Sunday, May 10, 2009

Nashville Marathon April 2009

Well I completed my Nashville marathon with Team in Training and I must say it was an awesome experience. This picture is of when we walked into the ballroom at the hotel for our "inspiration dinner" the night before the marathon. It was cool because they had us walk between the ropes, and the TNT staff were all cheering and thanking us for raising money for LLS. It was very emotional for me, and caught me off guard. It really made me feel good that I was able to help.
This is the Michigan team in training group. We raised a total of $75,000 for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society!! Thankyou to all my supporters who helped make this possible.

Me at 4:30 a.m. Ready to run.... I thought. It was a difficult run, the temp was 92 degrees and straight sun. I didn't make my time, but I must give the organizers of the marathon credit for doing their best at providing plenty of water stations, great bands, great support and great spray stations along the course. I got sprayed in my face, many times, and I didn't even care how I looked, that cold water felt soooo good! Another tihing that was helpful to me was how our coaches had us put our names on the front of our shirts. There was TNT staff all along the course and they would call me by name and say "Go Shelli" "Go Team". Just hearing my name and their words of encouragement really did help me get through it .


LeeAnne and I post marathon, very tired, sunburned and glad to have just finished on our feet!


Here we are again, after showers, in downtown Nashville. We went to a cool little restaurant called the BB King. There was a band and yummy southern food. I had a "porktato" It is a huge baked potato stufed with pulled pork, cheese and green onion. It was just what I needed :)It was so good to have LeeAnne there with me. My Dave and her Dave were there too, and they kept appearing at different spots on the course with words of encouragement. My Dave said they did "the quarter marathon" from all the running to get to the different points to try to see us. Thanks to my sweet Dave for his love and support in my pursuing and completing this goal.



The first video is about mile 20, my legs were getting really sore, you can hear me ask for excedrin. I know I look awful, but thats how it is when you've been running for about 4 hours.
The second video is at the finish, you can hear Dave cheering me on. He is such a sweetheart.