Sisterly Support- a dual view post

Sara=Purple

Patty= Green

About a month ago, my sister told me of her and Michelle’s plan to run a 10k on October 9th. Patty pathetically begged me to join her. I had to tell her the truth, that I wasn’t sure I’d be up to a 10k 6 days after the Twin Cities Marathon. She held fast- she needed me to be there and run it with her. I told her I would see what I felt like in the days following the TCM.

So, a few months ago, I told my sister offhandedly that my friend Michelle and I were going to run a 10k race. (NOT! She told me the exact location, date and time AND that it had a chili feed after. I'm fairly certain we spent an hour or two discussing it.) Considering Michelle and I were not runners, and our “training” consisted of getting together a few times a week to eat tacos or Thai food, we decided that our 10k needed to be far, far away where we would never see anyone we would know. My sister scoured the internet until she figured out which race we were going to be at and begged to come. (One word: delusional) Michelle and I attempted to throw her off by telling her she had the wrong weekend and the race was located about a 5 hour drive from her home. You see, Michelle and I run an average of a 4.5 minute mile and I didn’t want her to feel bad compared to the 2 of us.

Luckily, after a couple days of incessant complaining recovery on my behalf; I felt fantastic and ready to run again. A 10k through a beautiful part of the state would be the perfect way to start up again.

So Michelle and I thought we were safe. Sara just ran a marathon and didn’t know where our race was - I mean, why would 2 girls drive 1.5 hours to get to a 10k when there were 3-4 other 10k events within a 20 min drive of where they already lived, right?!?! Craziness. (Like anyone in our family has ever been accused of being sane.)

I called Patty and told her I’d love to come and join her on Saturday. I’d be honored to run her first race with her and be guidance if she needed it. Needless to say, she was thrilled. I rounded up my stuff, my boys and our mom and set off at early, early morning to be her support.

We told Sara the race was cancelled due to bad weather. We also told her it was located in North Dakota the following Sunday. We told her she was NOT to come. (It was just because she was nervous. You see how obvious it was she needed me?)

Here are Patty and Michelle putting on their race bibs. (I took this right before they saw me, so they weren’t smiling yet.)

As soon as Michelle and I walked up to the table, I told her in just “Just watch, we’ll turn around and there will be Sara.” Guess what happened. Oh yeah. We saw her when she took this picture. We were just going to murder her, is all.

(The excitement on their faces was almost embarrassing. No need to hug me so hard you almost knock me down ladies!)

Start line awesomeness:

This run? Awesome. An informal, just for fun type of run. There were maybe 75 runners for the 5k & 10k, and the guy in charge waited for Michelle to use the bathroom before starting. (However, you might be worried when there is no map and the guy explains the route by saying, “You take a right, then another right, then do a loop and another loop, go by the white house and take a left at the next road, make a 67 degree turn at the big tree...and so forth.)

The directions were so confusing that we quit paying attention 10 seconds into it. We decided to save ourselves by allowing other people (including the lady pushing a jogging stroller) to run ahead of us. Safety first and all, right? Certainly NOT because we were slow and out of shape. (Well, duh.)

The views? Like this:

Weather? Absolutely beautiful. I ran alongside Patty and Michelle, cheerfully visiting and making sure they were entertained and kept their minds off the running part. After about the LONGEST 5.5 miles ever, we rounded a corner, where a man told us we had a 1/2 mile to the finish. I told the ladies, “Half mile! Let’s go! We will be done in 5 minutes or less!” With renewed energy, we set off. Half mile later, we met a lady who instructed us to “run around the loop one time, and on the second round go down the hill and the end will be about a 1/2 mile from me.” Um? What? Fail.

I didn’t want Sara to feel bad about being slower than me, so I decided to take one for the team and bring up the rear of the race (by far). I certainly was NOT thinking “kill me, kill me, kill me” 1 mile into the race. Right when I seriously thought about throwing myself into the lake we were running around in order to drown myself so I would not have to finish the race, there was a man who said we only had half a mile to go!! I was so excited and had a second (ok fine, 92nd) burst of energy. We run....and run....17 miles later (or so it felt) we see a lady instructing us to take a loop around through the woods then go straight down the second time. THE.LONGEST.MOTHER.LOVING.LOOP.THROUGH.THE.WOODS.THAT.EVER.EXISTED. I officially began to hate that man AND that lady AND every tree ever grown as a matter of principle. We finally get around the #$%^^&* loop and go straight down. Once again, I brought up the rear so I wouldn’t make Michelle and Sara feel bad. I am nice like that, you see. 92 miles after that, I FINALLY see the finish line.

Bottom line? We finished! We crossed the line together, with our cheering squad waiting for us, and Asher crossed the finish line with us!

Our cheering squad consisted of 2 race officials, Sara’s 2 boys, and our mom. Because everyone else had finished long ago. (Ok, this part is true.)

Patty and Michelle? I am proud of you, and I will be happy to join you again anytime.

Imma still gonna murk you (I used to live in the ghetto. I picked up a few slang words). But I’ll let you join me next time. Hope my running (that is so smooth and stellar that it resembles a deer running swiftly through the woods) didn’t make you feel too bad.

p.s. To the rest of you? Yes, I do notice that the family genetics were less than...abundant to me in some areas. Stupid genes.

Haha, sucka. Got the brains AND the...you know ;-)
You see what I put up with on a regular basis? Sigh.