DreamBig 2014 - #35 Delaware

State #35 - Rehoboth Beach, Delaware
Rehoboth Beach Seashore Half Marathon
Finishers: 1,302

December 5, 2014
I knew it was going to be a wild day, but I never imagined how wild. I took the earliest flight out of Atlanta to Philadelphia and picked up a rental car at the airport. From there, it was nonstop until midnight. The timing of this weekend worked out perfect since we had planned an event for JMac Gives Back called "Bowl with the Birds" so lots of friends and family were in town for the event. I started my wild day at lunch with Stacey Kracher who is the Director of Marketing at a law firm in Philadelphia who has been a huge help in doing a lot of smaller events and PR and helping Jeremy spread the name of the foundation. Stacey does a ton of foundation work so we wanted to meet up since we had only ever spoken on the phone to get to know each other and so I could pick her brain for ideas. I can't remember what the place was called that we got lunch but Stacey knew the owner and they were so sweet and picked up our lunch. From lunch, I had a meeting with our new logo designer, Dan O., so he told me where to meet him for coffee and off I went running through the streets of downtown Philadelphia to find Elixr Coffee Roasters. Dan is so great and after winning the logo contest told me how much he loves how family oriented our foundation is and how far back everyone who runs it goes, and is more than happy to do our artwork pro bono. He does amazing work that everyone has loved so far! From coffee, I had to jump in the car and run to the t-shirt printer because we had a mix up with shipping but Anthony from ALine Apparel shocked me by reprinting our entire order for free so I went to go pick them up and then zipped over to Cherry Hill to help set up for the Bowl with the Birds event. The event was sponsored by two local companies, hosted by Jeremy Maclin and raised money for the Vetri Foundation. I was at the Playdrome Bowling alley alone for a while with the coordinators until people starting showing up. Once people started showing up, it got pretty busy but since I wasn't technically in charge of the even, my only job was to bowl, eat, and make sure Jeremy wasn't too overwhelmed (I sort of had so much fun bowling, I forgot to eat and the food was even SO good!) Jeremy's family (Jeff and Cindy Parres, Patty Maclin and Erin) were all there for me to hang and bowl with which was so fun since I hadn't seen them in a while. It got a bit overwhelming with fans chasing Jeremy up and down the lanes wanting autographs, but we were always able to drag him back to our JMGB lane for his turn.

New Shirts from A-Line Apparel!

Branded floor mats at the Bowling Alley!

All of the Birds (Eagles) who showed up to Bowl

Our little JMac Gives Back family 

Me and the Boss

So happy they keep me around =)

Jeremy bowling (gutter ball) for a Nickelodeon Feature we set up!

Once the bowling event was almost over, I had to quickly run to the train station and pick up Anthony who was coming down from New York to drive with me to Delaware. It was a two hour drive and I had already had a long day but I knew I needed some sleep so I just powered through the last little bit of the day.

December 6, 2014

I woke up super early and drove down to the race start to pick up my t-shirt and race number since I hadn't been in town to do it the night before. The weather was supposed to be super cold and rainy but at 5:00am it surprisingly wasn't that bad. I picked up my packet and head back to the hotel where poor Anthony had to put up with all of my nervous antics. Sorry, bro. I was in one of my moods where I didn't feel like eating, but I did my best to nibble on a few things so I could have something in my stomach. We plotted out that Anthony would see me at like Mile 5 and Mile 8 and 10 and then the finish. He drove me down to the start which was right on the beach and walked with me to the startline and I was pretty excited that this was not only my last race of the year but my 14th race of the year that would complete my 14 in 2014 challenge #14in14 that Megan Mitchell and had come up with back in May. So basically finishing this race would be a completing a small goal, which is part of the completion of a medium goal with my overall big goal -- so its like a Goal Russian Stacking Doll (but I digress...). So - the weather has held up for the time being so I told Anthony to go get breakfast and started the race. 

So here is the thing - I have mentioned multiple times I don't wear a watch and this race was one of the million reasons why. I started the race and it went up the shore through a marsh type looking area and then back down towards town. By the time I saw Anthony at Mile 5 I already knew this was not going to be my race. Anthony is also my part time long distance personal trainer, so I was hoping to do well and show him how great I had been training but that all sort of fell apart. There is never a good reason as to why I don't feel great but it is just little aches and pains and old injuries that start flaring up at the wrong time - hips, knees, feet, chest all of the above just start hurting and it is hard to push that pain away. The second part of the race went onto a wooden trail...and stayed on the wooden trail. So not only was I not feeling good, but now I had nothing to look at. I had to wait until around Mile 7 when all of the fast people started coming back the other way so then I had something to watch. I ran past a water station around Mile 8.5 and saw Anthony and gave him the thumbs down and he just kind of laughed and said "See ya on the way back". The turn around was near mile 9 and then I knew I had to go all the way back the same way I came. I passed Anthony again around Mile 10 and then entertained myself by listening to all of the middle age women talk about their life drama. That always has a way of cheering me up. 

Unhappy camper mid race

Why are all of you people smiling? I'm in pain...

I finally came out of the woods and didn't have too many more miles to go. We were heading back towards town and getting to things I started to recognize. Then the back of my knee tightened up almost to the point I couldn't put one foot in front of the other. This has happened a couple times before and always towards the end of the race - its always either my knee or my calves. And when it does happen, the course always finds a way to twist and turn up and down blocks so that you never see the finish line coming. Knowing me, I was probably crying crossing the finish line...but whatever. 

Kickin in broke legged to the finish line

Finish Line - I - LOVE - FINISH LINES!

As bad as I felt, I still came in around 2:07 which is still good in my book. Regardless,  I got my medal - I completed Delaware - #14 in 14 was complete and I was 70% complete with my overall goal! I made Anthony wander around with me and get a ton of pictures before finally deciding on Santa's House as the background of my official race picture. We head back to Philadelphia after grabbing some food and hung out and watched football games for the rest of the day at Jeremy's with Erin and the Parres' and when everyone left, Cindy and Jeff took Anthony and I out to dinner at this little colonial house and then I was exhausted and fell asleep real quick that night because I wanted to get ready for game day!

Anthony aka TonyT Half Marathon Coach for the Day

Official Race Picture for #35 - Delaware check!

December 7, 2014

Game Day - Game Day! This was my first time actually getting to experience a game day with the crew. After getting some Dunkin Donuts breakfast sammies and drinking a ton of coffee, Erin drove me, Patty and Anthony down to the stadium in Jeremy's truck so we could see what the players lot looked like. I finally got to go to the Green Magic tailgate and meet the incredible support crew that Jeremy's family had randomly stumbled upon a few years back. Ron and DJ met us at the tailgate and we enjoyed hanging around with Alfio and his crew before heading into the Friends & Family room for dinner before the game. Sadly the game resulted in a loss but it was still a great weekend for JMac Gives Back and our whole crew!

35 states down - 15 more to go!
#DREAMBIG

Whole gang prior to the Eagles Game

Big Group Selfie in our seats