13.1: Been There, Run That
As many of you know, in August Clint and I made the decision to run/walk in the Disney Half Marathon to raise money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. We were overwhelmed by the support and encouragement of our friends and family--THANK YOU!
Yesterday our day began very, very early: the alarm went off at 2:15 AM. YAWN! We got up, dressed and joined our teammates in the lobby at Disney’s Caribbean Beach hotel. The bus had us to the staging area by 3:15. For about an hour and half, we vegged in the Racer’s Retreat, then we walked to our starting site.
Did I mention it was COLD? Well, for Florida. It was probably in the mid-upper 50s but that felt downright frigid.
Once we were off (to the sound and sight of fireworks!), the cold wasn’t quite so bad. I was moved by the encouragement all along the race route and especially by all the members of the Team in Training. There were Disney characters all along the way, bands, a gospel choir. . .cheerleaders. . .it was awesome.
The most important thing was that we both finished. Clint’s official time was 2:41 and mine was 3:07, not bad considering it was our first half-marathon (my first walking/running event ever!). We were both really pleased and grateful.
Not many pics since I wasn’t hauling a camera and we didn’t have anyone down there not running who could take pictures for us, but you can see some of our goodies and our decorated hotel room door (our team did this) on photo page 10.
I could write pages and pages about this. . .but I want to share my favorite t-shirt slogan from yesterday:
Finishing Dead Last
Beats Not Finishing At All
Which Totally Trumps
Never Having Started.
Sunday, January 11, 2009
