Athens Half-Marathon

This past Sunday, April 11, I ran with my oldest son, Corey in the Athens Half Marathon. It was very special to me because it was Corey's first attempt at 13.1 and I wanted to be by his side until the very end! The race was on a multipurpose bike trail and was very flat. The weather was perfect for a run in the park!! I think Corey was a little nervous because he had only ran two 8 milers for his long runs. However, we both figured he was in fairly good shape and being an athlete, he would not have to much trouble! Corey has been a football player most of his life and ran track but has never raced anything longer than a 5k! I figured my job would be to keep him running and to try to finish in 2 hours. For about the first 3-4 miles we were averaging about 8 min miles which seemed comfortable for him and we were cruising right along. By the time we got to the turn around, our time was 53 min so I knew that if we continued at that pace we would be under 2 hours. Corey was starting to get tired and telling me to slow down, which we did but then I would try to pick it up. His knees and quads were starting to give him trouble but he held his own! With a mile to go, he told me he was going to throw up and he wanted to slow down but, this hard core Mom, told him that we had one more mile and we were not going to slow down!! We got into the stadium and had to run one lap around the track to the finish! How proud I was to be able to run around the track along side of my son, knowing that he was hurting but going after a goal he had set after his football career ended this fall! It meant so much to me that he was doing something I love and we were doing it together. We finished in 1:47, way beneath his goal! Sometimes it's not about how fast or how well you place but it's about achieving a goal with someone by your side! I love you, Corey and am so very proud!!!!