Wednesday, January 16, 2008

WE DID IT!!!!!

Yes! We did it! Jason finished the FULL MARATHON and I finished the HALF MARATHON! It was an AMAZING experience and I don’t think we will ever experience anything like it again. We went OVER our goal! WOW!!!!! We raised $6876.00 for The Children’s Tumor Foundation! YAY!!! This may be a long one, but please read about out journey!

The entire weekend with family was just great! I think it was a bonding experience for us all. Saturday was our first full day there and it was full! We went to the expo to get registered and look around; however with about 50,000 people in one place it was pack to the fullest so we got out of there as soon as we could! The afternoon was pretty open so we relaxed a little and then walked around old-town Scottsdale and did a little shopping. Scottsdale is a beautiful town. Very clean, and everyone there was very nice! Saturday night was our Pasta Dinner with the foundation. It was delicious, and very cool to meet other families and people affected with NF. There were a couple of families there that had no affiliation with NF but had a heart for it and ran with us! It was very cool. We all went around the room and introduced ourselves and talked about why we were running and who for and so on. There were a lot of laughs and a lot of tears. It was great! Here are a few pictures from the pasta dinner. If you look closely at the right hand side of the picture of the group you will see a man that is affected with NF on his face. Those are large neurofibromas (or tumors).

dscn0811
dscn0804
Saturday night it was hard to go to sleep. I got in bed at about 9:30, but probably did not go to sleep until about 11 or so. Lots of things going through my head, and a lot of anxious feelings. We woke up Sunday morning at 5:00 am. Ouch! That is early! My dad took us to the shuttle and we were at that race/start lines at about 5:30 or so. Jason’s race started at 7:40 and mine at 8:30, so we had a lot of time to kill. We had breakfast, walked around, stretched and sat a lot! It was COLD and boring and it seemed like the time was creeping by!

The time for Jason to get lined up finally arrived! He got lined up and the gunshot went off…and off he went. I had a little less than an hour before I had to line up. I went to meet the group to get all lined up and was ready to go. The gun shot went off and because there were so many people running the half marathon it was about 30 minutes later before I was actually running. That feeling was so amazing! It really was.

The start of the race was of course the easiest! It only got harder though. This was probably one of the hardest things I have ever done and I think Jason will agree with me whole heartedly! Once it started I ran for a little while with a few girls from the foundation but not for long, I ran by myself for 99% of it.

I will have to say that running this was so emotional. There were so many emotions that just overwhelmed me and I could not control it. I would start to cry while running. I would see family, or supporters passing out water, gels, or light snacks to help and they were yelling “You’re doing awesome”, “Keep going”, “way to go Katy” and it would just fill me with so much passion and so much love and support that I would almost weep while running. It was simply miraculous. I know that Jason had the same feelings during his marathon. It got really hard at about mile 8 or 9. I was walking the water stations…plus a little more and my legs were killing me. I walked I would say about 3 or 4 miles out of the 13 on and off. Of course I had to finish up running so I ran the last half mile (plus the .1 if that counts!) Passing the finish line was so great! A felling and a high I will never forget. Once I got my medal and picture, I ventured through the crowd to find the finishers tent and Jason. He had not made it there yet. We wait on him and when I saw him walking from the finish line I ran to him and we embraced and just cried. It was incredible. The emotion and the love and the determination that made us do this just filled our bodies with the strength to do this for Denver, for our family and for everyone out there that has NF and can’t run or can’t walk because of the disorder. It was seriously and I can not say this enough one of the best experiences of a lifetime! Here are a few pictures of our journey!

dscn0820 dscn0823 dscn0825 dscn0826 dscn0828 dscn0829 dscn0832

I want to thank EVERYONE for your prayers. I could feel them while I was running! Thank you for the encouraging words, for the support and love. Thank you for all your donations. It all amazes me and we are truly blessed to be a part of such an remarkable group of friends and families!

By the way, Denver did FANTASTIC on his first plane ride. He got a little anxious towards the end…and had really bad gas (hee hee) but he was so sweet! He also did great rooting mama and dada on at race day! He is such an amazing little boy and I would put my life on the line for him. The love a parent has for a child is like no other. He is the reason we did this in the first place and the reason we will EVER do it again. (we will see!)

Here are our times!!! More pics to come!

Katy Wakin #39659

Burleson, TX

Age: 27 Gender: F

3 Hours 8 Minutes 40 Seconds

Jason Wakin #6599


Burleson, TX

Age: 26 Gender: M

5 Hours 26 Minutes 17 Seconds

REMEMBER YOU CAN LEAVE COMMENTS!!!

Click on "SHOUT OUTS"

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

That was awesome to read about!!! I got a little teary eyed when I saw the pic of you and J hugging. So sweet. I love you so much and am so proud of you!

Misty said...

that was a great account of your travel to phoenix Katy. your memories brought tears to MY eyes! (i can't imagine. me? cry? haha) but seriously, i can see how truly special it was for ya'll, and the emotion shows in the pics. i love ya'll!

Misty said...

that was a great account of your travel to phoenix Katy. your memories brought tears to MY eyes! (i can't imagine. me? cry? haha) but seriously, i can see how truly special it was for ya'll, and the emotion shows in the pics. i love ya'll!

Anonymous said...

YAY!!! You guys did it and we knew you could! We are so thrilled for you guys! I loved reading this story, it was so touching!! Congrats to both of you!!

emily said...

What a great account of your journey and experience!! Way to go Katy. I am really proud of you.

Avery said...

i tagged you!