The Race! The Finish!

Life is a race isn' t it?  22 weeks of training, plus 2 weeks of taper all to get ready for this fabulous race.  The race I didn't even get to start.  I'll never know why, but I definitely took my mom's advice.
Remember Lesson number 6?  Activate Plan B when Plan A fails.

So I did.  As I sat here disappointed, with tears in my eyes, thinking "now what/", I decided- Dallas Marathon!  It is 34 days from today.  I can definitely extend the training 5 more weeks, and I'll be there.  I't funny how things work with athletic endeavors.  Sometimes we have setbacks.  Sometimes we get sick.  And sometimes, we get injured or other things happen.  But in life, it is just one day in the presence of so many.  So, I have a lot of days to go to get to this goal of mine.  It is my sincere hope to run Boston when I am 50.  That means I have until Sept 1 of 2016 to qualify!  So- onward and upward!  I still press on toward the mark (finish line) to which I have been called heavenward.  That mark is using the talents I've been given to follow HIS plan for my life, and honor HIM in the process.  What a  joy it is to know that all my talents are so beyond ME and that because of HIM I am who I am.  I've always believed that.  But I can say, I may have never learned that without the mentoring, teaching, and modeling of my mom.

Let's finish her Journey!  

Part 7 The Finish! from Twenty-six things I learned running a marathon By Joyce Wyrostek

Lesson 23 – Like a woman in labor no lumbering runner wants to hear “one last push”. I was just about to cross the twenty sixth mile when someone came up and put their hand on my shoulder.  Now the rules of the game are that fans can run alongside of you to the finish but if they help you in any way you will be disqualified.  I was about to thrust an elbow in the gut of my possible disqualifier when the familiar voice of my son-in-law said, “Congratulations grandma you’ve about got her licked.”  Whew, glad my reflexes were slow.  He told me that my daughter had finished a couple of hours ago and she was standing at the turn just before the final .2 miles.

“One last push” as a departing comment almost earned him the mid-section punch anyway but I didn’t have the energy to follow him and get back on course.  I was simply too close to being done to concern myself with anything else.

Lessons 24 – Family makes all the difference – I was thrilled to see my daughter standing at the corner.  She hollered “Way to go mom”. She didn’t join me for the final jaunt to the finish line she had just run 26.2 miles and wasn’t feeling like moving much herself.  She did encourage me to kick it though and I told her I just couldn’t and I was telling the truth.

I had gone a few more yards when another daughter joined me on the right.  She said she would run the last of it with me but she couldn’t go over the line with me.  She skipped like a young deer at my side and said, “Look at me I’m running in Grandma’s marathon”.  Quite a thrill for a girl who never ran more than a half mile in her entire 35 years of life.

Her presence took my mind off of myself completely and I was happy for the company, I could see the finish line and I desperately tried to pick up my pace but to no avail. 

Lesson 25 – The race is not always to the swift but to those who keep on going. Finally it was over I almost wanted to cry when an official handed me my medal and T Shirt that said, “Finisher”. I was grateful that it did not post the time on either.  For those of you who are curious as to just how long it did take me, you don’t need to know.  All that’s really important is that I finished.

I’m only kidding; my official time was 6 hours and 22 minutes.  I did not qualify for Boston but I finished the whole thing without assistance and I cheated the ambulance out of trip to the hospital.  My hip was now hurting much more than my leg.  I later found out that there was really nothing wrong with my ham string.  It was all in the Gluteus Maximus region that caused the pain to run down my leg so the brace that chaffed my leg had been quite unnecessary

Lesson 26 – No journey is taken alone, and the victory belongs to everyone.  There was none of the usual celebration on site after the run, the food tables were taken down, and there were few drink stations. I picked up a couple bottles of water and made my way to the tent that had my bag with a change of clothes, the bars I had forgotten to pocket before the race and my flip flops which was my primary concern.

There was still a crowd of people but we had arranged ahead of time where we would meet everyone and try to head home as soon as the race was over. We made our way through the maze and stood waiting for our driver to pick us up.  Once we were on the road the stories began.  Those who had not run shared the excitement of watching the first runners cross the finish line. They talked aboutconversations they had overheard from runners that were gathering with families at the finish.  We discussed victories and defeats and shared some good laughs.

I got to hear all the concerns they had about me.  Everyone knew my leg was hurting before we ever got to the start of the course so they were texting messages to others who were watching my progress on the internet. When I had not crossed the half way mark by three hours my non-running daughter said she was certain I was camped in an emergency vehicle awaiting transport.  Then she received a text from my coach in Missouri and she cheered.  My running daughter said, “I would have been so upset if you had not finished this marathon after all you’ve put into it.”

When I heard how many people were “tuned in” to my journey I was grateful that I had won the physical and mental battles all along the course.  And I realized that I was never alone; I had a whole cheering section that breathed a sigh of relief and raised their arms in victory with me when I crossed the line.

News of my completion traveled swiftly across the airwaves and I began to receive congratulation from all over the country by text.  Interestingly no one really got too concerned about how long it took me they were just happy I finished.  So I put disappointment aside and celebrated with them.  I wore my FINISHER T Shirt for three days.

There is a day coming for all of us when we will cross the finish line of life.  How well we do and how strong we finish is all about the choices we make on the journey.  We can finish with regret or complete satisfaction of having done our best.  I am looking forward to the day when I will hear the creator say, “Well done.”  Until then I have an extraordinary life to live.

Joyce did live an extraordinary life.  She accomplished many, many, many things.  First Woman in MN to earn a blackbelt in Judo, National Water Ski Champion- Jumping, Chief Judge of the National Water- Ski Tournament, Inductee into the National Water-Ski Hall of Fame, Pastor, Teacher, Minister.  But she would tell you none of that was important.  The only thing important in life is that she knew Christ.  The verse at the top of our Blog is her life verse.  She lived everyday, for everyone as though she would run the race for LIFE.  Life with her creator. 

This blog will continue with her archived words for the day.  Thank
you for following her Journey.