My Marathon Inspiration

Happy Hump Day! 2 more workdays until the weekend!

I started out my Wednesday with about 20 minutes of hip/ab strength training, and 20 super easy minutes on the elliptical with Self magazine. I am so behind on magazine reading its ridiculous.

Warning - serious post coming. Regular sarcasm/self degradation/random thoughts will return as scheduled in tomorrow's post.

Before the Baltimore Marathon, I dedicated each one of the last 6 miles to someone in my family who had supported me and helped me get there. I wish I could take credit for this idea, but I'm a teacher, and I steal ideas. That was a good one, though.

This time I am taking a different approach and dedicated the entire marathon to someone special in my life who is a huge inspiration to me, my Gram.


Here she is opening gifts on Christmas 09.

Lindsey/Miller/Roberts/Clark birthday bonanza cupcake decorating contest - we don't do anything halfway in this family. She was in it to win it.

When I was little, going to visit Gram was the highlight of our year (our meaning me, my brother, and my sister).

At her house, we got spoiled like crazy with candy, adorable outfits, games, basically never ending fun. Every year at Christmas we'd impatiently anticipate the moment the doorbell would ring and reveal the mailman with giant boxes of gifts from Gram. They would all be perfectly wrapped, and always have some sort of extra surprise in them, like a treat in the cargo pants she would send my brother, or a doll with her own set of little outfits (that Gram had made herself, of course). Once she heard one of us liked something (for me it was my little ponies in kindergarten, trolls in third grade, for my sister it was beanie babies) she made it her mission that we would have the best collection of all our classmates.
 
Here we are at my high school graduation.

The three of us would take turns spending a week or two visiting her every summer, and we looked forward to it like it was a trip to Disney World. She'd stock the fridge with all your favorite foods, and schedule all sorts of fun outings and activities so we would have quality time together every day.


As an adult, I'm still close with my Gram and look forward to our talks on the phone several times a week. Gram lives at the halfway point between Baltimore and my hometown of Rochester, so it works out perfectly to visit her every time we drive up. 

My sister, Darcy, Gram, and me at my rehearsal dinner.

Here she is rocking out with my brother at my wedding. No blog post is complete without at least one wedding picture.

Recently, Gram fell and broke her hip. My mom, stepfather, sister and I all headed to the hospital in Williamsport to support her while she had emergency surgery. In the hospital, both before and after surgery, she was still her normal self, making jokes, teasing everyone, chatting about reality TV, bossing the nurses around (she was a nursing assistant for many years). I don't know about you, but there's no way I could have been the least bit pleasant in the hospital waiting for or recovering from surgery, yet here she was, cheering us up, when it should have been the other way around. She kept a positive attitude throughout the whole unpleasant ordeal.


My bridal shower in May 2008 - can't believe how young we all look!

Any time my brain starts whining at me during the marathon on Sunday, I'm just going to think about Gram's positive attitude throughout everything she has been through. If she can get up when she's exhausted and in pain to do physical therapy less than 24 hours after surgery (not to mention the many times since then), I can run a few more miles and be thankful I have the ability to do it.

Mom & Vince's Wedding, August 2007

Gram, this marathon is for you! You amaze me and inspire me every day and I love you!