Momma, are you going to win?

Notice my shirt...it says "run like a mother"! Couldn't resist it! It became mine!


A few days before the marathon, I had started this post. I never got back to finishing it until now...and maybe it was better this way. Here is what I had started:





Many times during this year, as the boys have asked questions about this race, I have had moments when I would just giggle and try to store the memory in my mind. The usual question is "Momma, are you going to win?". That really is humorous. They have no concept of the number of people who run these things and that many are professional athletes. The innocence in all of their questions are precious. Then they would go on to "well will you be second?".


The other day Ramiro asked me this question that has managed to penetrated my thoughts as I have frantically tried to manage the events of this week. It has been a reoccurring thought that sits in the front row of my mind with its hand up high, needing attention!!


The question was this, "Mom, who are you trying to beat?".


I'm not really sure what brought this question on...my suspicion is that it's just who Ramiro is. Most everything in his life, at the present time, is about being first and beating everyone at everything! He needs to be first to get breakfast, first out the door, first in the door, first in the shower, etc. Got the point? Competition at its best!



Never the less, I began to ponder this question that was asked with such innocence...but ever so important to define. The truth is, there is something to beat. The "26.2 with Donna" race is really a means in which to fight breast cancer...to raise money for research and to support local families while in treatment. But as anyone who has raced before knows...we are all in this for our own race too. Each of us who will run on Sunday has our own race to run, our own fight to fight and "thing" we need to beat. I will go to the start line Sunday morning, ready to run my own race and with the thought that the thing to fear is really fear itself! That's what I must beat! I just need to know that I can do this.



Now that the race is over...I wanted to share a sweet moment with Ramiro as I put him into bed the other day. First I've got to say that when I walked in the door the afternoon of the marathon...I was greeted by Andre and Ramiro, who were very excited for me and full of hugs and kisses. Ramiro immediately noticed my metal around my neck and jumped up in the air with one fist over his head and said "Yeah Momma, you winned!!". Not correct grammar, but the words couldn't have been more perfect and of course pulled at my emotions like nothing else!



This brings me to bed time. I was giving him hugs and kisses, wrapping him up with his "lovie" and then he paused for a second and said "Mom, you winned, right?". I immediately thought of his previous questions of who I was trying to beat. I had snap shots that raced through my mind of the 26 mile journey, the year of training and the 4+ hours of running that had put my body into complete exhaustion. I rubbed his hair and face as his big blue eyes waited for my response.

I bent down to kiss his face and said "yes, baby, Momma winned her race".

He responded, "I'm glad".

Hardly able to control my emotions, I quietly whispered back, "me too".