Whew! I Made It!

It has been 2 weeks now since the Richmond marathon.  I want to write one last post as "Marathon G-ma."  I am so grateful for all the support I have received throughout this endeavor.  I am sincerely appreciative of the kind words and messages.  I especially want to thank those of you who made donations to the GSF.  Some of you I have thanked personally, but some of you made anonymous donations, so I don't know who to thank.  Please know that it meant a lot to me and my family.  It was cool to tell people that we had raised over 4000 dollars for a charity!  We could not have done that alone!

I had such an amazing experience running in Richmond.  It truly owned up to it's nickname of "America's Friendliest Marathon."  There was so much support from the crowd there.  All along the road there were posters with words of encouragement. One of my favorites was one that said "Chuck Norris never ran a marathon!"  I don't know if that's really true, but it was funny to me.  I think it helped the time go faster just reading all the signs people had made.  It was awesome to have people out on the streets cheering us on.  It was especially touching to have some of them read our shirts and yell out "Never Give Up!" to us.  I know they thought it was about running, but we were reminded of our greater purpose when they would call it out. It gave me strength to keep on when my legs were feeling so tired.

I am glad to have run the marathon, but I am kind of sad for it to be over.  I hope that I have helped inspire some of you to make a difference in some way.  I owe a lot to Jessica Applegate for thinking of the idea of a marathon for Callie and for finding the Gwendolyn Strong Foundation.  I hope to be able to continue to find ways to help.  One thing I have learned from this experience is that we should do all we can to be of service to people who need our help.  Before Callie was diagnosed with SMA, I had no idea that there was such a condition.  I didn't know that there were children and families who were dealing with this trial.  Awareness is a start, but there is much more to be done.  Thanks again for your help, concern, love and prayers!

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