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Monday, September 1, 2008
San Diego Rock 'n' Roll
July, 2008
Dear Friends,
Time to share with you the incredible experience I had in San Diego at the Rock ‘N’ Roll Marathon event!
The feeling of being with all team members began at airport check in. There is nothing more fun than traveling with a team. Friday evening some of us were excited to be able to go out to dinner near the hotel and sit out on the deck. It’s San Diego…sunshine!
Saturday we had free time until our Pasta Feed at 1PM. The food was fantastic. The program highlight was the guest speaker from Fairbanks, Alaska, David Monson. He spoke with such passion sharing from his heart the story of his wife’s fight with leukemia. David then went out the next morning with all of us and ran the full marathon in honor of his wife, Susan Butcher.
On to race day. We were all up and at the course by 4:30am to sit and wait for the starting gun at 6:00AM. Being a walker I was in Coral 23 (the last one) and it took about 30 minutes for me to cross over the starting line. It was a beautiful sunny warm day. One highlight was when I reached the half way point at mile 13.4. The next highlight was as I was approaching mile 19 the last cut off point on the course. I had to be beyond mile 19 at 12:15. As I saw that point it was almost 12:15 and we heard that the police were getting anxious to open up the road to traffic. Can you believe it…we ran to get past that mile point. It was unbelievable. Then I knew I would make it to the full 26.2 mile point. I felt okay physically until I got to about mile 21. At this point my feet, legs and back began to feel the strain of being on my feet for more than six hours. One of our coaches, Katie joined me at this point and walked the rest of the way with me. It was so good to have her beside me. Her conversation was so good to have as it kept me going until I made it across the finish line. I remember seeing mile maker 24 and thought wait a minute I already passed mile 24 it should be mile 25!!! I guess at that point I had hit the wall!
Two point two miles later though there was the finish line and the neatest thing was I heard the man up on the stage say and here is Faith Gray from Maple Valley!! I did it in 7 hours 56 minutes.
The entire experience wouldn’t have been possible without your financial and emotional support. Thank you so much. Our Washington/Alaska Chapter this Spring raised over $300,000 to the continued research for a cure for leukemia and lymphoma. I was especially moved as I walked along the course when I turned a corner in the road and a gentleman was there with a sign showing he lost his wife to the disease and was thanking us for walking. I was humbled to be able to endure the pain of training and then walking in memory of those who have died from the disease and in honor of those who have won the fight and are experiencing remission.
May we continue to raise money to further help the possibility of finding a cure for these diseases.
Grateful to you all,
Faith
Dear Friends,
Time to share with you the incredible experience I had in San Diego at the Rock ‘N’ Roll Marathon event!
The feeling of being with all team members began at airport check in. There is nothing more fun than traveling with a team. Friday evening some of us were excited to be able to go out to dinner near the hotel and sit out on the deck. It’s San Diego…sunshine!
Saturday we had free time until our Pasta Feed at 1PM. The food was fantastic. The program highlight was the guest speaker from Fairbanks, Alaska, David Monson. He spoke with such passion sharing from his heart the story of his wife’s fight with leukemia. David then went out the next morning with all of us and ran the full marathon in honor of his wife, Susan Butcher.
On to race day. We were all up and at the course by 4:30am to sit and wait for the starting gun at 6:00AM. Being a walker I was in Coral 23 (the last one) and it took about 30 minutes for me to cross over the starting line. It was a beautiful sunny warm day. One highlight was when I reached the half way point at mile 13.4. The next highlight was as I was approaching mile 19 the last cut off point on the course. I had to be beyond mile 19 at 12:15. As I saw that point it was almost 12:15 and we heard that the police were getting anxious to open up the road to traffic. Can you believe it…we ran to get past that mile point. It was unbelievable. Then I knew I would make it to the full 26.2 mile point. I felt okay physically until I got to about mile 21. At this point my feet, legs and back began to feel the strain of being on my feet for more than six hours. One of our coaches, Katie joined me at this point and walked the rest of the way with me. It was so good to have her beside me. Her conversation was so good to have as it kept me going until I made it across the finish line. I remember seeing mile maker 24 and thought wait a minute I already passed mile 24 it should be mile 25!!! I guess at that point I had hit the wall!
Two point two miles later though there was the finish line and the neatest thing was I heard the man up on the stage say and here is Faith Gray from Maple Valley!! I did it in 7 hours 56 minutes.
The entire experience wouldn’t have been possible without your financial and emotional support. Thank you so much. Our Washington/Alaska Chapter this Spring raised over $300,000 to the continued research for a cure for leukemia and lymphoma. I was especially moved as I walked along the course when I turned a corner in the road and a gentleman was there with a sign showing he lost his wife to the disease and was thanking us for walking. I was humbled to be able to endure the pain of training and then walking in memory of those who have died from the disease and in honor of those who have won the fight and are experiencing remission.
May we continue to raise money to further help the possibility of finding a cure for these diseases.
Grateful to you all,
Faith
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