Country Music Marathon Weekend

this past weekend I :
~ joined 500 other Team In Training runner in Nashville to run the Country Music Marathon (and half marathon).... we raised over 1.25 million dollars for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, putting our Team Fundraising Total (over all the years) at over a billion dollars.

~ went to hear a concert at the Ryman Auditorium... original home of the Grand Ol' Opry.

~ ate a lot of barbeque

~ resisted the urge to buy pretty cowboy boots, 'cos i know i'll never wear them once i get them home... but i sure did want them at the time! all the other cool kids were buying them...

~ met John "the penguin" Bingham while picking up a bagel at Panera for Saturday morning's 4:30 am start

~ arrived at the race starting place in the dark, in the rain, with lightning dancing across the sky.... and a tornado warning threatening to cancel the race

~ skies cleared and the elite runners were off the mark by 7 am... there were over 33 thousand other runners to cross the starting line, so it was 7:26 by the time I got started

~ it was a hot and humid morning, until the clouds rolled back in and the winds picked up... and the racers were all diverted back to the finish line, no matter where they were on the course.

~ shed a tear or two and said a few bad words that are not fit for public consumption

~ accepted my marathon finishers medal, but didn't much feel like i had earned it

~ ate more barbeque in the pouring rain, thunder and lightning

~ had an awesome phone call of support from my six year old nephew

~ drank quite a lot of gin and tonics, participated in some line dancing lessons at the post-race party, and danced the night away (something i likely would not have been able to do if i had been allowed to run the full marathon!... hello silver lining)

~ got a ride home from the airport with my coach and friend, only to find that i had brought the wrong key and was locked out of the house for the next 5 hours or so, until my husband got home from work at 11:30pm

~ feel like a million bucks today, and am looking for another full marathon to attempt in the next couple of weeks, to make up for not being allowed to complete the one i had trained for.

taking it off

so, in order to stimulate a flurry of donations... i made the commitment to cut off all my hair and donate it to the Locks Of Love, to make wigs for children who have lost their hair due to medical treatment... as long as i made my fundraising goal by today.

well, i have made my goal of raising $3000... even though it doesn't all show up yet on my fundraising website. it takes a while to process donations that were not made online...

so, i will be cutting off all the hair that it has taken me two years to grow... and sending it to Locks of Love for someone who cannot grow their own.

i thought it was a fine idea at the time, but now that i actually have to do it... i have been looking at the box of hair clips and pins and elastics and sticks and ties, etc sitting on the shelf in my bathroom and finding myself feeling nostalgic for long hair already. even though i still have it... and even though i was looking forward to how cool i was going to feel in the heat of the summer.

will post photos next week when i get it cut. and in the mean time, i think i'll go brush it for a while... maybe give myself an up-do or something... celebrate the fact that i have long hair for a few more days.