Inspired

Wednesday:
Usually our Wednesday night endurance runs are not that exciting, but this one was. About a month ago, a girl named Shannon came and spoke to us before one of our Saturday runs. She talked to us about her special friend Natasha, a little girl she got matched up with through the Children's Cancer Association. Natasha lost her fight to cancer. Shannon was so touched by this little girl Natasha that she decided to run a marathon distance (26.2 miles) for her, after work on Wednesday. Imagine that, imagine running a marathons distance in the evening in someone's honor. These are the types of people we are blessed to interact with. So during our endurance run through downtown Portland, our Coaches made sure we met up with her along her route so that we all got to run with her for a bit. It was awesome, and we got to see Natasha's mom and other TNT people/friends rooting Shannon on while we ran with her for a bit, very emotional to say the least. I wondered what Shannon's water cooler chat was like on Thursday. I imagine it being something like this:

Shannon: "Hey Tina, how was your night last night?"
Tina: "Oh it was good, I made some dinner and watched Modern Family. How about you Shannon?"
Shannon: "Well I got out of here and went and ripped off a personal marathon around Portland."

Are you kidding me???

So my actual training on this night was just go run 6 miles, and again, I ran with "the fast kids", but this run got interesting for me about halfway though. I pushed myself on this run harder than I have on any previous run. I thought I just wanted to push myself, but I realize now, as I type this blog that I did it because I was inspired, inspired by Shannon. Oh and just to set the scene, I had this sharp, sucky pain in my side as soon I started running, probably bc I didn't drink enough water, and that pain never went away during my run, awesome. And then, at around mile 3, I find myself running next to Maryann, the fastest girl we train with. You have to see this girl run, it is beyond effortless, and beyond impressive. And before I knew it, her and I were pulling away from Bonnie and the gang. And then we pulled even further away , and there was no letting up now, so I said what the fu*#. I knew we had about 2.5 miles to go, and I just hauled ass with her for the rest of the run. I was one level away from sprinting, and before I knew it, we were easily running an 8 minute mile speed, probably faster, and we were conversing! Well, I conversed and sucked wind while Maryann casually conversed and trotted along. And at one point, she even tells me that I am pushing her, I couldn't believe it, nor could I believe I was still keeping up with her. And I almost finished the run with her, but I was either going to throw up or pass out, so I slowed down right at the end. Oh the things we do for the cause.

Saturday's run (our long run) started off rough, weather-wise. It was raining pretty good and it was just raw as hell. We have been so lucky on our long runs, so I knew this day would come. But it was a fall back day, so we were only running 10 miles, last week we ran 12. I love that I am already saying "only 10 miles". Bon and I said we would run together, nice and slow. I was committed to that cause. We have both pushed pretty hard on our long runs up until now, so I LOVED taking this one easy. And I have to say, it was an easy 10. It seems like such an oxymoron but sometimes you have these good runs, you wish they were all this good. And Bonnie and I got to run with this great couple Mike and Kelly. Mike is a cop, and he and Kelly are running the San Diego marathon with us in June. I got to find out why they signed up for TNT. Mike lost one of his fellow cops/friends on the job to cancer, and they are both running in his honor. It is amazing what these people we train with do to themselves for other people. The time this training takes out of your lives is unprecedented, and what it does to your body is mind blowing. The aches and the pains are all worth it though when you have a purpose. But the ones that really blow me away are the ones that are training with us and are raising thousands of dollars just because they are amazing people. Happy Easter everyone, and thanks for reading.

And by the way, we are a country mile away from our fundraising goal, so if anyone feels inspired to help by donating a small amount, please do so. Thanks!


http://pages.teamintraining.org/or/rnr10/ssullivugm

Sean