Monday, December 9, 2013

Dallas... No AMARILLO Marathon

Back on JULY, Laura, Abby and I registered for the Dallas Marathon (see October's post)
We put in the time, built up to the big miles together, and mentally prepared... and then December arrived.  And suddenly the week before the race, Dallas was forecasted to have a big ice storm.  
"No big deal.  It's just going to be cold this year.  We'll figure out our layers."
So we kept watching the weather...

"There's NO WAY that they are going to cancel an event this big," I assured Abby.  "What are they going to do with all of the medals and the money already spent to put this on?  What about the entire year of planning and effort it took to get sponsors, volunteers, and support?  No way.... It's gonna suck, but we're GOING!"

And then came the rain... and ice.  Lots of ice... 
And then they shut down the Dallas-Fort Worth airport...
And then came the email.

Which brought on the slew of emotions: shock/disbelief, (tears), frustration, anger and acceptance (I went through this in a span of about 5 minutes).  When I called Abby, she was still in the tears phase.  This was going to be her first marathon and had invested more time, energy, planning, training than Laura and I.  She was devastated. 
I'm not great at consoling but asked, "What do you wanna do?... We can get drunk... Or we can still DO IT... We can't do both though.  Ha."  
I told her to think about it and she called me back after 30 minutes.
"Let's do it."
We threw the kids in my living room, turned on a movie, made a plan, we made a sign, (Julie went home and made bibs) and we got on Facebook to rally troops.
 Facebook really is an amazing tool when you're trying to reach out and find people.  
We knew there were people from the Amarillo area who had registered for this race (the 13.1 or the 26.2) and were bummed that they had worked so hard for months.  

Julie rallying everyone to get out of their warm cars.

On Paramount, around mile 7. 

 And then there were 3 (and a spectator).  Somewhere around mile 22... when I would have gladly hopped into someone's car, had they pulled close enough.
Kaaren, Ben & the boys, along with a few other awesome people who didn't mind standing in the freezing wind to cheer us across the finish line.
I have NEVER been so happy to be finished with something. 

 Abby, Lori and I at the finish.

 Kaden & mommy




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