The Unexpected

11 days ago my father and I sat around anxiously in our Orlando guest house waiting for the clock to strike 7pm.  This signified when it was generally acceptable for us to stop pretending like we weren't anxious, get our running gear on, and make our way to the starting line of our first half marathon.  The race was still not scheduled to start until 10pm but it's Disney World so they likely had to secure the perimeter and find all of the missing children before 10,000 runners blasted through the parks.

We arrived to the pre-race party, were mildly entertained by a DJ but significantly entertained by costumes people were brave enough to wear.  We sat, stretched, walked, and gawked for 90 minutes.  They made the announcement that in 15 minutes we could move to the corrals.  This would be a welcome release from all of the waiting and anticipating.

We felt a small drizzle begin to fall before the announcement was made; our race was going to be delayed due to lightning within 5 miles of the course.  Rain is ok, lightning is not.  10,000 runners shuffled their warmed up bodies into three different sports complexes on the ESPN Wide World of Sports campus.  We finally got settled and began to check weather and twitter repeatedly for any updates.

The atmosphere was a bit grim.  Awkward "pump up" music was playing in the background to distract us from the fact that we had no control of anything in the universe.  After an hour of disappointing "no news" announcements, we were finally allowed to return to the race headquarters.

Buzz in the crowd suggested that a twitter post had been made noting the race was to be cut short by 6 miles.  Sure enough, the announcers confirmed that, due to more incoming lightning the race would be 7.1 miles, eliminating the part of the course through Animal Kingdom.

It is here where I began to lose a bit of faith in humanity.  Sure, it was disappointing, I trained for a whole year and was looking forward to earning the 13.1 bumper sticker.  However, here we were, in DISNEYWORLD, getting the opportunity to run through the parks that represent some of the best memories of my childhood.  Lots of people were mad.  Lots of people talked about the letters they would write or the seething tweets they were sending.  We were a bit tired, but other than that, grateful to run.

We are no strangers to the idea of the "unexpected".  In fact, our team name, "Pacemaker and a Babymaker" is representative of how the unexpected shoved its way into our lives in 2012/2013.  My pregnancy was unexpected.  My father's pacemaker and subsequent drama that followed was unexpected.  I have never been more proud to be in my wolf pack family than watching how we adjusted to the unexpected.  We found joy and celebration alongside pain and confusion.

It's really only fitting that the damned half marathon we had been predicting the outcome of for 10 months would end up with an unexpected twist.

We made our way up to the starting line.  Each corral was sent off with fireworks and celebration.  It was awesome.

The course was absolutely gorgeous.  Every detail was attended to, per usual for Disney World.  Our favorite was the Dancing Lights at Disney's Hollywood Studios.  We stopped for a picture.

I felt like I could have easily run the extra 6 miles.  My body felt amazing.  I remembered times when a mile felt impossible.  The music in my headphones that my brother and I curated that afternoon kept my feet moving, the atmosphere of the crowd kept my spirits up.  My father running beside me reminded me that we are always stronger with our loved ones next to us.  I got my personal best mile time and quickly forgot about the angst of weather delays.

The medal may not fully represent the amount of miles I ran that night but it represents overcoming fear, pushing through discomfort, reclaiming my body as mine, valuing health and happiness, and relying on family for support.  

THIS IS WHERE I THANK ALL OF YOU FOR ALL OF YOUR SUPPORT.  I put that part in caps in case you want to shuffle through all the touchy feely encourage-y stuff.  Seriously, I had all of the feelings every time someone contributed to our St. Jude's fundraising page.  We absolutely felt your energy along each step of the way.  So many of you came out with your own stories of struggle and overcoming obstacles and for that I am grateful to have your energy in my life.  Most of all, you believed in us.  There were days over the past couple years where I relied on that more than anything.  

We are already making plans to return next year and avenge our 6 miles.  Thank you for joining with us in this journey.

And don't worry......I still decided that a morning-after-race Corona was in order....

We earned it.  

Love to all of you.

XOXO, Babymaker