What Do 26.2, 87/94, and $3001.01 Have In Common?

Just one thing - Lynnette Joy Ogle Davidson. Today, Lynnette completed her first full marathon, the Country Music Marathon here in Nashville. It's one of her thirty things that she wants to do this year. She wanted to do more than complete a personal goal, so she ran for Gilda's Gang and raised $3000.01 in the process. Did I mention that she trained for this while completing her final semester of graduate school, writing papers, grading papers, counseling clients, and taking exams? Oh, and did I mention that today's high was 87 degrees, but it felt like 94? Try running 26.2 miles in that!!

I had appointed myself her support team, because all premier athletes have support teams. My original plan was to ride my bike all over town, because so many local roads are closed for this event. My plan was also to train on the bike, a plan I finally put into place last night when I bought a bike pump and asked Steve to pump up the tires on the bike. Steve and Maribeth decided that attempting to ride the bike would probably kill me, so Maribeth volunteered to be the driver for this mission. She knew all the back roads and got us where we needed to be. I tried to direct us to the first meeting point, only to get us in the wrong place. Afterwards, I shut up and let her drive, refusing only one time, when the plan was for me to jump the fence with the bike and ride in the graveyard to one meeting point. Instead, we parked in front of somebody's house in the 'hood, crossed the barrier, and found Lynnette.

Once Sam had finished the half-marathon (his fourth/twelve for 2009), he joined our group. We had the fully-pumped bike in the back of Maribeth's jeep, and at one point Sam took it out and set off in search of Lynnette, flying past her in the process. She saw Maribeth and me, pulled over and needed something salty, which was in the backpack that Sam had on. Maribeth called him to cycle back ASAP, because Lynnette was with us and he was who-knows-where. He returned, Lynnette got Pringles, and off she went again.

We continued to locate her, as Sam proved to be as successful a navigator as Maribeth, who had to leave to go to work. We had our cooler of ice and sponges, and iced her down every two miles (did I mention it was essentially 95 degrees today without a cloud in the sky?).

Soon (at least to me - I wasn't on my feet for 26.2 miles) Lynnette was passing the 26-mile mark, headed for the .2 and the finish. AND SHE DID IT!

Lynnette used to have a Wonder Woman sweater that she wore on test days. Today, Wonder Woman wore a new outfit - a black running skirt and red shirt. Go Lynnette!!