He Did It!

In October, Al joined Team in Training with the Leukemia & Lypmhoma Society. He's trained at least three days a week since then, building up his mileage every Saturday.

Saturday afternoon we arrived in Napa and checked in. Al received his bib number 718 out of 2000. I think it suddenly struck him--the day was here. We had a wonderful inspiration dinner with the North Bay, (our) South Bay, and Monterey teams. There were so many runners who were running for the first time. It was inspiring.

Al and I woke at 4 am, prepared him for his run, and joined the other TNT teams in the lobby. I wanted to see him off and wish him luck. They set off on buses at 5:15. And I climbed back into bed. I woke after 8 and panicked. He had been running for an hour and I was sleeping!

I arrived shortly before 9:30, just in time to see the first runner cross the line at 2 hours and 30 minutes. Amazing! I stayed and cheered for every person crossing that line. It was awe inspiring to see so many men and women in their 60s and 70s crossing that finish line.

Al told me that he expected to cross the line at 11:30. I grew anxious when he wasn't on time--I kept checking my cell phone to make sure no one had called. When the announcer stated that they were approaching the cut-off time, a handsome guy in a purple shirt rounded the corner with an ice bag strapped to one knee. He did it in 5 hours and 50 minutes!

Later Al told me that all was well and he was on track to run in at 11:30, but at mile 23 he experienced severe pain in his right knee that had not bothered him before. His wonderful coaches, Chris and Tim, ran with him the last two miles, telling them how proud they were. Tim pointed out how anyone else would have quit with crippling pain, but Al was still running.

I am so proud of him and his amazing accomplishment. I'm not one for scrapbooking, but I think I'll start one for Al and his running. It's amazing to see the change in him since he's begun.

Now on to the Big Sur Marathon in April. Al is going to run in a relay team this time. We'll all be there to cheer him on.