Yes Stephani, we are very much alike! I will be happy to be the guinea pig!!
This is how I see it...this new knee is supposed to last 30+ years. On March 13th I will turn 59 and get my RTKR two weeks later. So in 30+ years, I will be 89+. I don't imagine I will still be running at age 89, so - what if I use up a couple of years faster than normal if I am living my life in a way that makes me so happy and HEALTHY!
It is not so much as the race, as it is the running and the accomplishment of it. I really quit doing 5K's years ago because I just liked going out my door and running 10 miles instead. Occasionally I would run a 10K if friends were doing the same but still it was too short a distance, mostly I just run for the sake of running.
My husband does not run with me, but my 31 year old daughter does. Back in 1998 when I ran my first marathon my kids were age 16 and 19. They were so taken in by the experience that they wanted to run the Houston Marathon the following year. They both did 1999. It was such an awesome experience because when most people were worrying about what their teenagers might be doing on a Friday night, mine were home eating healthy and going to bed early for the Saturday morning training run for the marathon.
Mid July thru mid January the 3 of us were up and out the door doing long distance, after-wards home making ham and cheese omelets for breakfast. An experience I would trade for nothing else in this world. Turned out my son was good at it and finished the marathon that year in 3:40. A pretty good time for a first marathon for a 16 year old kid. After Houston 1999 my daughter took several years off but then started running again. We've trained for and run another 5 marathons together since that first one.
Last July I wrote us out a training schedule for Houston 2011. I registered for the Houston Marathon on July 8th, had my first MRI on on my knee July 15th and never in my wildest dreams did I ever think that I would not be able to run. I had a streak of 13 consecutive years of running the Houston Marathon. In Houston after you complete 10 marathons you are awarded Veteran status. There are perks that go along with it and I fought hard through injures over the years including this danged right knee to achieve Veteran status. I will always be a Veteran even if I never run Houston again, but I wanted to do at least 15 of them and get a really cool shirt with 15 hash marks down the sleeves and of course the shirt announcing loud and clear that I am a 15 year Veteran. Right now I have the 10 year Veteran shirt with 10 hash marks. I want that 15 year shirt!! (They only come in 5 year increments).
So in all I have run 24 marathons since I was 44 years old. My fastest was when I was age 53. I have run 13 Houston Marathons, NYC twice in 2000, and 2002 so I got to see NYC pre 9/11 and post 9/11. I've run the marathon in Portland, Oregon twice, Austin, Texas twice, Dallas, Texas, San Antonio, Texas, and Oklahoma City Marathon 3 times. My 25th marathon I just missed. My daughter trained with the schedule that I had written out for both of us. I rode my bicycle along side of her while she ran. I wore a back pack and carried her water and any other supplies she needed, we did all of her runs this way.
Since I was registered, I picked my my race number the weekend of the marathon. She and I stayed in a downtown Houston hotel the night before the marathon as we always did. Race morning we got up and dressed, and yes...I did put on running clothes and pinned on my race number it was #600 that said..."Bonnie - 13 year Veteran" Talk about torturing ones self, but this was the only way I could get into the runner's corral to see my daughter Lacy off at the start of what would be her first marathon to run without me.
I stood next to her in the pack of 20,000+ runners, we sang along to the National Anthem, then the 'BOOM' of the cannon went off and the runners were off. I kissed her goodbye and told her I loved her, then stepped aside to the curb. After all the runners passed by I walked (limping) alone back to the hotel, crying the entire way. My husband came and picked me up and we went around the city to see Lacy on the course. Mile 9, mile 17, mile 22, and the finish line.
That was just one month ago. It was a very hard weekend for me emotionally but I would not have missed it for the world. Lacy did fine and felt an all new sense of self accomplishment since she did it all on her own. Mom was not there this time to pull her along when she got tired. I refuse to accept that I cannot run with my daughter anymore, I am just ready to go get this new knee and get on with my life. I don't know when I can run again, I won't be stupid, but I will try!! My son still runs, and he is good! He ended up being a 4 year Letterman in Cross County and Track in high school, was offered college scholarships for running. All this because his Mom started running and it caught on with the kids. This is just too much a part of me to give up without a fight.
Sorry for going on so long, but now you know a little more about me.
Bonnie