It's RACE DAY!

At long last....RACE DAY!

Anyone who has run in a marathon or half marathon knows about the messed up sleep the night before the race. Marathons generally begin at about 6 or 6:30 in the morning. That means that to GET to the start line on time, you generally need to get up at about 4ish in the morning.

Miami is no exception Start time is 6:30, which means that the bus left the hotel at 4:30 am. Yes, 4:30 am.

But you are generally so nervous about the race (and oversleeping...it has happened!) that you wake up about every 15 minutes overnight. I was no exception. I think I saw every 15 minute increment on the clock. I was so pumped up to be running for Dovi and with Dovi that I could. not. sleep. And neither could Benjie. Or Dovi.

So by 3:30 am, even though the alarm wasn't gong off until 3:45 am, Dovi was up, the alarms were off, and we were all dressed. Funny story-Dovi often will wake up in the middle of the night and try and be all sneaky and turn off his oxygen and BiPap. So at 3:15 am, I heard him doing just that.
"Dovi" I whispered
"Uh Oh....busted" was his response

Busted. I love him. He's such a pre-teen.

So at about 3:40 am, Benjie went to go pick up our babysitter. Yes. At 3:40 AM. What else would we do with the Fearsome Threesome? Now I know Shana's a little mama, but this would've been a little much.

So Mindy and Benjie came back, she went back to sleep in our room with a wakeup call scheduled for 6:15 am, and Team Dovi went down to the lobby.


what...you don't take pictures of your 12 year old in the elevator at 3:45 am?



Raphi arrived with Dovi's chariot...



and Dovi ate a bagel. At 4 am.



the Chicago contingent took a picture. Don't we all look bright eyed and bushy tailed for 4am? Well frankly I don't think anyone had slept a wink.



Dovi tried out his chair again in the lobby of the hotel and we decided he looked rather comfy.



We progressed to outside to the busses. Dovi smiled winningly with Chana, one of the Camp Simcha Special counselors who he thoroughly charmed...



and we boarded the bus to go. Raphi had a cowbell. Which he rang. Incessantly. I honestly thought someone was going to toss him out the window. Or stuff him in the bathroom. Luckily it wasn't too long of a ride.





We started getting organized. Notice the girl in the wheelchair with the boom box by her feet? Her pusher, Joe, was running in honor of Dovi also. He rocks. He also rocks because he pushed Sarah (the girl in the wheelchair) across the finish line of the half marathon in 1:57. Without training. He's the one directly behind Sarah. I wanted to vomit. 1:57. I know, Rach. 1:57. I'm sorry.



I gave a mini interview to some guy from guy from ING. I must have said Team Lifeline 40 times in 30 seconds.






Then we got into our start corrals. Dovi and Raphi were up in the front by the wheelchair participants. Stupidly, Benjie and I decided that we should go to our assigned corral instead of staying with Dovi like most everyone else did. Result: we did not run with Dovi at all. But we got pictures!!



Hi, Raphi! Lookin' good!



Question: Is he lounging or covering his ears?!?



Mindy (the babysitter, who, when we took her home at 11:30 AM had worked for us for 8 hours) took the kids on the monorail, with another spectator family) to the Mile 11 Cheering Zone to find us.



They found Dovi



and then waited around a while



Until Benjie and I came by.


Now to the nitty gritty (this is for you, Rach). As we were lining up to start, it was insanely humid. Like fog up your glasses just standing there humid. And this was my 4th year running Miami. I have never seen so many people in the corrals. It was madness-wall to wall humanity. It literally took us about 20 minutes to cross the start line. For the first mile or two, the field was so crowded that you could hardly run without having to weave around people. And the humidity? Did I mention it was humid? Did not make for a good beginning of the run. Once the sun came up, the humidity burned off and it was a lovely overcast sky-perfect, lovely running weather-it was about 65-70 degrees and cloudy. Divine. I decided to stick with my lovely hubby and we ran participated the whole way. We ran up until about mile 8 or 9, when we started to slow down and alternated run/walk the rest of the way. End result was not my best time, but it was fabulous to run with Benjie. Next year, though-we're running. fast.

At the finish line we reunited with the kids and Raphi



and some counselor friends


We ate some snacks (I think I ate a fruit cup, a muffin, and two bottles of water in about 10 minutes)


and headed back to the bus. (Two points to whomever correctly IDs these two backs. And if you took the picture you do NOT get credit)


To answer the inevitable questions in advance...

The kids' t-shirts? I made them. The backs say "Keep running Mommy, Abba, Dovi, and Raphi". I didn't put Joe, even though he was running in honor of Dovi, because he was pushing Sarah and I thought that would be bizarre.

Yes, Shana is the cutest little thing in her Team Lifeline cap.

I wear an orange bandanna because the ING color is orange.

My bib says "Dovi's Mom" and Benjie's says "Dovi's Abba". We also had it on the sleeves of our shirts.

The W on Dovi's bib is because he was a wheelchair participant.

Dovi's time was better by about 15 seconds. Yes, we were beaten by our 12 year old disabled child.

2:57. It was not pretty. I told you so.