I PLACED 3,907th!

It was great! Sunday was amazing, my Aunt was there with Jason and the kids, the weather was perfect, surprisingly the hills weren't too bad either.

I finished.

I came in 3,907th -- for my age group. I guess not too bad. There were 23,000 participants -- the largest group for the Nike SF marathon. Would I do it again? Yes, but only the HALF marathon. Just so much easier on my body, and I know this sounds crazy, but 13.1 miles is almost like 'mailing it in' -- and I'm really good at that!

Lots of stories to tell later!!!! I have to unpack, do wash and catch up on the stuff I missed when we were gone.

Thank you for all of your support! Hugs to all!!!!

jules

ALMOST A MARATHON

When I first came to the beach house and saw how much land there was I told Mike "You need a fire pit", my Aunt came down from MI and the first thing she said was "You need a fire pit" -- Must be a MI thing. FINALLY GOT ONE -- it ROCKS!!!!



Sophie and Emma! Emma calls her FiFi or Fif! for short...



Joey's First Place WIN!



Team Romano -- the winner's circle



Crissy and Jack-Jack



Sophie and Jackie



Joey and a face full of 'Smores!



Okay, I'm whooped. Beat. Tired.

Recovering from my 'almost marathon' a few weeks ago. Last Saturday we only ran 14 miles, could have been 16 -- I just stop when they tell me too. But the 21 miler was really making me question my sanity. I started out great, actually hauling ass, even surprised myself. But then the trails just kept coming and as I passed some of my teammates one of them said "only 8 miles to go' and I thought to myself "ha ha, very funny a-hole'. As I kept on going, I realized he wasn't joking.

I don't know if you guys remember a few years back when this lady was running the Boston marathon and the news outlets captured her as she 'crossed' the finish line. I'm not sure it counted because she was carried/dragged then collapsed. This scenario kept playing over and over in my mind -- and prayed it doesn't happen to me.

When I heard on the news that a man died in Chicago running a marathon in 80 degree weather I thought "80 degrees? Are you kidding me? We'd LOVE to run in 80 degrees!"

I have been mentally preparing for the real thing. It's all mental (not crazy mental) -- there are times when I'm out there running and catch myself doing really well and think 'I can't do this'. And stop. But my body really wants to keep going. I try to put myself in Johnny's shoes and his determination and how he keeps going, even when his body tells him to rest, his mind keeps him going. That's what I'll do in SFO.


The boys have had a few more contests. Joey got his first First Place! He was so happy! Of course Johnny got first in all of his heats too. The kid rocks, he's awesome. Mike and I are very proud of the kids.

Joey was home all last week because of swimmers ear -- so bad they gave him Tylenol 3 for the week and it still didn't help. Poor kid was in SO MUCH pain, he just stayed in bed the entire time. Then spiked a fever on Saturday. Took him back to the doctor's to make sure it wasn't anything too serious (his lymph nodes were swollen from the ear infection!) -- but the doctor seemed to think that it was a virus he picked up at school since he was on such strong antibiotics to begin with.

Johnny's counts have been AMAZING. Even surprised Dr. Dryer that his counts have been up for so long. She just inched his meds up slightly. He had chemo on Friday and stayed home today (Tuesday) -- it usually takes a few days for him to really feel it.

He goes back for counts on Thu 11/18 and we leave that night for the SFO marathon. And guess what?! I asked my dad for some of his 'miles' for a ticket for Joey! Now it will be the three of us! WOO HOO! I try to update before we leave.

hugs

jules