It all starts with a dream...

The night before the Athens Classic Marathon I had a ridiculous pre-marathon dream. This happens all the time, where someone is preoccupied with something so much in waking hours that it takes over in sleeping hours as well. The dream went like this: I had a marathon to run and had to get up at 4 am - all three of boys were tagging along. It was a pot luck marathon so I had a huge crock pot full of chili I was carting along. I needed to drop off my youngest at the free babysitting services my church was providing for the marathon. No matter that the church is 30 minutes from where my "dream" marathon was to take place. I dropped him off and realized I needed to use the restroom. I sit down on a toilet and start to um...use it. All of a sudden I see that I am not in a bathroom stall but rather right out in the open - on a toilet sitting behind the welcome desk at my church. The toilet is there to promote clean drinking water around the world...there are nicely dressed ladies at church walking around the lobby and I am praying that nobody notices me. Next thing I know I am at the marathon - getting ready to start. I walk down some steps to the beach and see a huge puddle of water in the sand. I look down and see that I have forgotten my shoes...

Then I wake up. This is exactly the dream I had before I ran the Athens Marathon on Sunday. I woke up giggling and told Ryan all about it dispite it's ridiculousness.

Here is my other dream, and how it played out - this time in real life. At some point in my life, I don't remember when, I decided it would be neat to one day, before I die, run a marathon. Then one day, three years ago, I was in Marathon, Greece with my boys and hubby, and I thought, why not do the original route? My next thought was to call my mom, who had instilled in me my running habit at a young age and had always also talked about running a marathon one day. I knew that her feet had sidelined her a bit but thought I would dream big. Why not run the marathon with her? Then we can both accomplish this huge goal together. The dream got bigger. We somehow were able to talk my younger sister into joining us on our journey. All three of us, living in different parts of the country, all planning to fly to Greece to run 26.2 miles.

Then to make the dream a reality - two years of side jobs, pinching pennies to put into our travel jar, paying for one bit of the trip at a time. Finding generous friends and family to take care of our boys while we were away. Oh, and of course the running. Lots and lots of it!

Finally, my mom, sis and I were at the Runners Expo getting our awesome Adidas running shirts for the race and our bib numbers. We spent the day before touring the city and then ate a pre-race meal of pita and tzatziki. Our feet were sore, we were tired, but we were one step away from our goal!

On race day, the weather was low 40s and unseasonably cold for Athens. We took a bus to Marathon, where we spent 2 1/2 hours shivering, teeth chattering, waiting for our race to begin. I may have used up a bit of energy just freezing and waiting, with no where to get warm, no where to sit down. Cold winds and icy rain falling on us. I wore tights with a running skirt, short sleeved shirt, long sleeved shirt, a beanie hat and some hand/arm warmers I had fashioned out of a pair of striped socks I bought at the 99 cent store. I was still cold!

The race itself felt long - the hills started at about 5K, with winds at least 40 mph. Some of the wind was at our back until we hit the 24K mark, and then they started blowing against us and to the side. The wind and the cold were tough. At 20 miles the course began to go downhill which was when the running got hard for me. My stomach was nausious from GU and hunger pains and my back wasnt happy with the downhill pounding it was getting. I feel like I walked a lot that last bit.

At 27 K my hubby and step dad were there, cheering me on. Then at the end, I turned the corner into the Ancient Olympic Stadium, hit the straight-away and saw the hubby smiling and waving me on. I ran to the finish, like so many dreamers before me, and crossed through to the other side.