Road Warrior Blog

18 May 2008

Reflections of a Road Warrior

Posted by Deborah Pieri under: Deborah Pieri .

Another crazy busy week! All week I have been trying to find a little piece of time to sit down and write my reflections about the race and the whole road warrior experience. I couldn’t find it! My weeks are filled with caring for and teaching wonderful 8 and 9 year old children. It is exhausting but so fulfilling! I love it! This was also my long week at my other job. . . I taught 4 classes at the Y. Last night my husband, Tim and I walked on the rungazelle team in the Relay for Life until midnight in EGR. We figured that we each walked at least 10 miles. What an incredible experience that was! Everyone knows someone who has been afflicted with cancer. It felt good to do something to aggressively combat this terrible disease. Thank you Doug for organizing the team and inviting us to join. . . it was truly an honor! It’s 11:45 on a Saturday night and I finally have the time to reflect. . . . if I can keep my eyes open!

First of all I was very happy to complete the race! It is always a triumph to complete a race of that length. I was hoping to finish around 2:20 and finished in 2:23, so I was quite pleased. It is not my best time. . . that was a 2:09 seven years ago. Nor did I feel as emotional as I did last year when I crossed the finish line at 2:30 holding Tim’s hand and crying tears of joy. Last year was my first 25K after cancer. I felt tremendously victorious. I had proved to myself that I could still run. I was not cancer’s victim, but had lived to return to normalcy. I will never forget that joy, nor the man who loves me and sacrificed his time to run with me because he knew I was nervous and unsure. That is Love.

This year I knew I was ready. Tim and I met Mike and Terry and the other road warriors in our suite in the Amway Grand prior to the race. The mood was relaxed, yet you could sense the nervousness of everyone. My stomach felt off. . . . it had started when I woke up Friday. Several of my students had had the stomach flu and I was nervous that I might be getting it. I kept pushing the queeziness aside and telling myself that it was just nerves. I worried that I wouldn’t do well and would disappoint Mike and Terry and worse yet, myself. I ate a banana. . . . that’s my cure-all food and felt suddenly good to go! Then I sucked down a GU and bottle of water. All set.

We watched the start of the 10K race from our 9th floor suite. . . . Patrick I thought of you and said a quick prayer for you. All the road warriors were making one more quick bathroom stop and then we headed down to the starting line.

 I insisted that Tim run his own race this year and sent him off with Terry to run with the fast guys and told him to break 2 hours. I was wondering who I would run with when suddenly I saw my friends Amy and Joann, with an Indian friend of Joann’s who is a master at keeping the pace according to Joann. I will not try to spell his name because I’m sure I would masacre it! I was so happy to find them and we started the race together. At the start of the race, I knew I should have gone to the bathroom one more time. . . . six babies does a real number on your bladder! At mile 3 I couldn’t bear it anymore and stopped at a porta-john to pee. I told them not to wait but they did. I was out in 35 seconds. . . yes I timed it. My first 3 miles are always a struggle for me, but then I find my rhythm and pace and feel good. I was a few steps in front of the group around mile 4 or 5 when I suddenly realized I had lost them. I looked behind me, but didn’t see them, so I continued on and kept glancing behind me worrying that I had lost them. Later I learned that Amy’s young son had called after he completed the 5K and they had stopped to talk to him.

I ran the rest of the race basically alone. At about mile 12, three rungazelle runners ran by and invited me to run with them, but I couldn’t quite keep their pace for more than a mile. I felt good until about mile 13. That’s when my calves seized on me. . . .cramping like I’ve never had them cramp before. I stopped and stretched and then continued on. Those last 2 1/2 miles were LONG! Now that I reflect on it, I think that I was becoming dehydrated. I was careful to drink at every aid station, walking through them so that I would drink the water and not spill it, but it had become hot so suddenly that I felt almost disoriented.

The whole race I prayed for everyone I knew who was running it. . . I prayed for my husband, Tim to stay strong and to break 2 hours. I prayed for each and every road warrior to be able to finish, and for Amy, Joann, and all the other runners I knew. I prayed for people I didn’t know, lying stricken on the side of the road receiving medical care. I prayed that I would have the strength to finish. Not only am I a road warrior, but I am a prayer warrior! I know the power of prayer first hand. I know the power of God and am constantly humbled by His mercy and love. Like Shelly I saw beautiful testaments of faith like the shirts that said “Run with Jesus.” They were very inspiring to me! I ran and I prayed.

Those last few miles were tough. At about 3/4 of a mile from the finish line, Tim ran up to me and told me I was almost there and how awesome I was doing. I felt like I was swerving and a bit disoriented. I knew I needed water. I heard Tim yell, “Oh, sorry Deb, I thought I could run you in, but my legs are cramping up on me!” I told him it was OK, that I could make it. At some point that amazing man found his legs because he bascially pushed me in. He was raising his arms shouting, “Road warrior, road warrior here!” . . . encouraging the crowd to yell and clap. At one point near the finish line we passed three of our children screaming and shouting. I wish I could say I remember it, but I don’t. By that time I literally felt like I was going to keel over. I remember looking at my watch and kicking it in near the finish line. I saw Mike, Terry, Chaz, Steve, and Matt cheering me in. I was overjoyed as I hit the pad. I was a road warrior. I had survived over 5 months of very tough training and I had run my race. I felt like a million bucks and like crap all at the same time! I will be 52 years old in a less than a month, have survived cancer, have six incredible kids and an amazing husband. . . . life is good I thought!

Someone put a medal in my hand, I drank a bottle of water in less than a minute and then Tim and my kids, Luke, Rachel, and Justine were hugging me and telling me how proud they were of me. My son Joe had to work so he wasn’t there, but we called him to tell him how we did. We called Sam, the Marine at Camp Pendleton in California and Nick in Boston. As a mother, I couldn’t have felt more supported or fulfilled!

I went back to the finish line to try to watch my fellow road warriors finish. I saw Julie and Kristen come in, but my calves once again cramped severely. Thank you, thank you Heather (Terry’s wonderful wife!) for massaging out my calves. . . . I literally couldn’t walk until you did! I went back to find food and gatorade and missed the rest of the road warriors coming in and felt bad about that.

I am happy that I did see everyone at the postrace party at Calder Plaza. You are all so incredibly awesome! Congratulations to ALL! Completing this race is not something that everyone does. Let no one deceive you. . . . it is an awe inspiring accomplishment! It requires courage and determination. You ALL ROCK!!! 

I am afraid that I celebrated a little too much! Many friends (people I graduated from high school with who ran it) and family were at the party. As my daughter said to me on Sunday, “Hey Mom, we closed down Calder Plaza.” Yes, we were among the last ones to leave. Then we did a pub crawl along Bridge Street.  I saw fellow road warrior, Julie at O’Toole’s! Oh boy, it was a long day and I sure don’t usually do that! Let’s just say I had a little too much fun, but sure felt that I had earned it!

Tim and I did our first postrace run today. . . first day we have had time. Just an easy 4 mile run. It felt wonderful! When we got home, Tim handed me a present “Happy Mother’s Day and birthday” he said, . . . a Garmin. . the 350! Can’t wait to hit the road tomorrow!!!  Thank you Julie and Shelly for all the “subtle” hints to Tim! Now please teach me how to use it!

Being a road warrior has been such an incredible experience! I have made so many new friends and have learned so much about myself! Thank you to all my fellow road warriors and to our wonderful coaches Mike and Terry and Woj! Kristen and Brooke, you have treated us like royalty. . . . thank you so much! This has been an amazing  journey, and I am sad to see it end.

The hardest part of being a road warrior for me was not always being able to run with Tim. He has been my running partner for almost 11 years. He is much faster than I am, but slows down to be with me. We have been married for 32 years. When I went through the cancer journey, he encouraged me constantly. He told me I was beautiful bald. He stopped and let me cry on his chest when I was too weak to run more than a few blocks without stopping  to rest during chemo and radiation. He told me my scars were battle wounds and that I was a warrior and the most beautiful woman in the world. This is my husband and I am so proud of him. He ran the Riverbank with very little training in 1:59! Another unofficial road warrior. Thank you Tim for your love and faithfulness! I pray that we will have many, many more years of running together! Maybe we’ll even qualify for Boston eventually! As I hung our medals up with our others, I counted the Riverbank medals and was surprised to see that this was actually my 9th Riverbank race. I thought it was my 8th! Tim and I are going to join rungazelle and I will be training to run my 4th marathon in the fall. Thank you to all who have supported us along this journey. It has been a great honor to be a road warrior and I have loved sharing the journey with you!

Blessings and happy running!

Deb

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