London's Run 2008

I ran in London's Run Half Marathon this weekend. I remember going to the very first one. It was a month or so after London passed away and Em wanted to go. London was in Em's Kindergarten class when she was diagonsed with cancer. They were also in the same 1st grade class when London passed away. The run was at QCHS and was not very big. Let me say it is HUGE now! KK went out of town (big shocker) so I picked Shannon up at 7am to watch the kids. I headed down to Schnepf farms where I met Amy, Jules, and Sarah. Jules nephew, Troy, was one of the kids benefit from the run this year. We tried to get Team Troy shirts made but ran out of time. Jules brought a big, black Sharpie instead. And she wrote Team Troy on our shirts. Then right before it started London's cousin sang the National Anthem (which was beautiful) and Heather Solomon said a few words. She is so amazing! Despite her trials and loss, she is so upbeat. She was encouraging us to keep going even though we might want to quit (which I did!) The race was pushed back 15 min. So we waited and stretched for a while. And then it seemed so fast, because I turned around and people were going. So off we went. I felt great the first 6 miles. I was right behind Vicky Overstreet (Syds neighbor that is training for a marathon) I thought if I could just stay behind her then I would be ok. Then the next 3 miles started getting a little harder. At mile 9 I bent down to tie my shoes and it was really hard for me to get going again. Slowly, I lost sight of Vicki. The next 3 miles were really bad!! I slowed down a bit. I kept seeing the pics of the cute cancer kids, London and Troy at the mile markers and it really kept me going. At mile 11 1/2 I started to feel better and I was able to pick up my pace a bit. It was great to see my friends at the finish line, Amy, Summer and the Tylers! If you asked me four months ago, I would have told you I could never run that far. But with the help of Amy (checking in on my runs), my ipod (lifesaver) and long runs on Saturday....I did it!

After the race with some of the original BFF's Jules and Amy


















Here we are with Troy, he is so cute!
I love the Tyler family!