Post by jaytavare1 on May 26, 2009 14:15:35 GMT -5
It was 4:30 am when I woke up to get ready for the 24th annual LA Marathon... It was a cold morning, 59' F... at least for us here in southern California, a good sign if you gonna run your body 26.2 miles or 42 grueling kilometers!!!!
Although I had only trained for 4 weeks and never had taken a run longer than 6 to 10 miles, I was still excited and worried about the unknown factor in a race that truly test the limits of the human endurance.
What had started off as a challenge by my friend Diann, to run this years Marathon, had turned into something much bigger... After my initial post about the event, so many people had responded and many even sponsored me to run it, so I could raise money and more importantly awareness for Adopt A Native Elder Program...( www.anelder.org )
As I arrived in down town LA on the morning of May 25, with 17,000 other people from all over the world, some fly in just to run this race. The pressure was on to finish what I had started. The excitement and the pre race jitters were palatable, as the LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa gave us the final pep talk and then the bull horn signaled the start of the race...
What an amazing site to see!!!! 1000's of runners from all ages, pro athletes, house wives, weekend warriors, even a few youngsters of both sexes... all running shoulder to shoulder for the first mile, some dressed in customs, to get more attention for their cause. As I ran past a man dressed as a large hairy testicle that read, Testicular Cancer, I realized I was not the only one running for a higher reason.
The first mile came up so fast, that I only realized it when a cheeky spectators had a sign that read... only 25.2 more to go.
I looked at my stop watch and realized I was running way too fast at 8:30 mile pace but the excitement of the race had got the better of me... I looked to my running partner who was by my side, and she was shocked too, but we felt awesome so we kept going. At 10 K or 6 miles we were still running at a sub 4:00 hour Marathon pace which is about 9:00 min miles per hour, way faster than we had planned to start the race, but I felt so at ease and hardly out of breath, so we pushed on...
As we ran through areas in Los Angeles that I had never seen, I was thinking this can't last, cause the longest run I had done in the last month was 6 miles...!!!! I knew the wall that every runner talks about, was waiting for me, somewhere ahead of me...
At 18 miles or 30 K, I was still running at a 4 hour 14 min Marathon pace!!!! My partner had fallen back a little by this stage and I did not want to lose her, she was running for my cause and I felt she needed my support, so I eased off my pace a tad and waited to see if I see her... She is six feet tall with very shapely legs so finding her in the crowd was not that hard... she caught up with me by mile 20, which is when I had the most painful cramps in both my thighs... I tried to run through it but the pain was unbearable... I stopped for a moment as Diann who herself was suffering from multiple-blisters on her feet and a stomach pain, worked on my thighs trying to help me.
I put on my head phones and started a Navajo healing chant, my mind drifted to the fact I may not be able to finish the race... I was only 4-5 miles from the finish line and my time was extremely good for a first time runner with no training...
But as I heard the ancient chants I remembered the text I got from the Linda Myers the founder of the Adopt A Native Elder program... she informed me that the Big Mountain Elders went to the pine trees to make an offering for me to have strength on my race... I also remembered, pain is temporary, but honor lives forever... so I stood up and hobbled forward as fast as I could... I saw a channel 4 NBC news cast so I approached them for an interview...
The next 4 miles were a test of my character, for I had hit the wall and my body was shutting down fast... I was paying for the earlier pace, a common novice mistake...but I reminded myself that the flesh is weaker than the spirit and drove on...
With a mile to go I looked at Diann and with so many people cheering on, we both started to run again through our painful injuries...
The last half mile we raced home as fast as we could to finish in 5:15:46 seconds.
Although I was disappointed with my time, which also included stopping for two 10 min interviews... I realized it did not really matter... for it's not the journey or the destination in the end... but what we become in going through with it !!!!
I want to thank all the generous people from all over the world who supported me with donations and love and no matter how small the amount it all counts. Please help me to spread the news about this amazing program... Adopt A Native Elder is much more than a charity and I beg all of you who can attend to come to one of the rug shows that are held each year in Park City Utah in Nov. You can also volunteer you time for one of the two food runs, that bring food and medicine to the Elders in need.
In closing I must say... Today I can hardly walk, but my pain has a sweet side... as I know it was all worth it.
and lastly... I also carried in my belt a piece of Mohawk's bone and his hair... so my fallen son did run the race with me !
With all my heart...
JT>
so I can only the imagine what it must feel like after running for 5 
Does that mean anything to you? Here they are, look at them all! 
Tears of happiness that Mohawk was with you 
