On Saturday my brother came over to help out with finishing our fence and to play with Constantine. My mom took Aurelia for a sleepover at her house so that I could have a good night sleep before the marathon. Dom slept in C's room because if I hear him wake up at all then I wake up. This way I was able to close the door and turn the fan on and actually have one of the best sleeps that I have had in a long time. I woke up in the morning and got all ready to be in Manchester to meet my dad at 7:15. It was great because of the time change it wasn't actually that early. I sort of forced myself to have a little bit of coffee because I was already pretty jumpy in anticipation of the run, but I didn't want to regret not having coffee later. I don't know if that was what affected me a couple months ago, but I didn't want to chance it!
I got to Elm St. and got all ready to run with four layers of shirts on since it was freezing out, and I am a huge wimp in the cold! My dad and father-in-law were there to see me off at the starting line, which was nice. I was so cold when I first started. My eyes were watering and my nose was running, it wasn't pretty. I just kept thinking that the more I run the warmer I'll get. Eventually I did warm up a little, maybe around mile 3. I felt really good running though. I had a lot of energy and my body felt good. Thanks to the coffee I did have to pee pretty much from the beginning. I was so happy to see a porta-potty at mile 3. After that I felt much better and was ready for the long haul.
Aside from still being cold, although not like in the beginning, I was feeling great for the first 13 miles. I was happy to see my mother and brother-in-law along the way rooting me on and taking pictures. Constantine's service care coordinator, Beth, found me at around mile 6 on her bike and stuck it out with me until the finish line. She has run a marathon before and knows how hard they are so she wanted to support me. I give her a lot of credit too since she was out there for so long in the cold riding her bike!
I was coming up on mile 13 which looped back to Elm St. again when my foot started to hurt. There is this huge down hill that brings you to Elm St. and going down that hill did something to my foot. I have been having some pain in the arch of my foot for a little while when I walk around the house, but when I am running it never hurts. Going down that hill made that same pain hit hard. The good thing was that when I was running up hill or flat it wasn't as bad. From that point on I still felt pretty good, but I was definitely favoring that part of my foot.
The next part of the course was luckily mostly flat and up hill so I was doing pretty well. I was the first woman to pass all the aid stations so everyone was cheering me on. In truth I was undeserving of all the praise because I did the early start, but it still gave me some added umph. I think around mile 17 is when the first woman passed me, well she flew by me like all the real racers. I was pretty amazed that they could be going so fast! At mile 20 I was definitely wondering if I could make it. My foot was really hurting and I was compensating for that with the outside of my foot and my other hip which were starting to hurt as well. There was one huge down hill that I had to walk down and watch everybody else fly by me enjoying the "easy" part. Once I got to the bottom I started running again and when I got to mile 22 I knew I could do it.
My brother and Dom met me at about mile 24 and finished the run with me. That was a big help because it kept my mind off the last couple of twisty miles that lead to the finish line. When we got to Hanover St. my family was waiting there with Aurelia and Constantine. I gave Aurelia a big kiss then got Constantine, who had a big flag saying Fight SMA on his chair, and we all ran to the finish line together. YAY, I did it! I couldn't walk at all. It was great to see my family and Beth there supporting me. We took some pictures and talked a bit, but the mommy part of me kind of freaked out and wanted to get my kids out of the cold, so we packed up and went home. I was still in the four layers that I started the race in, I was cold too!
I am really happy with all the great things that came out of doing this marathon for Constantine. I wanted to raise funds for FSMA and Constantine's medical fund as well as raise awareness for SMA. The total right now that was raised is $2187 for both FSMA and his fund. We were also in three different papers each with a unique take on our story and all raising awareness for SMA and how it affects our family. AWESOME. I couldn't be more pleased! We have had some incredibly nice people take an interest in our family and offer to help us out, which is above and beyond anything I could have hoped for. Thank you so much to everyone for taking an interest in our story and for helping to find a cure for this horrible genetic disease, Spinal Muscular Atrophy. Hopefully in the (near?) future we will have a treatment!
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