Face of a Champion!

All day long I thought about what to put in my blog. I have not written in a while.  I feel like today is a day that should be written about.

Today I ran the Komen 5k race for the third year in a row.  This year I ran it without my sister- in-law, without my husband, and without my Sunday morning running partner.  To be brutally honest, my heart was not in it this year. I have been in a funk for a while.  Although I look like a 36 year old on the outside, I am really like an 85 year old on the inside. This is just one of the many side effects of the medicine that I take to keep the cancer from returning.  Sometimes it is just hard to have a body of an 85 year old when you mind wants to be like a 36 year old. (if that make sense)

Don’t get me wrong, I am truly grateful to be alive and I really try to live every day to its fullest.  However, there are some days that are just harder than others.  There are days that I wish I could just crawl back into bed and not push through the pain I feel in my feet or joints.  However, being a mom, you can’t really just crawl back into bed and forget the world for a day or two.  Being a mom forces you to push past the pain and persevere.

          

        I started the race and was feeling ok.  There were points where I wanted to stop and walk.  There were moments where I said “it is just a race, I don’t have to run it all.”  But there were stronger moments where I said “don’t stop, keep going, don’t let yourself down, show the cancer who is the real boss, you never give up and you won’t start now, show the medicine that it can make you gain weight and cause you to hurt all the time but it won’t stop you.”  I ran hard at the end.  I had a high school classmate at the finish line who gave me a great high five!  Thanks Kurt for being at the end of the race, it totally helped me finish strong.

          So here is my after race picture:  

This is my champion face!  I am about 10 pounds heavier than last year but I ran it 30 seconds faster!  As Margaret Newman said “determination and the fighting spirit prevailed!”

Here are some other pictures from my day.  These pictures show why I get up every morning.  In the end the people around us make it so much easier to live life.

We celebrated Elisheva's 8th birthday with a tea party with her friends from school.

Shua scored a goal at his game today!

Spending time with loved ones!

Catching moments like this.....precious!