Hello from the Caymans! Today was marathon day and the good news is that every member of the Team Canada Joints in Motion team finished their events. Congrats to all of you - you truly are an inspiration to us all! There were 6 of us that did the full marathon and the rest of the team respectfully finished the half. Did I mention that a lot of those that participated today through the Joints in Motion program are actually living with some form of Arthritis. What an extraordinary accomplishment for you all to make!
My marathon was a mixed bag of highs and lows with the second loop (it was a 2 lap course) being the hardest 21.1kms I've ever run. We started in the pitch black at 5am - thank goodness for the blinking red lights they gave us to wear or I think there would have been a lot more collisions than what I saw. My first lap I felt really strong and kept a good pace finishing the first 21.1kms in 2:04 and feeling good. It was shortly after that at 23kms that my hamstrings and quads started to seize. This course is flat, flat, flat! Some of you may be thinking "isn't that a good thing?" No, it's not a good thing. A flat course means your muscles are repeating the exact same motion over and over again for the duration of the race. When a course has some hills in it, your muscles get a bit of variation and stretch out a bit on the hills. So at 23kms my legs were screaming "enough already!" Keeping in mind the paragraph above and the knowledge that those who live with arthritis don't get to quit life because they're in pain I persevered. I struggled through the second lap with both the seizing legs and a wonderful case of "runner's bum" that had me making 2 emergency potty stops. My official chip time was 4:30.52 - but my potty stop adjusted time (I stopped my timer while in the loo) was 4:26:14 which is a personal best for me.
I am currently sitting in bed with my legs up getting ready for nap time once I'm finished this post. After nap time I will be hitting up the hot tub and trying to massage away the lactic acid build-up in my legs that seems to be causing quite a bit of discomfort at this point. The awkward part of having so much pain in my legs is that I really can't complain. I will only have to endure this pain for the next 24-48 hours. Many of the people I'm here with have to endure this amount of pain every day of their lives.
I am so proud to have been able to accomplish this goal and raise funds for such an incredibly worthy cause. These are some of the most genuine people I have ever met and I am absolutely humbled by their candor in sharing their stories with me and their ability to endure the countless surgeries and pain that they live with everyday. Thank you to everyone who supported me through this - the real people who deserve your support are the many Arthritis Heros who are here with me today.
