath, hauled PVC pipe on an airplane so I could have a TCU flag at the race (glad every other Horned Frog racing in NY got to enjoy it – as I missed it), and even dried my hair after the race b/c I couldn’t move
*my cousins who came and spent their entire day watching stinky people run by for five hours so they could cheer me on for a whole 34.2 seconds
*EVERY SINGLE comment on facebook, like of a picture or post, text message, and phone call. Seriously, I wish I could go into detail of what that meant to me, and thank the people who sent them, but it would take too long to thank 80+ people (I didn’t even know I KNEW 80+ people) who probably won’t ever actually read this blog. But, even if just one of you does – THANK YOU. It was those comments more than any that went through my mind as I limped through mile 10 – 26.2. I dedicated my miles to y’all, remembered your sweet words, and let that positive thinking keep me going.
*My kiddos who wrote me notes to let me know how much they wanted me to win – yes WIN the NYC marathon – they don’t get it clearly, but the Flat Stephanie/Jakus/Stanley (we never could quite decide a name for the girl Stanley designed to look like me) who was, literally, by my side (pinned to my belt) the whole race, reminded me of the 20 little people who “get” to spend 8 hours a day with me 5 days a week and that I just adore – they helped me through that race too
*the kids who high fived me in the hall when I came back to work and continued to ask me if I had won – must be what it feels like to be a celebrity
*the poster and flowers that were waiting for me on my desk, courtesy of my roommate once again, when I got home at 1am, exhausted, slightly defeated, and hardly able to move. Not much was making me smile at that time, but that sure did
*the marathon celebration dinner my sweet friends had for me when I got back to FW where I got to run through a sign – dream come true!
*the cards of congratulations from friends and family close and far
*my sweet 2005 Tremont girls that sent me flowers and a pedicure gift card to work my first day back – one of the sweetest surprises of my whole life
*the letter my aunt wrote me congratulating me on my accomplishment
*last, and saved for last for a reason, my parents love, pride, and encouragement. A whole post could be dedicated to their involvement and dedication to this thing that meant so much to me – so maybe I’ll do just that. For now, Mom, Dad, without you guys this would not have been possible. At all.
*Finally, I guess this is really the last one, the knowledge that the race was only possible b/c of a God who loves me, gives me legs that work, even if only partly ☺ and makes 26.2 miles possible. With as bad as my knee/leg hurt the day before, there is NO WAY I could have raced without some divine intervention. Pretty darn sure of that.

My heart is overwhelmed just writing that list. I don’t have any idea why so many people would care that much about me, I certainly am undeserving of it, but at the same time, I am forever grateful for it. I venture to say that the outpouring of love I received these past few weeks was better than the race. Equal at least. THANK YOU for every little bit of it.