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Finished?
No?
Not yet?
OK…
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There. OK, so now that everyone is on the same page, this is how the last five in fifty went:
As you remember, it was rainy, and I was worried no one would show up to run with me.
6:30 pm was the scheduled time to run, and at 6:10 pm in comes four of my friends from Team Mimosa who ran the Tuna Run with me.
You haven’t read the blog I wrote about running The Tuna Run with Team Mimosa?
Oh, sorry, we’ll wait while you read it…
While we wait...
OK, now on with the story:
My Team Mimosa friends, Stan and Laura were not feeling up to running, but Lisa and John were up for the run!
Lisa and her husband John are amazing athletes. They have completed Ironman races. In fact, only a day before she showed up in my driveway at 6:10 pm, Lisa had completed a 100-mile bike race with her daughter. These two are truly inspirational and fast athletes. They are absolutely faster than I am!
So, they looked at me and said, “Let’s go!”
We started running and my 169-pound Great Dane, Petunia, started running with us. After a few awkward moments of yelling at my husband to get the dog, we were off and running.
I picked a route with hills that challenged me.
I nearly hyperventilated on the first hill because all I could think about is how much faster Lisa and John are than me.
Eventually, I calmed down and settled into my own pace.
They ran beside me and at times behind me the entire run.
I found this so uplifting that these two elite athletes would show up and slow up to support me.
We ran to a nearby lake and sank a little in the rain-soaked mulch, but it was OK because we were taking this journey together.
At the end of the lake trail, Stan and Laura stood and cheered us on and took pictures as though we were in an actual race.
We headed up our last long steep hill and talked about mindless banter to get up the hill.
On one of the busy streets, Laura and Stan pulled over to the side of the road in their car to honk and yell at us as we ran by.
It made me giggle.
When we passed 5 miles, we started talking about the major health crises our daughters had gone through as infants. Neither of us knew our daughters both had major health issues as babies.
We rounded the corner at about 5.5 miles and started running downhill to the bar.
“You should sprint now,” John encouraged me.
“Oh, John, I am sprinting,” I told him.
It was a saunter for him, a sprint for me, but that was OK.
(After hearing about my run and seeing this picture of me running towards the finish line, my mother asked me over the phone, “Do you always run alone through parking lots, Laurie?” I had to laugh.)
I ran harder at the end when I saw Laura, Stan, Beci (another Team Mimosa member), my husband, and my daughter holding a finish line for me to run across.
I broke the finish line tape with arms up in the air: triumphant.
After many high-fives, hugs, and kisses, we headed into the bar.
Twenty-five people showed up to celebrate with me at the bar with balloons, presents, a cake, and a crown that I will treasure for a very long time.
(I thought it was hysterical that one of the birthday balloons said Get Well!)
I am not sure how I became so fortunate to have these amazing people show up and support me in my quest for 50.
Life is full of events, whether it is running 50 or turning 50, and each step in every journey is important.
It has been a week since I actually turned 50.
Well, you’ve quit running now, right? You may be asking the computer screen right now.
No, of course I have not quit running.
A few days ago, I conquered a beastly hill with my friend Linda. Linda also recently turned 50. She had conquered that beastly hill the day before and ran it a second day in a row with me. It felt great to defeat that beast!
We ran the next day, and as if it were a gift from above for conquering that beastly hill, we saw two deer on a path we were running on. That’s pretty rare because we are noisy runners, and the deer can hear us coming miles before we get there. Then, as we ran along the lake, on the now dry mulch, we saw six playful otters. In all the years I have been to that lake, I have never seen otters.
We stopped, stared in wonder, and then continued the journey.