The living room is finally painted!!! Took longer than I wanted, and it's far from perfect, but I'm happy with the colors and until we can afford to paint again, it'll just have to stay the way it is!
I also managed to do something for Hannah's birthday which came out OK:
At the moment I'm trying to finish up a sweater for Hannah that I started during the summer. If I don't hurry up it'll have to wait 2yrs till Lily can fit into it. No pictures of the sweater so far ;)
So, yeah, (sigh), it's that time of year.... COMRADES!
I know anyone can run (well, anyone with two legs, who isn't 100yrs old or riddled with some degenerative, crippling illness or disease)... but you have to love to run if you're going to train for the Comrades. Sheldon loves running. He doesn't always "love" it while he's doing it, but after it's done he never has any regrets for putting himself through the pain. He sees it as a challenge which he wants to overcome. I see it as a punishment. I tried running. I'm INCREDIBLY unfit and could most certainly get heart-healthy and tone up my body... I thought with all the buzz around Sheldon and his running group that maybe I'd get into it. Didn't happen. It's soooooo not my cup of tea. I like to do stuff- like tennis or squash or basketball... and I'll work hard and long at those things. THOSE I enjoy. THOSE things I could get fanatical about, but running 86.something KMs, UPHILL from Durban to Pietermartizburg isn't one of them.
I have, however, grown to love supporting my husband in this endeavor. I appreciate what his running group has meant to him on a personal/friendship level. It has seriously changed our lives. His running group feels like family to us. We wives all get together while the men run and we talk about all their moanings and groanings and injuries and share all the stories our husbands have told us about their early morning runs. We wives get a work out too, just in a different way. It's called stress, or maybe a high level of concern!
Last year was Sheldon's first turn at running Comrades, in fact, it was his first year of truly running (at least since army days). Each milestone for him was also one for me. He didn't know it, but each time he left to go run 6 or 15 or 20 or 32 or 42 or 50 kilometer runs, I was there with him. I was praying, wondering... and waiting. Waiting to hear the key in the door to know he'd made it home safely. Wondering how the run went. Praying he wouldn't get hurt. As we prepared for Comrades as a family I heard a lot about the "let down" after the run. It was probably in Runners World where I read an article about runners going into a kind of depression after Comrades was over. It made sense. All year long they train for THIS marathon. They've run others, they've done endless training runs, but all of it is in preparation for Comrades. What I didn't know, and certainly did not expect, was that I, too, would experience the "let down." While Sheldon exerted himself for just over 9hours of non-stop running, I exerted just over 9hours (actually way more) of constant prayer, worry, wondering, concern... "where is he? is he OK? is his back holding out? did the injury flare up?" For all I could know, sitting 2/3 of the way down the route, he'd gotten plowed over by someone and never made it past kilometer 5. But how would I know? It's not like our Star Trek Communicators actually work here in South Africa. ;)
To see him come past the finish line, along side his best friend, was just incredible. I was so so so so SO proud of him. Words could not express how proud of him I was. I did see him at the 2/3 route, which was certainly helpful, but seeing him make it the whole way was just plain awesome.
But then it was over. He'd done it, but now it was done. He'd gotten up 5 out of 7 mornings every week somewhere between 4:14 and 4:45AM to go running. Now that was over. What was I supposed to do with myself? What was I supposed to do with him??? Running has been such a great outlet and form of therapy for Sheldon. Now he was doing nothing. There was nothing for me to worry about... I just had to encourage him to wait his 6weeks and this would all start all over again. Just relax and rest your body. Let it heal, let it REST (darn it!). But what I didn't do was let myself rest. I was feeling the sort of depressing "let down," just in a different way from Sheldon. I was not resting. I was always wondering how he was coping deep down inside. I knew he was badly missing his running buddies. I mean, come on, they were calling each other to say hi. What guys do you know that do that? Girls maybe, but these guys are so closely knit they just can't seem to function apart for too long. It was a relief to not only the guys when the 6weeks were over, but to us wives as well. Phew. We'd made it through the let down. The men had rested their bodies (which were all skin and bones just 6-8weeks before), put some fat back on, and were ready to hit the road yet again. We wives were ready to have them run, have their guy bonding times, their outlets, etc... We just forgot to rest ourselves.
So now Comrades #2 is just days away. Sheldon's been struggling with a hamstring injury for most of the season. He needed a solid 6 weeks off to let it heal, but if he did that he wouldn't have followed the training plan for Comrades, so he's run through the pain. (something I could never do. My mind is not strong like that!) He's got quite a chest cold as well. I've been doctoring him best I can with allergy meds, VIT C and immune boosters, but that is all I can do- the rest is in God's hands. I've been on my knees (well, not literally) for an entire year over this man and this race... Sheldon's best friend was injured last week and we are storming the gates for a miracle healing there as well. God did it for Sheldon last year. His back was messed up, and God healed it for like 3 days, just enough to get him through the race, and then the pain came back. It was amazing. I don't think Sheldon even minded that the pain came back, we just knew God had taken care of it so that Sheldon could run. Afterall, it was a life-long dream. How depressing would it be to have wanted this all your life, then spend an entire year preparing, only to find you can't run it on the day...
So it's that time. We're leaving tomorrow for PMB. We'll spend the week before Comrades there... just waiting. Sheldon will be resting, relaxing, and waiting (he'll only do 3 days of short runs just to keep the muscles loose). I will be praying, praying, praying. Praying for Sheldon. Praying for his best buddy. Praying for everyone in the running group...
This year, after it's over, I'm going to take 6 weeks off. ;)
proud of you my babe. xoxo
