Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Dedication

The other day, my friend asked me if I planned on running the race in Nashville next Spring. "The race" she was referring to, is the Country Music Half Marathon - a huge race that runs throughout the historic sections of Music City. Several of my old neighbors have run it over the years. I decided to look into it and do some research on the race last night.

As I was Googling the race, several running blogs popped up - runners detailing their experiences running the race. I love reading good blogs. You can learn so much from them. I learned that the Country Music Half is another race that is described as "flat", but is in fact, very hilly (a constant complaint from every runner), the race has probably gotten too big and crowded, but highly recommended. I'll have to think about it, but would love to have another challenge lined up.

Anyway, I came across a blog from a woman who just completed her first half marathon, however, this blog was from 2009. This woman had a lot of the same emotions going through her journey as I am having, so I enjoyed reading what she had to say. When she was talking about the actual race day, she did something that I think is genius. If I remember correctly, a friend suggested the idea to her. Thinking about how long the race was going to be, and how you can start feeling a little lonely or lose focus, she dedicated every mile of the race to someone important in her life - 13 loved ones. She then numbered them and wrote them on her arm - at mile 1, she would think about ____ and how much he meant to her; mile 2, she would think about ____ and how much she meant to her, and so on. The last mile she dedicated to her husband, and when she came to mile 13, she spotted him in the crowd. Love it. Love the whole idea. May have to borrow that one...

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