Blisters Don't Need Chemo

This weekend was the race! And boy, was it cold. 26 degrees. Normally, you could still be warm in those temps if you were running, but thanks to the wave start, I spent about an hour or more just standing around freezing. I have never been so happy to start running 13 miles in my life. Until I realized my feet were numb of course. It was like running on blocks. I could not feel my toes or feel my feet rotating. I suffered for this on Sunday because my ankles and feet were very sore. Fortunately, other than stiffness and a mild hip pain, that was the extent of the woes. Well, except for the patch on my back that is always chaffed. Marc said he could tell the exact moment the shower reached that spot because he heard me whimpering through the walls at the hotel.

The run was great though. Cold temperatures aside, the warmth of the fans and runners was overwhelming. The race started with a St. Jude child singing the National anthem. What struck me was that this child was not a good singer. She was quite bad. But people were moved to tears nonetheless. Corral #9 was pumped to get to the starting blocks. We jumped and cheered and waved our arms, and then they told us we could go and the chirping of chip tracking was at a frenzy.

The run is nice. You run around the Pyramid, along the river, down Beale St., through St. Jude's campus, through Overton Park, and down Poplar, until you arrive at Autozone Park where you circle the infield for the finish. Highlights of the course would be running through a tunnel by the convention center because they have a band playing and it is LOUD!; running down Beale St. because it is so festive and there's music and people everywhere; running through St. Jude's campus because the kids and parents are lined up and they're shouting "thank you" as you go by; and running into Autozone Park because that means you're done!

Of course no race is complete unless I have senseless musings to record. Neat things I saw:

• A girl with a shirt that said, "Win or Lose, I'm Just Here for the Booze."
• A couple in matching shirts that said, "We're doing this for our son." And had his picture and his birth and death dates.
• A gorilla and a chicken singing and dancing the chicken dance on the side of Poplar.
• A sign on the St. Jude's campus that read, "Blisters don't need chemo."
• A panda welcoming me to the zoo.
• A guy in a shirt that read, "I want to kill your weeds." He was not a weed scientist. I asked. We did know some of the same people though (it's a long race; you get to know folks).
• A woman being carried by 2 friends at mile 10. Apparently she locked up her already delicate hip at mile 8 and they toted her to the finish for a 3:02 time.
  

I also saw a guy in the ambulance with road rash on his whole face and blood at a water stop where we were told repeated to "mind the ice." Perhaps he was responsible for protecting the rest of us.

One other not cool thing that happened - a girl died. She collapsed after finishing the half. I imagine this was hard to watch. Many families and friends sit at Autozone Park and wait for their loved ones to finish and she would have collapsed right in front of them. They're withholding her name and age, but the prevailing rumor is that she was 32. She loved running, but had a heart problem. You sign all kinds of waivers for even a 5K, and it never dawns on you that it's anything more than a formality, just like picking up a t-shirt and pinning on a number.

So Team413 - I finally said OK and did it. Team413 is a non-profit organization of Christian runners. There's not much to it. Simply put: you wear your shirt (bought at a slightly inflated price so that you are essentially giving to a charity) at the race and if someone wants to talk to you about your faith, you just share your journey with them. I had put this off because I was not sure I wanted the responsibility of strangers looking at me and my imperfectness and saying, "well if that's how Christians act, I don't need to be one." So many people have negative feelings about churches, Christians, and religion because they see bad examples everywhere of what they would call hypocrisy. Acknowledging I have faults, I did not want to be a stumbling block for someone. But when I saw the shirts came in pink and black, I was won over. No, that wasn't what did it, although Marc had already figured out when I said OK that I was going to reach for the pink one. I guess I am imperfect AND predictable.