Roxanne: The marathon is great, isn’t it?

Jerry: Yes, particularly if you’re not in it. -Seinfeld

Yesterday was the big day-my half marathon. Match couldn’t be there because of the academy and Reality Check had bailed on me early on, so it was just me driving out to the city. I was nervous and jittery all weekend, and had an added stress of car issues right before my trip. I guess I had worn the brakes down pretty bad on my car, due to all the hard drives for work; the hour long commuting I do daily, the trips to San Francisco, and the most recent trip to Tahoe really did a number on them. So almost $800 later, I picked up my car and headed to San Francisco. Needless to say, my spirits were pretty down. Knowing that I wasn’t going to have anyone to hug me after crossing that finish line didn’t help. I was starting to really throw myself a pity party, but then I talked to Match and he made me feel better. Still, it was hard to get to sleep the night before the race.

Race morning I can’t tell you how nervous and excited I was. Once the gun went off, I was ready. At the starting line so many people were there to cheer us on, and I remembered why I was doing the run: for the leukemia lymphoma society, to help find a cure for cancer. I ran with women who had lost children, men who had lost their wives, cancer survivors, so many people who had been affected by illness. It was empowering! My jersey had my name on the front, so even though I ran alone and had no one there to support me, I felt like I had thousands of fans. Hearing people scream my name and tell me I was doing great was so motivating.

Towards mile 11, I ran behind someone who had a name written on the back of her jersey that was only one letter off from Match’s first name. I focused on that name so hard, and pushed myself to run faster. I kept thinking of how I wanted to make him proud, and how excited I was going to be when I told him how I did. I set a goal for myself before the race: 2hours and 30 minutes to run 13.1 miles. I ended up beating that goal by 15 minutes! I was so excited!

On the drive home, after talking to all of my family, Match called me on his lunch break. He sounded kind of down because he didn’t get much of a break and couldn’t talk. He told me how proud of me he was, and said we’d do something that night. I felt bad because I knew he was tired, but I wanted to celebrate. I got home and as the endorphines wore off and the pain in my muscles set in, I started feeling kind of down. I know how hard Match has been working, but I kept hoping maybe he’d do something nice. Of course, as always, Match went above and beyond what I hoped for, and walked into the house that afternoon with a beautiful bouqet of flowers and a bottle of champagne. He kissed me over and over again and told me how proud he was of me. He waited on me hand and foot, and then took me to a great sushi dinner. That night he helped me to bed and told me I was amazing. Even though I finished the race in the middle of the pack, he made me feel like a winner.