This year's Seawheeze wasn't exactly the same as last year's.
Why?
1) Steve ran it with me! That was a positive difference.
2) We had moving on our mind. We probably should've been home packing instead of heading to Vancouver for the weekend. The race was 8 days from our moving date, but there was no way we were missing Seawheeze!
3) I ended up getting the flu Friday morning, and after doing some early morning waiting and shopping at the Seawheeze store (when I realized I was NOT feeling well), I stayed in bed. ALL. DAY. I missed our volunteer shift, I couldn't eat anything, and then I started feeling sorry for myself. It wasn't fair. Life wasn't supposed to happen like this. I didn't want to leave our life in Issaquah behind. Moving was going to be too hard. And now I couldn't even run the race I'd been looking forward to since January. Poor me.
4) We saw our good friend, Shawna LeSeuer, while waiting in line AND at the beginning of the race. That was super fun to catch up and run with her for a while (pink socks below).
5) Steve gave me a blessing of health, which interfered with my plans to keep feeling sorry for myself.
6) Steve dragged me out of bed at 7:00 a.m. on race day (the race started at 7), made me eat half a banana, and said we were going to complete this race one way or another. Once again, a road block for my continuing pity party. I was determined to stay in bed and miss the race. That way I'd have plenty to complain about.
7) I actually did feel better Saturday morning, but I hadn't eaten anything the day before, except some crackers and a few bites of chicken noodle soup from Tim Horton's. But I had slept all day. I was hoping they would weigh each other out. I thought of the swag at the end of the race. I thought of the great feeling I get when I finish a race. And I could no longer resist Steve begging me to just get up and put my shoes on.
8) We had a nice warm-up run booking it to the start line and getting into a corral that left about 7:20. And then we were off. It was my slowest race in the history of my races, but the race I ran with the most determination I've ever had to muster. Poor Steve stuck with me and therefore ran his slowest race, but we never stopped to walk or rest and for me, that was a victory.
9) Shortly after the race, we packed up the truck and headed home. No more partying for us. Back home. Back to reality. Back to packing. Or start packing.
10) I once again proved that I can do hard things. And once again Steve was there to make sure I did. It's not always about finishing fast, or even running the race you planned on. It is about moving forward, step by step, not giving up, and not finding excuses.
