13.1 miles: Been there, run that!

Well, folks, I did it. I finished the half-marathon on Saturday.

Despite warmer-than-ideal temperatures (the high was 81 Saturday; by the time I finished it was probably in the low to mid 70s), I ran nearly the entire way, stopping only for a brief bathroom break a mile or two in and walking part of the last mile. I was slightly disappointed about that at the time, since I'd done 12 miles without stopping and it was my goal to run the entire half-marathon without stopping to walk. But I crossed the finish line running, as the photos here will attest! And I still completed it in my projected time, 3 hours -- my official finish time was 3 hours, 3 minutes, and 17 seconds.

And thanks to the generous support of my 64 sponsors, I raised a total of $2,619 for March of Dimes -- which actually made me the top fundraiser for their May 1 walk in Murfreesboro, Tenn -- which I didn't even participate in since it was on a Sunday and I'm a seminarian -- which means Sunday's a work day for me.

For those of you who are interested, here's the full story...

My husband and I went up to Nashville on Friday afternoon so I could check in and pick up my runner's "bib" at the marathon expo, held in the Nashville Convention Center. We got there right before 5 p.m., and the place was absolutely PACKED. I had to wait in a line that spiraled down escalators and up and down long hallways for two floors before I finally got down to the basement where the registration took place. I checked the boards where everyone's race numbers were listed and got my race number: 30865 (Yes, that's number 30,865. There were over 30,000 people registered for the race.)

Sewanee girls at the expo on Friday

I then got my bib with my number on it, the tag I'd put on my shoe that would allow them to record my finish time, my race t-shirt, and a "goody bag" full of ads and sample products. I then negotiated the mass commercialism zoo that was the expo, with tons of running merchandise all for sale -- and I'm proud to say I resisted the urge to buy anything. While in the expo, I happened to run into two other girls from my seminary who were going to run the half-marathon as well; they're in the class behind me (they're first-year students this year) and have been training together since the fall. We'd been talking about the race on and off for most of the semester when ever we ran into each other. I got a picture with them (seen at right), "just in case I don't see you tomorrow," and it was a good thing I did, because I certainly did NOT see them at all the day of the race. It was very serendipitous we ran across each other at all in that great sea of people.

We stayed at the Nashville Music City Hostel, where we could park our pop-up van in the back lot and pay just $12.50 per person to use their common room and showers -- beats the hundreds of dollars we'd have had to shell out for a hotel room in downtown, and it was only a mile from Centennial Park, where the race began, so I was able to walk to the start line in the morning. And, there were a bunch of other people staying at the hostel who were running the half and the full marathon, so there was the added camaraderie of being up at 5 a.m. eating breakfast with other runners, and having people to walk over to the park with.

Pre-race in the park.

At the park, I waited in line for 35 minutes to use a porta-potty (apparently if you'd bought a certain amount of products at the expo the day before, you got to use the porta-potties in the "Brooks Premium Tent," where there were no lines and security guards to make sure no non-extravagant spenders got to pee without waiting -- guess money CAN buy you everything). While standing there, I struck up a conversation with a couple in line behind me who said they'd met someone at the expo yesterday who runs a full marathon every weekend. His goal was to run 52 marathons this year, they said. In fact, he was running the full marathon in Nashville and was then going to drive to Cincinnati to run a marathon there the VERY NEXT DAY -- on Sunday, May 1!! Just goes to show you that no matter what the subject, there's bound to be someone out there who will take it to an unhealthy extreme. I hope that man lives to be in his 50s -- at this rate of what he's doing to his body, it's doubtful!

I got out of the porta-potty a few minutes before the race was scheduled to start, at 7 a.m., but I wasn't worried about missing the start, since I was in one of the last "corrals," and I figured I'd have to wait quite a while before my group got to the start line. (They put the participants in different corrals based on their expected finish time and whether they're running the half or the full or if they're planning to walk it. The fastest people get to go first, so they get out of everyone's way and so they don't have to run around and over the slow people. I was in Corral 30, and I think there were only 32 or 35 total. So... pretty near the back.)

Waiting in line to start the race

I was right about not worrying about being there right at 7 a.m. -- it was 7:45 a.m. before my group actually got to cross the start line! This late start was what precipitated my bathroom stop just two or three miles into the race -- I've never had to stop on any of my long runs in training.

It was a beautiful day: not a cloud in the sky, and nice and cool at 7 a.m. The first half... or more than half... of the race was very pleasant, as we ran through parts of downtown Nashville and down "Music Row" (the street where all the music industry businesses are located). We looped around Belmont University and back up the other side of Music Row. The course actually went right in front of the house of one of my husband's friends who is a songwriter in Nashville. It was great fun to see people out in their front yards cheering us on, kids holding out their hands to get the runners to slap them as they went by, cheerleaders (literally) with pom poms and signs, and all sorts of creative messages from interesting spectators. My favorite: a guy sitting in a lawn chair at the edge of the road holding up a sign that said, "Worst parade ever." For the first several miles of the race, I was right beside a guy running in a huge neon green costume who was the mascot for some wireless phone company. At the place where the marathoners split from the half-marathoners to go on a different course, an Elvis impersonater stood directing traffic and giving high-fives to all the runners who went by.

But by the time 10 a.m. started rolling around and I got into the last several miles of the race, the temperatures had risen to probably in the mid-70s, and the heat was getting to me. I don't do well with running in anything much hotter than mid-60s, since most of my training has taken place since January, and at 2,000 feet elevation -- in much cooler temperatures. That's probably part of why I had to stop and walk some in the last mile and why I felt slightly dizzy afterwards. Around mile 11, I started to think, "Why on earth am I DOING this?? This was STUPID! I'll never do THIS again!"

But I'd programed my music so that as I got closer to the finish line, music by several people I know personally, including my own sister, Ashley Wells, showed up in my play list -- and many of them (including my sister) have run half and full marathons before. Hearing them singing in my ears helped me to feel like they were with me, encouraging me to keep going, and I went back to running for the last several tenths of a mile and crossed the finish line running!! (Below is the wide-angle version of the finish line shot -- I'm over on the right with my arms up in a victory celebration.)

Overall, it was a really exciting experience to be part of such a huge event, and to know that I was doing it for a greater cause. It was inspiring to see all the people running for Team and Training (of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, where my sister used to work), and for the American Cancer Society, and all the support that these groups had in terms of "cheerleaders" on the sidelines all along the route. Unfortunately, since my charity wasn't an official "running" charity, I didn't get one of the cool "in honor of" or "in memory of" bibs to put on my back like those runners did (pictured at right)... but I wrote in my own thing on my bib, at the bottom, in pen... so small no one at the race even noticed it, I'm sure, but I knew in my heart, and all of you out there who donated knew -- that I was "running in honor of Elena Rankin and thousands of other NICU babies."

When I started training seriously for this event in January, it was a struggle to run even two miles. Now I just ran over thirteen and have a half-marathon finisher's medal. It's been a wonderful journey and an inspiring process to push myself and to have a goal to work towards to get myself in shape and to raise money for a good cause.

I'd especially like to thank my personal trainers, Reid and A'ndrea Fisher, of St. Andrews-Sewanee School, who got me through that critical mid-training slump and helped me address the problems I was having with my IT band (muscle that runs from your hip to your knee on the outside of your thighs -- which I didn't even know EXISTED until I started running!) through core strengthening and hip strengthening exercises. And, of course, thank you to all of my donors who made this fundraising success possible. I couldn't have done it without you!

And last but certainly not least, thank you to my dear husband Thomasjohn for encouraging me to run on those days when I really wanted to blow it off, for putting up with my screams of pain while using the foam roller to loosen up my IT band after a long run, for encouraging me to hydrate well, and for being there at the finish line to cheer me on -- and then driving all over Nashville for hours trying to figure out how to find me and meet up with me in the midst of all the street closures!

And yes, I probably will do another one at some point in the future. What can I say? It felt great to finish.

A baby, a NICU, a chaplain, and a half-marathon

Every day, thousands of babies are born too soon, too small and often very sick. I got a first-hand view of this last summer as a chaplain in the Maternity Center at Providence Alaska Medical Center. For all the healthy babies born each day, there were a few whose first destination was not mommy's arms, but the newborn intensive care unit (NICU). One of those babies was Elena Rankin, born during the first few weeks of my internship in mid-June at 23 weeks gestation.

I'm running my first half-marathon in Nashville on April 30 in honor of Elena. And I'm raising money for the March of Dimes to help support the thousands of other families who will spend their first few months with their child in a NICU.

My fundraising goal is $2,300, in honor of Elena's age when she was born (23 weeks). (You'll see a status bar on the right-hand side of my blog logging my progress towards that goal.) I'm asking my supporters to make a donation of at least $23 in honor of Elena and the thousands of babies like her in NICUs right now. Your gift will support March of Dimes research and programs that help moms have full-term pregnancies and babies begin healthy lives. And it will be used to bring comfort and information to families with a baby in newborn intensive care.

Click here to go to my fundraising page and make a donation.


ELENA'S STORY

Elena's parents, Scott and Christina, have given me permission to share her story with you.

Elena is Scott and Christina's first child. When I first met them, Christina had been admitted to the pre-natal unit at Providence for complications with her pregnancy. She was pregnant with identical twins, but after only a few days in the hospital she lost Elena's sister, Sonja. The doctors did everything they could to keep Elena in the womb as long as possible, but just a little over a week later, she delivered Elena at 23 weeks. (In non-"mommy-speak," that's almost 6 months gestation. Christina's due date was mid-October, but she gave birth in mid-June.) Elena weighed just over a pound when she was born.

Elena the day after her birth

When I first saw Elena in the NICU, she was barely bigger than my hand, and her skin was red and translucent, like pictures I'd seen of fetuses in utero. She was in an incubator and had wires connected all over her body. I watched in awe as she lay there and sort of shuddered as she tried to breathe, with the help of the respirator that covered most of her face. (One of the biggest complications for premature babies is that their lungs have not yet fully developed, so breathing is an issue.)

Elena at 5 days, under the lights in the incubator 

For perspective: Elena's hand beside her father's wedding band

Over the next 10 weeks, I watched a beautiful drama play out in that corner of the hospital. Elena's whole "care team" -- the tireless NICU nurses, the doctors, and my fellow chaplains -- surrounded her and her family with love and support. Elena had her ups and downs; days when she was doing great and days when she'd stop breathing or have a heart "episode." But through it all, the support from the Providence staff was palpable, and I was honored to be a part of that team.

Elena's first family photo with her parents, 8 days after her birth

I followed Elena's family throughout the summer, listening as her parents rode the roller coaster of never knowing what they would find each day when they entered the NICU. I watched them struggle with deciding to go back to work part-time, so they'd be able to take family leave when she actually came home. I watched them come into the NICU, scrubbing down for the requisite two minutes, from elbow to fingers, every morning before work and every afternoon after work. I celebrated with them when Elena gained a pound or when her breathing levels were higher, and I listened when they grieved over the loss of all the "would have beens."

One Sunday afternoon I ran into Christina in the NICU after what had been a particularly rough day: that day was originally supposed to have been her baby shower. NICU moms deal not only with not being able to bring their babies home, but with losing all the joys and celebrations of a "normal" pregnancy. Instead of sitting in a room full of her friends and relatives cooing over her adorable baby gifts and beaming over her impending twin girls' arrival, she was sitting in a sterile hospital room, rubbing one daughter's back through the small opening in the side of the incubator, having just said goodbye to the other daughter at her memorial service.

I developed a long-term relationship with the Rankins over the summer. They were some of the most dedicated parents in the NICU, faithfully visiting, holding, and singing songs and hymns to Elena every day. Being first-time parents, Christina commented to me once that they realized they didn't know a lot of children's songs to sing to her. "We just keep singing 'Jesus Loves Me' and 'Amazing Grace' over and over," she said, somewhat sheepishly. I smiled. "Not bad songs for her to learn from the very beginning of life," I said. Scott and Christina's love for their child was a living icon of Christ's love.

Elena as she looked in late August, at the end of my internship

When I left at the end of the summer, I asked the family if they would be willing to let me continue to follow Elena's progress from afar. They agreed, and I watched via her online Care Page as she grew and progressed over the next few months until finally, in October, just a few days before her original due date, she got to go home! My heart leapt when I signed on to the page that day and saw the report that Elena was discharged, after 116 days in the NICU. It was hard to believe this was the same baby I had watched quiver in the incubator in late June.

Elena in late September, just a few weeks before she went home

Elena is now off all monitors and oxygen and and weighs over 13 pounds! She was recently featured on an Anchorage radio station's Radio-thon to benefit the Children's Miracle Network at Providence Children's Hospital. And in December, she starred in her church's Christmas play as baby Jesus (with mom and dad co-starring as Mary and Joseph)!

The Rankins as The Holy Family

I am truly in awe of the miracle that is this child's life. Please join me in giving thanks and praise to God for her survival and for the blessings she has brought to this family.

And, if you feel so moved, please give to support me in my run in honor of Elena and in support of all families who face similar stories.

Thank you for helping me give all babies a healthy start!

Elena in mid-January, at 7 months

Special thanks to the Rankins for their openness in allowing me to share their story, and for providing the pictures of Elena.