Run, Run, as Fast as You Can

Finally, I saw him round the corner, just yards from the finish line and moments away from the rest of his life as a marathoner. He said it felt like giving birth. I said, I'm so glad this is over, even as I prepared myself to hear the inevitable the next morning: Maybe I'll run another one. I knew he would say that, just like I knew he would finish the first one. Sometimes you just know. But it wasn't an easy road- are there any medals available for Babysitter of the Marathoner? I didn't think so. Just cheesy songs about being the Wind Beneath the Wings and so forth.

The night before the Utah Valley Marathon, I went to bed early. Ty was getting jittery- setting his alarm for 3;30 am, trying to decide what to wear in a rainstorm/windstorm/hot June day, and generally freaking out. My job was to leave the house with my 3 kids at 7:30 and get down to the finish line before Ty crossed it. I was necessarily worried a good deal myself about those logistics.

Even still, it wasn't my Christmas morning. I fell asleep without another thought, until 4:30 am when I was shocked awake by my panicked husband. The alarm never went off- he was an hour late to catch the bus up to the starting line. Old school alarm: 1. iPhone: 0.

I saw the past few months of 2 hour runs, counseling sessions, and indepth excruciating conversations about shoes, peppered with words like "pronate" and "IT band" flash before my bleary eyes. There was no parking up the canyon and no access to the starting line after 5:00 am. Even at 4 I can do that math. We were 45 minutes away with 20 minutes and counting.

I grabbed my shoes, grabbed my kids, and grabbed Ty, who was protesting a bit about the insanity of the situation. I started backing out of the driveway before he was even in the car, only to turn around a minute later when we realized the ipod was still on the kitchen counter. That catastrophy averted, we were on our way with three children wide awake in the back seat.

It was raining and chilly, but we were going to take a stab at this, and secretly I knew that nothing was going to stop me from getting him there. We had both invested too much, and I'm just not that flexible. I didn't care what road they closed, I was prepared to do whatever it took.

Luckily for me, I didn't have to find out because my Dad had decided to bring his state of the art camera to the starting line and was already en-route. We met at the freeway, and Ty jumped in. That wind helped as well. The weather delayed the race just enough to push the road block back to 5:30 and allow Ty a nice leather-seated ride right up to the starting line at precicely 5:27 am.

He ran the race. And he finished it. I was there at the finish line to see him cry. I cried a little too, and it was a very good good day.