123

Dallas- Cancelled. Therefore road trip: BCS Marathon (Read 290 times)

    (Sorry for the change in topic over the past 7 days and the direction that this thread has taken.  It wasn't intended, but there were many things that changed over the past week)

     

    What a whirlwind weekend.  I'm back in Dallas after a crazy 72 hours.

    Friday at noon, the Dallas Marathon got cancelled due to ice.

    Friday at 4pm, I was able to secure a spot in the BCS Marathon in College Station (200 miles south)

    Saturday at 10am, we left the house to drive down to College Station (through the ice for the 1st 70 miles)

    Sunday at 7am, the marathon started.

     

    As my last post stated, I decided to run with my friend and pace her to the finish line.  This was a very emotional race for her, and was her 1 and only marathon.  She will NOT run another marathon.  A few of us were able to 'train' her and support her and encourage her over the past 6 months and got her from not running more than 10 minutes to a running a great marathon yesterday.

     

    Her husband died 4 years ago due to a brain tumor at the age of 42.  He was a great friend of mine.  Over the past couple of years, her family has been raising money (approx. $100k) to build an orphanage in Zambia in honor of Kyle.  One of the last pushes for Ley was to run a marathon and raise money for Kyle's House.  


    When the Dallas Marathon cancelled, she was devastated.  She had received sponsorship money for the race, and wanted to actually run the race (for many many reasons).  She was determined to run the marathon this weekend.  She was able to find this race in College Station.

     

    Race morning: 30 degrees with Ice falling.

    I paced her for the race, and she finished in at her goal time of 4 hours (4:00:35).  She did great!  She didn't walk at all, and was able to enjoy the race.  The last 10 miles of the race ran through Texas A&M University (Kyle's alma mater), and she was able to think of Kyle walking those same roads and paths.  

    FWIW, her daughter is a freshman at Texas A&M University now, and it made it a super weekend since she was able to witness her mom running the marathon since "Kyle's House" was the daughter's idea and she was the one working through all of the different sponsorship opportunities.

     

    Cheers,
    Brian

    Life Goals:

    #1: Do what I can do

    #2: Enjoy life

     

     

    joescott


      All things considered, I would say it was Providential that you ended up in College Station running with your friend, at her husband's alma mater and her daughter's school, to raise money for an orphanage in Africa.  Very inspirational.

      - Joe

      We are fragile creatures on collision with our judgment day.

        Sorry to just jump in on this, and sorry the race was cancelled, although probably the right decision by the organizers.

         

        What I really wanted to say is that I am really happy to hear about the orphanage!

        I lived in Zimbabwe, just south of Zambia, until the age of twenty, and my daughter, son-in-law and family still live there. I know that AIDS has caused huge loss of life among the adult population; to the extent that for a while companies used to routinely hire two people to fill any position that required extensive training on the assumption one of the two would die of AIDS before the training course was over.

        You can imagine the number of orphans, in some villages there are scarcely any adults, just children and very old people.

         

        If you see that lady or her daughter again please say some guy on the internet from Canada said "thanks."

        PBs since age 60:  5k- 24:36, 10k - 47:17. Half Marathon- 1:42:41.

                                            10 miles (unofficial) 1:16:44.

         

        mab411


        Proboscis Colossus

          Well, that is awesome, KC.  Just awesome.  Congrats to her and you on a great day, despite the crazy weather/travel!

           

          ...and kudos to that race director for working with y'all.  I can't say I'm going to run that one for my first BQ attempt next year, but that race is definitely on my radar now.

          "God guides us on our journey, but careful with those feet." - David Lee Roth, of all people

            All things considered, I would say it was Providential that you ended up in College Station running with your friend, at her husband's alma mater and her daughter's school, to raise money for an orphanage in Africa.  Very inspirational.

             

            Yes, Divine. There are twists and turns in the story that make this race weekend truly amazing.  And yes, the BCS Marathon was the perfect race for her and could've been / should've been the race she originally signed up for.

            It was great seeing the Texas A&M student clubs and fraternities outside cheering for us, and having them yell out "Kyle's House!, Kyle's House!" over and over as we're running through.  We ran by Kyle Field 3 times while running through campus.   The name Kyle in College Station is unlike any other name.  Everybody loved the shirts we were wearing and everybody was yelling "Kyle's House".

             

            One student from every graduating class has their ring on display at campus.  Kyle's class ring is permanently displayed on campus (class of '91) within their "Ring of Honor", and we ran about 100 yards from the building and I pointed out the building to her as we were running by.  (She would have missed it).  We tried to stop by the building after the race, but the building is closed on Sunday.

             

            Simon, I will pass along the 'thanks' to her from you.

             

            Joe, Simon, Mab, TXDiver.... Everybody, Thank you!


            Cheers,
            Brian

            (fwiw, I could care less about the PR when I get to experience a day as awesome as I got to experience yesterday)

            Life Goals:

            #1: Do what I can do

            #2: Enjoy life

             

             

            123