You Win Some, You Lose Some

One great thing about living in Oakland, is that it is a city where your mail is still dropped through your door slot. Seriously! We have a slot in the side of the house next to the front door and all of our mail (even sometimes small packages) fits through. It's really nice, especially in a location where you don't really want your stuff sitting around outside, even mail. We don't even have to walk to a box to mail our mail, we just stick it in our slot (with a teeny bit poking outside) and the mailman takes it away!

This is really fun.....most of the time. Unfortunately though, it doesn't always work. Sometimes when we leave mail in the box the mailman doesn't pick it up if he doesn't have anything to drop off. Occasionally the mail he drops through spreads out with all the ads, and you'll open up the front door and come in to a SEA of mail. Other times, (our outgoing) mail has dropped out of the outside of the box unbeknownst to us and landed on the porch. This has happened in the rain, and other gross weather conditions.

So....here we come to the part of the story where I explain which "ones you win". A few weeks ago I was planning on running a 5K with my friend Rebecca. It was through Golden Gate park and a huge race with 10,000 participants. I was really excited to be doing that at 5 months pregnant. I filled out (both of) our registration and left them in the mail slot and waited for our bib numbers and timers to come in the mail. The shirt for the race was a really cool black long-sleeved shirt and I was still running at the gym and excited to have the race to look forward to. As the race day approached we still had not received our bibs, etc., but weren't worried because they could also be picked up at the Will-Call before the race. Most people were getting them that way. So Rebecca and I (and our sweet husbands, and Joey) got up at 5:00 on Feb 1 for the race and drove all the way into S.F. for the race. It was PACKED., and after working on finding parking, and lots of shuffling we were at the Will-Call tent, ready for the race on a beautiful day in Golden Gate Park. *sigh*.

But alas. They did not have our registration. Lost in the mail? Does that really happen. I sent it in! I sent it in weeks ago!! The race was so crowded and they were very clear on their website that there was NO RACE DAY REGISTRATION, so after a few visits to the troubleshooting tent and some completely shameless begging, we were turned away. wow. Honestly, There are only a handful of times in my life I can remember being so disappointed. It might sound silly but something about staying in shape this pregnancy and having the support of Matt there watching, and doing it with my friend, it seemed like there wouldn't be another chance until after June when BBB comes and then a few months after that, to get back up to a place where I could run 3 consecutive miles. I was so sad!!

What an encouragement my great friend Rebecca was. She is not a huge fan of running and really just agreed to do it with me because I begged, but she said, Laurie, if you can find another race in the next few weeks that you want to run, I'll do it with you. I could have kissed her!! She turned a big disappointment into a hopeful situation!

Then I got the FLU!! Just 2 days later!! I was out for over 11 days. Completely out of commission. Not working, not really moving and definitely not feeling like running a race with the VERY little bit of energy that I did have. But the Lord was so good, and He really turned the tide of my illness about 5 days before the Chinatown 5/10K which was Feb. 15, last Sunday. Rebecca agreed to do it with me, and we registered just a few days before.

The race began in Chinatown, celebrating the Year of the Ox, 2009, which was the previous weekend, and traversed a good part of the city, Fisherman's wharf, all the piers along the shore, The financial district (which is the skyline and all the tall buildings) and Chinatown. It was really cool to run through the city and have the traffic stopped for you and lots of people cheering you on. AND it was POURING rain that day. By the end we were all soaked through. It was an AWFUL day, but my friends, I tell you, it was wonderful. I didn't set any records, and I didn't have a fast time at all, but I ran that entire 5K, and I felt wonderful. Amazing.

It wasn't the same as it would have been running on a beautiful day through Golden Gate park, but what a great reminder of the much more beautiful friendship that I have. What a great chance for the Lord to teach me about His planning and patience. What an opportunity for me to see the dedication of my sweet husband, as he twice got up at the crack of dawn, on a weekend and took care of our son. What a race.

This is Rebecca and I after our thwarted first attempt....


Last weekend....ready ready ready ready, ready to run!!


Picture Matt took after the start...you can kind of see all the rain.


My great friend, who supported me through the race in the rain that she ran because she is amazing.....giving props to perhaps the youngest runner of the race :-)


We've been having rain non-stop and after a little porch cleaning on a non-rainy yesterday, I found the envelope with the first race registration. It had fallen out of the box before it was picked up, and under a chair on our porch where we couldn't see it. It had been rained on, hailed on (hailed??) and looked like it had been chewed up and swallowed. It was out there for a month. But I wouldn't have had it any other way.