The Baltimore Marathon

I completed the Baltimore Marathon yesterday! I had high expectations for myself... improve my time by 1 minute! Hahaha But instead I guess my body wanted to be enjoying Baltimore for an extra hour this year. I was doing fine until about mile 10 when my right elbow/tricep started burning! Soon after I got to pass all of my Kennedy Krieger family with their huge smiles and loud cheers!! I kinda wanted to just pull off right there! Haha but I told myself that I would just get to my wonderful parents who were not far ahead and get my deep blue (like icy hot) from them... rub it on really quick and keep going... maybe! Lol But they didn't have it with them and I just couldn't give up yet! So I kept going. We had to stop a couple of times and one of my riders, Holly would massage my arm to try to take some of the pain away. My mentality of the race went from improving my time to "just keep swimming!" I am not one to push through pain!!! I know I have to use my arms in order to keep my independence so I am very aware of pain and try to take the precautions necessary to not cause it! Or stop when I am causing it! Haha but something was different this time! I have worked so hard to get here! I did not want to quit! There was an awesome medal waiting for me at the end! Lol I just kept going. I had at least 10 miles left to go and then my other arm decided to join the pain train. I remember thinking, if I stop now I still have to get back to the inner harbor so I might as well finish! At one point the half marathoners joined us and when there are a lot of runners it makes it difficult to pick up speed down hill which helps to get up the next hill. So I felt like I was doing so much more work than I wanted. I actually collided with a woman, I was going very slowly because I saw her start to move in front of me, but she walked in front of me and my front tire tripped her! I felt so bad, and so deflated because I had just gone down and was trying to use the little speed I had to make it uphill part of the way, and I had to stop so I didn't really hurt this lady! She got up and started running again so I am hoping she is fine! I came to a complete stop and started to go again but it was so hard uphill that I started to go backwards. Someone from behind gave me a boost and it was such a kind act! And we kept going!! This marathon has the best of the best people!! The best community support on the sidelines and the best runners! In the beginning when the marathoners caught up to me they were so supportive!! Telling me good job and offering such kind words of encouragement!! When the half marathoners joined us they were just starting out and were energized and also offered so much encouragement!! I got a lot of "good job buddy!" And "keep going, your doing great!" It made me feel so good to have so many people who were also doing a very difficult thing, to think outside of themselves and offer support!! It was quite remarkable actually and I started thinking, why did my arms have to hurt so bad!! I wanted the pain to go away so I could finish faster and not have so many runners pass me! Lol and then I had the thought.... MAYBE IT ISN'T ABOUT YOU!!!
Sometimes it's good for other people to see us struggle(Physically and Emotionally)... It helps others get through things that are hard for them!
It helps put things in perspective and can help them see their burdens as something not as painful as what they had originally thought! And it helps motivate others to keep trying!
I'm not saying I was out there doing anything extra special! It just made me think about how sometimes when we are going through hard things we don't want to burden others with our pain so we keep it to ourselves. But maybe we can help others by talking about our pain! Or letting others see that we are in pain!! None of those people knew that I was in pain... they just saw me struggling to get up the hills. They didn't know that last year I went up them a lot faster! In fact so much faster that I was through that part before the half marathoners even came through! But this year was different! This year I learned a lot about myself! This was by far the hardest physical thing I have ever done! And I have so many people to thank for helping me get here!!

 My friend Emily was running the full marathon and we kept going back and forth passing each other! She was always such an amazing cheerleader! And it meant so much to have her there!! Then towards the end Ann and her cute kids were on the side cheering for me!!! It was such a huge help to me and I am so grateful for their support!! My parents who have ridden and trained with me and who came to cheer me on!! My personal trainers! My aweoeme bikers that stayed with me the entire race! My wonderful pit crew that helped me on and off the bike! All of the people that donated money to help make this possible and of course my amazing second family Kennedy Krieger!! Who are always reminding me that I can do hard things and they will be there with me every step of the way! :)
Ok Chris... next years goal... 3:59! Haha that's how that works right? One min faster than the previous year?? Lol
#teamKennedyKrieger