On our way to the race we saw one of our fellow L Street running club members and in unison called out, "Hassan." He is an amazing runner and a great friend of ours.
The energy of race day is always electric. My job as support crew was to take Tom's warm up clothes and put them in the backpack, cheer him on at the start and scream for him at the finish.
We took a pre race selfie:
What a difference from sending Tom off this year! Last year, while I was making progress in my healing journey, it was slow and halting. But this year - I am off the sidelines and training for the Bermuda Half Marathon in just a couple of months!
As I was walking back to the hotel, I realized he didn't have a Luna bar because he opted to not wear a fuel belt. Hmmm what's support crew supposed to do?
Let spirit guide. I rushed into the Expo and got a course map. After dropping things off in the room, I got into my car and headed out to mile 10. I knew that Tom would be fine because he had a great pre race meal the night before and a good breakfast but I was moved to go out and meet him with his fuel.
I saw the mile 11 mile marker and the volunteers told me I was welcome to park in a nearby lot but that spot didn't feel right to me. I drove down to where I thought mile 10 was supposed to be at the Falmouth Yacht Club but there was no mile marker. I was heading back to mile 11 when I saw the mile 10 mile marker. Perfect!
I arrived just in time to see the lead runner pass by. I sat in the car for a little bit and then as the back of the front packers and mid packers started to arrive, I got out and cheered them on.
I was wearing my 2009 Boston Marathon jacket. "Do you have any gel?" a woman runner asked me. "I have a Luna bar," I told her. "Great. I was feeling nauseous and dizzy and didn't think I'd make it to the finish without something." She broke off half off the Luna bar and off she went. As I shouted, double digits only a 5K to go, runners thanked me for being out there. I imagined how Tom and I will feel when we reach 10 miles in Bermuda Hassan came running by and I screamed for him. He smiled.
Tom came running up and said, "Hey what are you doing out here?" I told him I brought him his Luna bar. He felt fine but told me that more than the Luna bar, seeing me at mile 10 gave him an incredible boost. We checked his splits and his last 3 miles were his fastest splits and his last mile was a 9 minute mile.
Spirit guided me to the finish line, a parking space, and made it with time to spare to see Tom come down to the finish. He finished 16th in his division and took 1:05 off of last year's time.
We had heard about Boulangerie on Main St from Marcie DiLorenzo, a dear member of our running family. We refueled on delicious French pastry and hot coffee and headed back to the hotel for pool time.
I could feel the heal and pain moving through me. I was amazed at how energized I felt despite being up since 5:30 am and having a full morning. During my afternoon meditation I heard Spirit ask me, "How does it feel to be healed?"
I relish times where I am pain free and those moments happen with greater frequency.
Time to head into down for dinner. We returned to La Cucina Sul Mare where there were wall to wall people, mostly runners. There were marathoners eating with gusto fueling for Sunday's marathon and half marathoners proudly wearing their medals. We just happened to have the same waitress, Patricia, as we had on our first night in Falmouth and she said that we had to promise her we'd come down before next October.
Day 2 of our runcation was a rousing success blessed in every imaginable way.
One more day to go ...
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