April 14, 2013

Rabbit

I was surprised to wake up pretty sore today. I run 12 miles for my long run just about every week, so I didn't think I'd be sore from running a half-marathon yesterday, but pushing the pace took a toll on my legs. Normally, I run four miles on Sundays, but I took a rest day today. I might take another rest day tomorrow.

My next race is the Glass City Marathon as part of a five-person relay team. My sister is the one who formed the team made up of Jeanie (that's my sister), Jen (her best friend), Debbie (another friend of hers), Ty (who I invited), and me.

I'm really excited about the relay! We're doing it solely to have fun, so there is no pressure at all, which makes me happy. I've never run as part of a relay before, except for the Ragnar Relay, which is overnight, so this should be new and interesting. We provide our own transportation to each exchange point, which I think is even better--our team can stay together and leap frog the runner with the car, just like in the Ragnar.

I volunteered to make sparkle skirts for the whole team, so I worked on those today. When I bought the fabric for those, I saw some ribbon that matched perfectly and I thought would make cute headband. So I bought the stuff to make headbands for all of us as well. I made a copycat version of the Sweaty Band.



I spent the whole afternoon sewing sparkle skirts for my relay teammates.



I have some fabric scraps that I'm going to use to make wrist bands, too. Now that I'm done with my half-marathon, I am really excited about the relay!




Yesterday, at the starting line of the race, I saw Ty just before the race started. She wanted to get a quick picture, so she motioned for a group of us to get together, and someone took a picture with her phone. I didn't know any of the others in the photo (and I didn't even turn around to see who was in it, because I was focused on the race starting any minute when the picture was taken).

Anyway, yesterday, Ty posted the photo to Facebook:


When I looked at the photo, I was shocked to see that the woman on the right in blue was the woman who paced me for the whole race (although she didn't know that...)! We were pretty much leap-frogging each other, and I made it a goal not to let her out of my sight, since she seemed to run the pace I was working on.

I wrote a quick "thank you" comment on Facebook to her, because she had no idea that she was my "rabbit" at the race. Ty sent me a link to her story, and I was completely amazed. Her name is Asia, and there is no way I can do justice to telling her story in a few words here, so here is the link to her story. The whole thing gave me goosebumps.



I talked to my friend Sarah on the phone today. We've been trying to work out a date for me to go visit her in Phoenix. I've been wanting to go out there ever since I started flying again (despite my fear), but it's been really hard to figure out a date. I had been planning on going out there the last week of May, but she found out she has to do something important for her job that week. Then she's coming home (to Michigan) for six weeks!

She used all of her sick days for maternity leave, so she can't take time off until the fall. So now it's looking like I may end up waiting until the fall to go visit. That's going to be tough, because I have a couple of big things going on in the fall--I'm a bridesmaid in Jerry's sister's wedding in September, and then October is the Chicago Marathon with Andrea. Oh, well, at least now I'll have some time to save a little extra money, because right now I'm really too broke to think of a trip!


21 comments:

  1. i didn't see asia's story. For me it linked back to the martian half marathon??

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  2. Same thing happened to me also with Asia's story. :-(

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  3. Yes same for me links to 1/2 marathon report

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    1. Darnit! I am seriously losing my mind lately. I just fixed it. Thanks for letting me know :)

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  4. I would love more info on the sparkle skirts and how you made them.

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  5. I was in a marathon training group with Asia years ago. She is amazing! She just runs! It looks like you are with a group of 501ers! The woman behind you is, I'm pretty sure, coach Gina who heads up a training program called 501. I trained for my first 2 marathons with them and learned so much and met so many people who became good friends.
    Previous commenters said that the link to the story did not work. Here is a link that the Ann Arbor News did once. http://www.annarbor.com/news/milan-woman-overcomes/

    The skirt is really cute! I'm going to make a couple of them for my friend and I for holiday races later this year.

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  6. Love the skirts and headbands! Pumped for the relay...and the outfit!

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  7. The skirts are too cute and the matching headbands look great too!

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  8. Asia's story is so inspirational! Thanks for sharing; what a blessing it was to have her be part of your journey.

    The skirts a really cute. I have made my own, but I want to try your directions. I don't think mine come out as nice as yours. The matching headbands were a great idea. Can you post a tutorial on those?

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  9. I love that color for the skirts! I'd love to see a tutorial on how to make the headbands, I've used your sparkle skirt tutorial to make 2 skirts, now I want matching headbands!

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    Replies
    1. Seconded on the tutorial - or even a pattern or something. Was just about to post the same thing! ;)

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  10. Thanks for sharing Asia's story... very cool. I like the random group of people photo too. :P

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  11. Thank you for sharing Asia's story.
    the sparkles are awesome!!

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  12. Katie -

    I was just curious if your friend Sarah in Phoenix, is the same Sarah that has Melanoma, or if you had two different friends named Sarah?

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    1. Yes, that would be confusing! They are two different Sarah's. Sarah from Phoenix is a childhood friend of mine (we've literally known each other since we were less than a year old), who moved to Phoenix after college. The other Sarah (who is fighting melanoma) is a good friend from high school, and she lives pretty close to me.

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  13. wow you are so creative. Love the skirts and head bands :)

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  14. What I love is how happy Asia looks in the picture...thank you for her story

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  15. Asia's story made me tear up. That is awesome and so inspiring!

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  16. Love the sparkle skirts and headbands. Wish I was capable of making that kind of cute stuff too. :)

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  17. What a fantastic story! Thanks for sharing. I often wonder about other's "stories" when I see them running. We all have one after all :)

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