When Training, Kids, and Charity Collide | The Sisterhood of the Shrinking Jeans LLC

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This past Sunday, I completed my third half-marathon. I am not a runner, nor do I really care if I ever am. Some may say it’s their legs that get them through long races, I say it’s my heart.

I didn’t quite train as much as I had intended, funny how life gets in your way and then you find excuses flying into your head and it’s so easy to ignore that day’s tempo run and so on. The miles I did train have been filled with trying to ignore the funk in my own head that’s been plaguing me all spring, blisters, sunburns, and various aches and pains.

I run {and I use that term loosely} for charity. Plain and simple. I do not get the runner’s high that so many of you have mentioned. I do, however, get teary eyes and my heart swells after every donation I receive.

This year, I ran for charity: water. Inspired by my little boy’s clean water for Christmas campaign, my family decided that we would work together and put our hearts together and raise enough money to sponsor a well in one of the countries that so desperately needs clean water. We started in March, and our campaign ends in just 7 days.

Race Day.

I was up at the crack of dawn and ready to go. I drove to one of my favorite places on Earth, turned on my music, pushed start on my Runkeeper app, and off I went. One foot in front of the other, sometimes faster, sometimes slower.

The first six miles were awesome!

And then it just wasn’t. Squish, squish, squish. Blisters on the ball of my feet. Crap. The sun was beating down, which has been extremely rare in North Dakota this year, and it was hot. I ran out of water at mile 8. Double crap. I texted my “water crew” and figured they would be there shortly to give me refills for my fuel belt. Apparently {they are fired} we had a miscommunication and I didn’t see them until mile 11.7. Every step I grew thirstier {grumpier}, and I told myself that these women and children do this every.single.day. just to GET water for their families. Water. Dirty water laden with bacteria. I kept going. You would not believe how bad I wanted to just say “screw it”.

I finished.

Also? I finished two minutes faster than any other half-marathon in previous years. *FIST PUMP*

While I wanted to just lay down and die, I plopped my butt down into our side-by-side and filmed my kids while they ran their 5K. They were AMAZING! Seriously. So if you haven’t watched them on the video up above, do it now. I’ll wait.

While I may never run a two-hour half-marathon, I do know a few things. I will start and I will finish. Those 13.1 miles in between will mean a lot to me, to my kids, and to people in the world somewhere who don’t even have a clue that those miles are FOR THEM.

To donate to my Charity: Water campaign, click HERE!

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