I'm not sure how to begin other than saying THANK YOU. Thank you
all who took the time and energy to share a part, no matter how brief, or if
you followed all of Jennifer's posts
leading up to, during and following our experience getting me through to the
finish line in the Bighorn 100. If you peeked in any time on Saturday, you know
I had some struggles for many hours and miles. I needed help. I was emotional
and as close to broken as I've ever been. Sitting in the aid station at mile 66
at 6am on Saturday with a medic tending to my feet and Jennifer tending to everything else, she kept telling me
how many of you were following, cheering me on, and sending love and energy.
When I finally left the aid station after 45 minutes of care and
THE BEST Egg McMuffin (no Canadian bacon please) I’ve EVER had, I had a 1000'
climb in front of me. That's actually good news for me, as climbing is my
strength on good days and on this day with my high ankle sprain making descending
very painful and slow, it gave me some relatively pain free time to collect
myself, put my situation in some type of perspective and focus on what I needed
to keep moving forward. It was then that I felt the power from all of your
support that convinced my logical mind, as well as the spiritual part of me,
that there was no doubt I was going to finish this thing. Logically, I knew I
was not going to give up, short of some serious medical condition. I know you’re
all kind and care for me and would not want to put a burden on me, but in some
way, I'd be letting you down if I just quit because of pain and frustration
that my goal time was not going to happen. Spiritually, at that moment, pushing
up that hill, I opened up somehow to receive your energy, maybe for the first
time. Maybe that only happens when you need it most. Dunno, but I accepted it.
So, when the trail leveled out a bit, I started trotting along
again and soon, I was able to open up my stride for the first time in many
miles and started putting down a handful of miles at the best pace I'd been
able to manage since the previous day. Soon enough the trail forced me to slow
down and pain got worse, but it was a great confidence-builder and was a
significant time in my race experience. And I thank you for being there with
me!
I've a lot still to process about this experience and will be
sharing my full experience in a subsequent post in the coming
week or so.
A couple final thoughts...I love sharing my experiences, but
have also found that I have mixed feelings when sharing them. They are big
things, I know, but they are almost purely selfish endeavors. I always like
when some good for someone else can come out of it in any form. This go-round,
my sister-in-law, Amanda, took care of
that by starting a small family text communication asking for estimates of my
finishing time and with each guess, a pledge to donate any amount to the
charity of my choice. I’m very happy to report that over $400 has been pledged
to www.thejuniperfund.org as a
result of this! Thanks A!
And finally, one image that I’ll always remember is at the very
start of the race, I noticed one male runner with one word written in block
letters on the back of each calf – “FUCK” & “CANCER”. My pain was a
pittance.
No comments:
Post a Comment