To tell you the truth, I've been a bit down lately. My job is extremely stressful, and I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed trying to excel in my career while also taking care of my husband and our home. I've really needed to get away, and last weekend I did just that.
Emily and I had been planning on running the Oklahoma City Memorial Half-Marathon, so I road-tripped it to the Sooner state on Friday afternoon. Dan was planning on tagging along, but ended up having to stay home to prepare for a trial on Monday morning. Although I missed spending time with him, I think it was actually good for me to get away by myself and have some quality girl time with Emily.
The thing that's special about our friendship is that she's the one friend I have who has always been in exactly the same place as me. Don't get me wrong, I adore all of my friends. But Emily is special because we can completely relate to each other and have been that way since the day we met. Both young, single, and living in a new city, we immediately became friends. I love to hear her tell the story of how we met: "You walked into the dinner party wearing high heels with your jeans. At that moment, I knew we'd be friends." And she was right. Shortly thereafter, we decided that we wanted to run a marathon.
I'd waddled my way through one half-marathon a few months before that, but neither of us were serious runners. We had our hearts set on it, though, and immediately started training. After our first 5-k in the freezing rain of a January morning, I knew that she was in it for the long haul. And so began our Saturday tradition: 7 am at Bread Company in Clayton. 2 miles down Forsyth to Forest Park, a loop (or two) around, and back for coffee and bagels. We ran for hours and hours, talking the whole time. Fast forward a few months, and we'd run the Runner's World 1/2 in PA. Right about the same time, we each met our future husbands. As our training intensified, we had plenty to talk about on our long runs. A few months after that, we'd run the Chicago Marathon, and about a year later we both got engaged. Now, we're both newlyweds adjusting to married life, and I can't tell you how nice it is to have her by my side to experience it all.
Yep, a trip that included time with Emily and some good long-distance running was just what I needed. The only problem was that neither of us was as dedicated in our training as we should have been (hey, we're each 500 miles away from our favorite running partner). The morning of the race, we had pretty low expectations, and were praying that we'd make it through the 13.1 miles at all. Surprisingly, we're still in pretty good shape. We ran about 10 miles and walked the rest, and finished a good 40 minutes slower than our last one. All in all though, it was much better than we'd anticipated. The run itself was extremely moving. It centers around the Oklahoma City National Memorial, and participants are given the opportunity to run in honor of a bombing victim. I chose Kimberly Burgess, because she was my age and a newlywed when she was killed. At about mile 12, when we were cursing our lack of training, Emily told me to think that Kimberly's family was waiting at the finish line, and that I owed it to them to finish strong. That was all the push I needed.
Emily's parents took a pic of us at the finish line (Thanks, Mr. & Mrs. B!) but until I get it emailed to me, here's my medal and t-shirt to prove to you that I actually did it:
So thanks again for a great weekend, Emily. You have no idea how much I needed it. Now it's time to get ready for Chicago!
