Race Report: San Diego Rock N Roll 1/2 Marathon – The Shrinking Jeans of Lisa

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June 8, 2010 By lisa

It seems that Team Shrinking Jeans has set some of you on fire with all of our talk about running and half marathons.  I can see why, after completing my first half mary this past weekend.

My last post was about my peaceful acceptance of not being able to run the entire half this weekend.  It’s true- I did not run all of it. 

My goal was to finish the half marathon, just like my Bondi Band said: I did run/walk the first 7 miles (a very slow run).  I most certainly felt like crawling around mile 11.  But most importantly, I finished, regardless of the amount of time it took.

I may have even cried a few times, not from pain although there certainly was pain the last few miles, not from all the sweating and thirstiness and general hot-ness….. but from the emotion of it all.  From seeing the sea of purple Team in Training shirts, each person running “in honor of” or “in memory of” special folks in their life.  So. many. names.

It was overwhelming.

It made the stupid ache in my hip seem inconsequential.

I’m pretty sure that without the support of my Team, I may have given up when I was was plagued with injury after injury during training.  They kept me going.  They encouraged me.  The motivated me.  They made me laugh.  They made me feel NOT alone during this journey.  

Thank-you, Team Shrinking Jeans.  You are more awesome than words could ever describe.  You, too, Coach Joe (the guy in purple, in the middle, our wonderfully fantastic running coach- YOU ROCK!).
Also, I totally want to give a shout-out to my husband. 
While I was training for the half marathon, he was training for the FULL marathon (that’s 26.2 MILES, people).  We trained at the same time freakin’ crazy.  The logistics of our weekend training runs was a nightmare at times (someone had to stay home with the 3 kids, ya know?!). 

He supported me with all of my fundraising efforts and I am fairly certain that a large portion of my fundraising monies came from  his group of friends, family and business contacts.  He was heavily involved in the two fundraising events I hosted, leading one of them. 

He is a runner by nature and has been a runner ever since I have known him.  His marathon this past weekend did not go as he had planned, with him puking around mile 10 (not a good sign) and having to visit the medical tent TWICE.  He says he is done with running and it hurts my heart to hear this.  HE HAS ALWAYS BEEN A RUNNER.

I am hoping that with time and a little rest and relaxation that he will return to running sometime in the future I think he will.

Anyway, I am SO freakin’, stinkin’ PROUD of this group of women.  We raised a little over $42,000 for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.  We ran a bajillion training miles plus the actual half marathon.  We cried many painful tears along the way.  We stuck with it, all the way to the end.  Because we believed in the cause and we believed in ourselves.  All I can say is this- GO TEAM! Also, did you know that we writers here at Shrinking Jeans can be very, very, very silly? I know, SHOCKING.

Alcohol may or may not have played a role in the silliness. There may or may not be a video floating around supporting this silliness. (Top: me, Heather; Bottom: Christy, Melissa, Christie O.)

I am officially hooked and have already decided to sign up for my next half mary- the San Antonio Rock n Roll Half Marathon on November 14th.  Christy will be joining me…..anyone else?!