Alone and Part of a Team

4 days to go.

They say that no one can run the marathon for you. Once you get out there on the road, you're alone and you can only draw upon your own strength to get to the finish line. Each step you take requires your body and brain to be in sync. You have to really WANT it, especially once you get to the 4 hour mark when you've already been running for so long and you still have an hour to go.

But I don't feel alone. Throughout the last six months I have received so much support from my friends and family. I can't tell you how much it has meant to me to get a card or flowers in the post, phone calls and emails from people who have run a marathon before and have good advice to share or IMs and Facebook comments telling me that I CAN do this. I had no idea so many people would follow the blog and be affected enough by my ramblings to reach out to me and lend me their confidence when mine was lacking. It's been the key to my ability to stick with the training. Every time I entertained the idea of quitting, someone would boost me up and provide the motivation I needed to carry on. Thank you so much to all my cheerleaders.


I'd like to share one note with you from a particularly special person to give you a sense of the strength that I'll be leaning on when Saturday rolls around.

You are the most stubborn, independent, strong minded woman I know. There is no one I trust more to reach the finish line. From day 1, this race has been about more than you as you have inspired those around you. I am so proud and awed.

Inspiration must be self reinforcing, because this certainly inspires me.

My parents have come all the way from Ireland, in part to be at the finish line of the marathon and here for me this week leading up to it. Having the chance to share the excitement and anticipation with them is brilliant and makes the whole event really special.

And then of course there is my biggest supporter. The person who has had to put up with lots and lots of non stop excited ramblings about running and in contrast the exhausted, demotivated days when I haven't wanted to talk at all. The person who has tirelessly nodded enthusiastically about pace increases of one or two seconds and who pumped me up with speeches about how I'm just having one bad day and it will all be better tomorrow when I'm sad. He has helped me walk down stairs when my legs nearly give out on Saturday afternoons after long runs and put up with an absent girlfriend on many evenings and weekend mornings. I couldn't have managed this training without Sean and when I really need to draw on someone else's strength on Saturday, I will remember that he will be at the finish line waiting to take care of me and that if I can just make it that far, everything will be OK.

I'm so close now, and I think I'm ready. Waiting has never been a strong point of mine, but if I can just get through the next 4 days with my sanity intact, I believe that I'll get to the finish line of this marathon of mine.

Wish me luck!