Covenant Health Knoxville Marathon (half) recap #5 out of 14

Before the race I wrote this post about letting go of my expectations and last year after the half I wrote these posts that outlined 13 lessons learned from my first half: Part 1; Part 2; and Part 3.  I am not going to repeat those lessons but I want to share a few things that I didn't share before.

This year was the 10th year for the CHKM and my second year running it.  It also became my third half and as I stated last week I had no expectations going into this race- my goal was to finish and finish strong!  I did well for the first 8 -9 miles and then the heel pain flared up and I ended up having to walk WAY more than I planned (plus I had to make an extra stop at the porta potties).  BUT, when I hit that downhill that takes you into the stadium- oh my the tears popped to my eyes and I just kept pushing.  To run into the stadium and see that finish line on the 50 yard line and hear your name called out as a finisher and then get that finisher medal was the icing on the cake.

Can I tell you what the best part was though (besides finishing of course)?  I took a personal day on Monday and when I went back to school on Tuesday I took my medal with me so I could show it to the kids.  I decided to take their picture of them wearing the medal.  One of my sweet 4 year olds looked at me after I put it away and said, "Ms. Grandi, I am going to get me one of those medals." Me, "You are?" Her, "Yes, I am going to run a really long race when I get big so I can have one of those!"  Me, "I bet you will!"  and I gave her a high five.  Made all of the torture (ha), lack of training, pain, and tears worth it.  Even when I feel like I have failed because I didn't meet my goal- or I didn't do as well as I wanted- I haven't failed- not at all because in the end- maybe, just maybe, I have inspired someone to go out and be strong.

Oh, and my finish time- it was 3:04 on the dot.  Not as good as last year but many lessons learned…