Mistletoe Magic

So, the weather is turning cold, sometimes rainy, and there are so many days now where the absolute last thing I want to do is go for a run.  In fact, I was in a bit of a funk about this whole marathon thing.  But then, in spite of a persistent leg injury (ITB Syndrome - not IBS, he wants me to mention), Matt insisted that we sign up for the Mistletoe Half-Marathon here in Winston-Salem this past weekend.  I was totally unenthusiastic, especially as they were predicting freezing rain and possibly snow for Saturday morning.  But Matt insisted, and he isn't usually a person who insists, so I figured I'd better humor him and at least sign us up.

And then Saturday morning came around, and it was cold, and rainy, and we were really tired, and Matt's leg was still hurting, and ... we got up and did it anyway.  We had a bit of a lackluster start in that I was still in the bathroom of the YMCA when the starting gun was fired, so we had to hot-foot it down to the start line, but after that the whole thing was really fun.  As small as Winston-Salem is, it is amazing that over 900 people would come out to run 13 miles on a freezing December morning.  It's inspiring to see the mix of people - teenage cross-country kids who run 5 minute miles the whole way, 70+ year olds (several of whom finished long before we did), groups of friends, co-workers, and people big and small.  Whenever I run with a big group of people like that, I catch these waves of emotion and get choked up thinking about the collective spirit of all these folks.  Normally that's pretty embarrassing, but with the rain coming down so hard, I was totally low-profile.  Plus, running through familiar neighborhoods you see friends standing in their front yards with bathrobes on and kids banging on metal bowls to cheer everyone on, so I was smiling and waving half the time.      

So we both ran the whole thing and even felt pretty good afterwards.  And then we pretty much spent the whole rest of the weekend on the couch napping (me) and icing achy joints (Matt).  But I feel like we have our marathon mojo back and are getting excited for the actual race.  Thanks so much for for all the kind words of encouragement - we need it!