I heard back from my “brother” after the 1/2 Iron Man. Here’s what he said…

Deb – as you know the feeling is always mutual. Love you..

Oh, and the really cool thing is that through your help and other friends we have raised $1,530 in less than 24 hours for “Girls on the Run”

Two weeks ago 6 miles into an 8 mile run I hurt my knee and barely made it back to my car. I hadn’t run a step since then. As of Thursday night I couldn’t walk 2 miles without pain, let alone think of running 13 miles.

So that brings us to today’s race – I can’t begin to describe the emotions as I waited on the dock to start my swim and before I knew it we where off. Water was cold but I enjoyed every stroke of the 1.2 mile swim and before I knew It I was out of the water and onto the bike. The bike course was hilly – I actually hit a top speed of 43 mph on one downhill section and my slowest speed on a climb was 7 mph. While I was happy to get off the bike after 56 miles I can honestly say I have never enjoyed a ride as much as I did. Now we come to the run – only 13.1 miles standing between me and the finish line with potentially a very painful few hours coming up. This is where the power of faith and the strength of prayers from friends, family and fellow athletes comes in. I ran two blocks until the knee acted up and I walked a block. I repeated this through mile 7 when I caught up with a friend of mine and we ran/walked the remaining six together and crossed the finish line with our hands held high and smiles on our faces….the incredible thing is that there is almost no residual knee pain after the race. It almost feels normal.

There was never a time today that I wasn’t in the moment and I did enjoy every stroke, pedal and step.

Oh, and the really cool thing is that through your help and other friends we have raised $1,530 in less than 24 hours for “Girls on the Run”

Mark

I don’t know if he is blessed, lucky, insane, or a combination of the three. But he did a great job getting through a grueling day and better job raising funds for a great cause.
He’s my hero!

Deborah