I was worried about all the long runs that I would have to run solo but they ended up being the best runs of my training. I hit my peak in Mid September and the following days and weeks brought nothing but troubles. I had injured my foot, developed a sever sinus infection along with some other sicknesses, and thought, "There is no way I am going to finish! I worked so hard and for what??" I was feeling defeated and a little bit angry. I had made sure my training didn't interfere with my family life. My weekday runs were finished before anyone in my family was even awake and I was back from all of my long runs by 9 or 10am; barely infringing on mommy time. Why now, would I have to deal with all of these problems?
As I was out in Dimple Dell Gully for a run, just a week before race day (I managed all of 5 miles), I had a little conversation with God that went something like this:
"I have, my whole life, wanted to run an ultra marathon. Please, if there is anything you can do, help me to have a strong race and finish! I promise, I'll do whatever it is you have in store for me since you allowed me this opportunity to reach for one of my dreams!"
At that moment, I received an impression, clear as day, that I was going to have another baby. WHAT!?!? This cant be! I loved my little family of 4 and had a difficult enough time handling the children I had, how could I possibly throw another one in the mix?
I chose not to share this little tidbit of information with my husband right away.....
The night before the race, was the first night in a long time I was finally able to breath. After a failed attempt to tape my foot I figured, oh well, we'll see how it holds up. I was well rested and ready to run.
The Pony Express 50 gave me 50 of the best race miles I had ever experienced! I took my aunt Evelyns advise and ran STRONG and HAPPY! I had the best crew and the best family support anyone could ask for.
 |
| Pony Express (right before 30 miles to nowhere) |
 |
| My Crew: JaNae, Anna, Me, Rachel and Tori |
After things had settled, Brent and I had the "talk." Apparently Brent had known for a long time that we were supposed to have another baby but wanted to wait until the right time. I guess he finally built up the courage several weeks earlier and when he walked through the door the first words out of my mouth were, "We are DONE having kids!" I guess it had been a particularly challenging day for me.... which isn't really unusual.
Before we knew it, I was pregnant and after 9 VERY LONG months, Nina came into our world, just two days shy of the year mark of that first 50 miler. She has been such an amazing blessing! I guess God knew what he was doing. Maybe if I hadn't been injured I would never have been open to the direction to keep building our family. Maybe I would have burned myself out and not been as strong as I needed to be to finish my race. I guess we'll never really know.
Things seem to work out how they need to. Is it always easy? No. In fact it is usually just plain hard. It's the tender moments that get us through the challenges. It's the smiles, the majestic mountain tops, the warm summer evenings on the patio and moments like this one:
 |
| Nina and Mommy in the hospital: October 2014 |
No comments:
Post a Comment