it takes a village

Jonathan was going out of town with his dad for the weekend so we made plans ahead of time for the kids to go to Mamaw's to spend the night Friday night. This was so I could get up before the sun Saturday morning for marathon training and nor have to wake them up to take them somewhere.

Wait. Let me back up a minute. In April when we went to Raleigh for the last marathon the kids stayed with Jonathan's mom (their choice) instead of coming to watch the race. Julianna had an active day followed by tons to eat for dinner and that night started feeling sick and threw up. She was fine the whole next day so she must have just eaten too much.

Then we went to the mountains for my niece's blessing three weeks ago and for some unknown reason we were woken up shortly after ten to the sound of Julianna trying to get out of the tent and then puking.

All this is to say that she had since had some anxiety about spending the night anywhere besides her own bed. She did not want to go anywhere this weekend but we talked about it many times with her assuring her that she would be ok... that it wasn't the fact that she was sleeping elsewhere that made her sick and that even if she did get sick it wouldn't be the end of the world. We told her how much it was helping us out to have her spend the night and that otherwise she'd have to get up at 5 am to go stay with someone while I ran.

Anyway, Friday came. She got sick. After many back and forths, I went to pick her up. We came home. I skipped my training run Saturday morning and I honestly do think she had some kind of minor stomach bug this time in addition to the worry of getting sick away from home.

Still. I was depressed. I missed my run and Jonathan was still out of town so I didn't know when I was going to do it.

Julianna was acting a bit better Saturday night at church. I figured I could just drop the kids off at mom and dad's before church on Sunday morning. They weren't happy about having to go to church twice but until they are old enough to stay by themselves I'm afraid they don't have much choice.

I sucked up my pity party. I planned my 14 mile route. I dropped the kids off at my parent's house right before they left for church.  I was not feeling it this morning but it was one I was just going to have to get done.

It was hard.  I walked a lot. My audio book wasn't holding-my-attention good. My stomach felt weak. My sister drove past me at one point, parked, ran 3.5 miles with me, went back home to feed the baby. I finished the last 6 miles running and walking whenever I felt like it. It wasn't pretty but y'all, I did it.

They say it takes a village to raise a child. I say it takes a village to get Courtney to run a marathon. I'm so thankful for my mother-in-law, mom, dad, sister, kids, and training group. Couldn't do it alone.