This is me standing at the finish line with my superstar sister, Nicole and it truly made my night when I came across the finish to see her there. I had no idea that she was going to be there. Nicole, thank you. It meant so much to me! Yes, I'm a big baby. All of us in the family are and I was pretty emotional. I just wish I could convey how huge this is for me. And then I wish I could adequately express why Nicole is such a hero and inspiration to me. It's not something I really expect anyone else to fully understand, not even Nicole. But maybe I'll try and write about it in another post soon.
So how did the night really go? It was so amazing. I finished in 37:32 and I was 5th in my age group. (Ok, so it was only out of 13 people in my age group and female, but still, this was my first race ever, and for someone who just barely started running 2 months ago.) I was pretty proud of myself, guys. I feel like I'm pretty slow, but I was pushing it that night, too. I have to admit, it feels pretty good when you start passing other people. My pace actually ended up being right on target with all of my training though. And I proved a lot of things to myself that night. Some having to do with the actual running, others more metaphorical to a bunch of challenges that have been kicking my butt in life for a long time.
I was sporting butterfly tattoos on my hands and cheeks and you'll notice my shirt says, "I <heart> butterflies." The butterflies are really significant. Just so you know, I will be wearing some form of butterfly paraphernalia in every future race. Why? Well, you may have missed my first blog post where I shared a song called "She's a Butterfly," by Martina McBride. This is a song that I have dedicated to Nicole and butterflies have now become kind of our symbol. (But the most awesome accessory I had was definitely my glow-in-the dark argyle socks.) Let me share some of the words to that song:
She remembers when she first got her wings
And how she opened up that day she learned to sing
Then the colors came, erased the black and white
And her whole world changed when she realized
She's a butterfly, pretty as the crimson sky
Nothing's ever gonna bring her down
And everywhere she goes
Everybody knows she's so glad to be alive
She's a butterfly
Like the purest light in a darkened world
So much hope inside such a lovely girl
You should see her fly, it's almost magical
It makes you want to cry, she's so beautiful
God bless the butterfly,
give her the strength to fly
Never let her wings touch the ground
If you don't know Nicole's story, basically she had bone cancer when she was little and so her leg was amputated above the knee, a decision my parents let her decide on her own at 8 years old. She also has permanent hearing loss due to the severe chemotherapy she went through. She started snowboarding for the first time 10 years later, and was told that what she wanted to do was impossible. A couple years in, she basically obliterated her "good knee" in a dirt-biking accident and it's pieced together. She also has a broken wrist that never healed properly. She not only has defied what no one thought was possible she has stood on the medal podium against people who were snowboarding at an elite level long before they became amputees. I'm not saying that to downplay anyone, but just to say why I think what she does is so remarkable.
I finished the 5k, but then we took off to Yellowstone for a week, so now I need to get the momentum going again. But don't worry. I have more places to go, more goals to meet. I'm running my next 5k in September. And I'm committing to training to run a 10k. But here's my big pledge. I will run 1 race every month until Nicole goes to the Paralympics. That's 18 races. Come on, guys. Who will cheer me on? A cheer for me is a cheer for Nicole and all the amazing parasnowboarders that will be making history in Russia in 2014 and are getting the chance to show their amazing spirit to the world.
POW is short for powder and is common lingo in Snowboardese. So POW. Take that! I'm gonna run like mad.