Sunday makes  a week since the L.A. Marathon.  I still can’t believe I did it.  It was a crazy couple of days leading up to the race.  I flew in Friday night from Florida where I spent the week for work.  Saturday was non-stop from early morning until getting to bed a little before midnight.  Had to get supplies for the race, then downtown to the Marathon expo to pick up my bib and jersey, then the dinner for Team World Vision in Pasadena.  Woke up at 3AM to head to the marathon finish line where I parked and got the shuttle across town to the starting line at Dodger Stadium.  As I am riding the shuttle along the 10 FWY, the song ‘Oceans’ on a loop on my phone and all I kept thinking was “how far is this place, am I really going to make it back?”

Arrived at Dodger Stadium around 5:15AM just in time for the Team World Vision pep rally.  The stadium parking lot looked like one big tail gate party with rock bands playing, vendors selling food and 26,000 people stretching and pacing.  The energy was infectious.  I have been to NBA Finals, World Series, Rose Bowls, Stanley Cups and Crusades, but nothing really compared to the energy that I was experiencing.   As the sky slowly turned from black to red, it began to sink in that I was really here.  I did enjoy some time walking around talking to folks from other groups to see why they were running.  Leukemia, human trafficking, blind runners, clean water, adoption, the environment, Team kitten Rescue and so on.  What I learned was that everyone has a cause and most people hate running.

As runner take to their corals, I am in the big group.  I positioned myself to be near the front of the pack, or so I thought, I just didn’t want to be last.  As the race began, I notice large waves of people moving towards the starting line, I quickly realized that I am at the back of the pack, not the front.  I was hoping to be one of the first few thousand to hit the streets, instead I had about 20,000 people ahead of me. As the race begins, we were expecting record heat; it seemed like it took forever to climb the small hills to get out of the Dodger Stadium parking lot to Sunset Blvd.  By the time I made it to the street, I was drenched. I remember thinking that if I can out run the sun, I can beat the heat, but that is the one thing we had been advised against.  This was not a day to try and set a record.

The run itself went pretty well.  Around mile 9 I had a strange experience. I cramped in both feet at the same time, that never happened before.  As I hobbled to the sidewalk, I quickly drank water and walked it off.  I didn’t feel anything like that again until mile 17 in Beverly Hills when my left calf began to cramp up.  At mile 21, my right knee went out.  I have a torn meniscus and usually wear a brace for it, but I hadn’t been wearing one lately, so I opted not to on this day, probably not smart.  As I gingerly put weight on it, I was hesitant to run on it, so I walked the last 5 miles.

I missed my goal to make it to the beach in time to see the sun set.  It was dark when I got there.  My first thought was that some people who maybe started 15 or 20 minutes before me, had finished about 11 hours earlier.  So where I was happy to have finished, I was thinking that I have much room for improvement.  My second thought was people that I wanted to call and share this with, but the few folks I had in mind are all on the other side of the country and would most likely been asleep.  From the Santa Monica pier, I had to walk about a mile along the beach back to my car.

As I found a place to sit on the beach, listen to the waves and feel the warm ocean breeze, it still had not sunken in.  My body ached and so many thoughts crossed my mind, I was overwhelmed with emotions.  Not only thinking about what had just happened, but the events leading up to it, where I was a year ago, two years ago, the pain, the regret, the healing, the road back, the faithfulness of God.  I thought about Kelly, I thought about Lindsey, I thought about my dad and my mom, I thought about Isabel, my TWV sponsored child, so much all at once that I just began to weep.  I have been so tremendously blessed, but I am not sure if these were tears of joy or pain, both I think.  As I sat there, my heart asking questions, hoping for revelation, but all I could hear was crashing waves.  So after about 40 minutes, I figured it was time to pull it together.  I had one day to rest before hitting the road again on another work trip and I had just a week to recover before I start training for the Chicago marathon.  Yes, I made a decision to stay with Team World Vision and run in the 10th Anniversary Marathon this October in Chicago.  I will also be doing the L.A. Marathon again on Valentines day of 2016.  I have much more to share on what I have learned in this process, what God is teaching me through running and mistakes I made in preparation, so those stories and more in the weeks ahead.  Happy first day of spring everybody!