Rock N Roll

This last week has flown by and I realized that I never even updated about the marathon! Goodness!

So, on Sunday, my former roomie Jess (bless her for doing this with me!) and I got up at 4:45am to go volunteer for Team In Training for the San Diego Rock N Roll Marathon. We got to the 13.1 half marathon finishline at 5:30am to start setting up: moving tables, chairs, and FOOD. Do you know that bread is heavy? I didn’t until Sunday. Fill a trash bag with loaves of bread though and WOW… that’s heavy. For those of you familiar with the marathon world, the half marathon is only offered through Team In Training and not through the actual marathon.

As the race began at 6:30am, we started our own race… to cut bananas, oranges, and make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Strong and steady wins the race. It’s just like training. Jim did the peanut butter, I did the jelly, and Marguerite cut them in half… for about an hour and then we had some swaps. I made pb&j sandwiches for at least two hours. It was insane. But it also offered a wonderful opportunity to talk to other TNT participants and alums about the program, their reasons, and their events. It was awesome spending it with Jess too and letting her see what I’ve been up to since the beginning of May.

After hours of sandwich making (and cheering on the speedy elites from our table positions), we cleaned up and went to the road to cheer on the runners. Now, I’ll be honest, I didn’t think it was going to be very exciting. I was excited to be there, to help and cheer, all of it… but I didn’t think it’d be hugely entertaining because, well, it’s just running. BUT… I was wrong. It was really exciting and greatly entertaining. I was amazed at the strength of these runners, sprinting by 13.1, with smiles on their faces. The running Elvises… the crazy costumes… the shirts! “This is my grandpa –>” and grandpa running beside her with a HUGE SMILE! “Baby sister, middle sister, big sister” running alongside each other. What a fantastic idea! And then we had the constant MASS OF PURPLE AND TEAL. TNT was in full force and hearing GO TEAM was absolutely fantastic. Cheering on those that have raised money for such a great cause, it gave me such a rush.

I returned to the tents to help with food distributions and pinning TNT pins onto the RNR medals. As runners checked in, we presented them with their medals and it was beautiful seeing their excitement and joy in completing such a huge goal.

I was overwhelmed by it all. Jess and I went to the post-race concert that evening at Qualcomm. The announcer noted that in the 11 years of Rock N Roll in San Diego, TNT has raised $134 million dollars for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society!!!! Unbelievable and SO incredible!! I’m still so impressed and awe-inspired. Pat Benatar rocked my socks off and I’ll leave you with “Invincible”… the song she dedicated to the marathoners.

Pictures from Sunday’s marathon can be found at my Flickr page and stay tuned for another entry and more pictures in a day or so… I have a lot to say about this week! And think of me on Saturday morning… Torrey Pines hills! Yikes!