Post #9: Race Day !!!

THANKS TO ALL FOR THE SUPPORT : The marathon was amazing !  Upheld by grace, prayers, & encouragement, I was able to run the whole marathon in good health !

Here's a quick recap, as told by the creative and encouraging signs and slogans that the crowds were using to cheer the runners on:

#1: BUCKET LIST: CHECK
Good news: the marathon is over !  Check that off the bucket list.

#2: YOU RUN BETTER THAN THE GOVERNMENT
Well, if I do, that's really unfortunate, because I don't run that well!!!  Until the marathon, I hadn't run more than 15 miles due to various injuries.  Nonetheless, with the encouragement of an awesome running buddy, seminarian Marco, we ran the whole 26.2 !

#3: KENYANS ARE LAZY. THEY ONLY RUN FOR TWO HOURS.
Haha. They only run for two hours because it only takes them two hours to run a marathon. CRAZY.
Our final marathon time was 4 hours and 38 minutes.  In retrospect, running the marathon is pretty much a five hour party of people cheering for you.  To be prosaic, it is much easier to run the race when you have people encouraging you along the way!!!

#4: DO EPIC S**T     [stuff]
Although there are less graphic ways to say this, this sign really gave me a good laugh, and even a boost of hope.  Our millenial generation is pretty redonk (that means ridiculous), but they are also creative, humourous, and, deep down, looking for people to be real HEROES-- to live lives of INTEGRITY-- to be EPIC.  This sign was truly encouraging: if I could make one adjustment to the words, I would write: BE EPIC.

In short summary: WOW-- this marathon experience has been CRAZY awesome and challenging and very, very spiritually rewarding.

Looking forward to walking again,
Jess

PS: A picture of some of the TEAM OLA runners !!! In the end, about 35 runners ran the marathon for Our Lady of the Angels.