ON YOUR MARKS........GET SET..........GO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The start of the 34th Grandma's Marathon has begun!!!!!!!!!! And I'm half way across the world for it.  I never really had a chance to really sit down and kinda reflect on this entire year!!! I'll be arriving home from Sweden when it's officially 1 year and probably won't have that much energy to write something!!! Today was a perfect day for just that!! After killing myself yesterday to the physical max (6th consecutive day), definitely needed a downer day before running my final long run tomorrow (13 miles) and taking it easy with medium sized runs until July 3rd!!! I think for this post gonna keep it debby downer!!:) Things I've missed this past year, compared to other training years and how good it's going to feel hugging my mom, dad and sister for the first time in a year and a half!!!! I was watching Saving Private Ryan tonight and there was a particular scene I could REALLY relate too!! It was one of the soldiers talking about his experiences as a kid and how his mom always worked late and slept through the day!! How sometimes his mom would get off early and come home and watch him sleep, however, he wouldn't be sleeping just keep his eyes closed like he was sleeping!! Then he goes on explaining how he didn't know why he never opened his eyes, cause all his mom wanted to do was talk and see how his day went!! But he never opened them and continued to sleep!! I think as kids all of us do that, I know I did when I would pretend to still be taking a nap after a long day and not want to talk to anyone.  I also don't know why I did that, maybe it was just the actions of a stupid teenager!! Well I look back at those moments and regret keeping my eyes closed for both my mom and dad, sister no so much, and how I wish I would have opened them to talk!! Cause now I'm half way across the world and don't even get to physically talk to them for another 6 months!! Now to relate all of this to training and how this year has been different to past years!! During every training season I would always do some mini races (5/10k's) and of course my dad, mom, sister, and Cindy would all be there with cameras and cheering voices of support!! For the marathons, my mom would always have the bananas, strawberries, oranges or mini snicker bars, while my dad would be Mr. Road Map and make sure they hit ALL 5 points along the marathon route, while taking a MASSIVE amount of pictures!! Then there would be Dan (best friend) who would yell things of "YOU SUCK!!" , "Hey you're behind like 500 runners, pick it up!!", "I hate you, you'll never win this race!!"!! So Nicole, now do you see where I get my words of encouragement from!!!:) But you know what those "negative/hilarious" comments made me loosen up inside and probably were the best comments anyone could yell!! And of course my sister would have some kind of shirt with words of support on it, or a sign, or flat out just being there cheering her big brother on!!! All of these small little moments in life, are now HUGE moments I'm going to miss come 2 weeks at the Paavo Nurmi Marathon!! No food from mom, course mapping and checkpoints to look for the family compliments of my dad, no helpful words of discouragement from Dan, no encouragement from my sister!! This is where the one negative of being a teacher comes in, the money!! In a heartbeat I would fly all of my family and Dan over to Finland so I could be with them and run this race together!! Cause I would be no where without all of them there throughout my life supporting me as a I run!! They are my support crew, my family, and my concrete foundation!!  This race IS for you guys!! Without you I wouldn't be where I am today!!! This is my 6th marathon, but really its my first all over again!! Have a great weekend all and Minnesota..........see you in 6 months from today!!!!:) Happy Smiling!!