Krissy Thomas

I ran about 15 miles today and I just don’t think my body was ready for that after my travels this past week. I’m hurting and my bones are mad at me.

After some self psycho-analysis I decided that it would do my body good to get some new shoes, so I went and got two pair…one for the long runs and one for my speed/track training… check out Runner’s World magazine this month, they have a whole section on finding the right shoe for you and my new track shoe the New Balance 826, but the ones I got are the blue 902s are in there!!! I can’t wait for track this week, cuz “I’m gonna run like the wind with my brilliant blue new shoes on.” or so I told a friend today… Oh yeah and the running skirt is sure to make me go fast as well! attempting to gain fashionista status on the track! HA

Ok, i’ve now taken my second dose of 800 miligrams of Vitamin M aka Motrin…Off to bed I go to try and get some rest for my weary bones.

Tonight I talked to my friend Chris…No, I don’t try to make friends with all the Chris’s in the world, but I figure I should get to know as many of them as possible.
Chris and I have been friends for quite a while now…I was counting it out and realized its now been 9 years of friendship. My daughter was 2 and hers was 1 1/2…well, now they are 11 and 10 1/2…wow, where does the time fly?

You know you have friendships that last for a season and some (few) that last for a lifetime? I have to say that I have very few friendships that I know will last this lifetime of mine, but gladly I can say that my friendship with Chris is one that will last forever. We were two young military wives with one child each when we walked into each other’s lives…I was actually pregnant and throwing a block party when she, her husband and daughter walked into our backyard and our lives forever! They were brand new to the base and curious as to what kind of a situation they were getting into. I’m glad to say that it all worked out well, because here we are older, wiser and ….well, i’ll let you fill in the blanks. All I know is that we all (kids and husbands included) pick up right where we leaave off every time we see each other.

So back to the friendship deal…you know some friends hold your hands through things, some rub your back through things and others just challenge you in ways you never expect? Well, I think Chris is all of the above…early this year she called me and after a conversation about our new found common running hobby she said, “hey, let’s run a half-marathon together.” to which I replied, “yeah, Ok!” little did I know that this half marathon endeavor would end up in both she and I actually attempting a full 26.2 mile marathon in San Francisco in October!
Well, here we are at the 2 month away mark and I have to give a shout out to my sweet and beautiful friend! She’s one of those remarkable women that you meet who knows what she wants and goes after it! She has an amazing husband who protects our freedom and 3 gorgeous daughters, one of whom which my son has been pledged to, unbeknownst to him.:) I’m so proud of the military wives in our country, but especially to the ones who are my close friends, but most specifically to my hero and friend Chris!

Ok, girl, run hard and fast tomorrow morning! I’ll be thinking of you as i’m running my 2.75 hours. I can’t wait for October when the Chris/Kris connection meets up again! I love ya! You make me so proud!Thanks for getting me to do this marathon…even if the motives weren’t all altruistic ie…the chocolate mile and the T&CO; necklace!

We have a routine in our home before my kids go to bed. They do the usual stuff like taking showers, brushing their teeth, saying their prayers, etc…but one thing that i do with with my kids before they go to sleep is to lay with them and tell them how much I love them and how great I think they are. Whether they’ve thrilled, overjoyed and made me proud or whether they’ve angered, frustrated or even overwhelmed me, there’s not a night that passes with me under the same roof that I don’t lay next to them and run my fingers through their hair. They expect it and I look forward to hearing them say, “Momma can you lay with ME first?”

I’m telling you all of this because tonight as i lay with my boy, i was immediately transported back to the Philippines to a little shack of a home where a young mother was raising 3 young children. A home much like a crawlspace without electricity, running water or even a real floor. A home where a little baby by the name of Krissy sat silently wheezing on my lap coughing intermittently with a chest rattling cough that shook her frail little body. This young mom was most gracious to welcome us into her home and to tell us about her life. She works at nights taking care of her friend’s children as her friends go to work. What kind of work her friends go to, she never told us. Tonight I was saddened when i thought that she did not have the luxury of laying peacefully with her baby boy or her baby girls to run her fingers through their hair. I don’t know for a fact that she doesn’t lay with them at nights, but I know first hand that when mothers are busy and concerned about where her kids will sleep that night or if there are clothes to wear or most possibly even if they have enough food for the next day, they most likely are not thinking of laying with each child to make sure they fall asleep peacefully. The chores of the day take over and the concern to take care of basic needs overtake the desire for basic wants.

I laid there with my boy scratching his back, praying for my sister overseas who was beginning her day and taking care her children. I prayed that she would feel loved and that God would be so real to her today. Little 2 year old Krissy and I bonded last Monday in Manila and I don’t think it was a fluke that I got to visit her home…You know you always remember someone with your name more easily than some random person, so I prayed for Krissy as well. My prayer was that she too would feel loved and she would know that she is an amazing gift of God to her mother just like my children are to me.
God put this family in my heart so that in routine moments like tonights with my son, my heart and mind can be transported back to a moment when I recognized that even though this mother and I live such different lives, our hopes for our children are absolutely the same. This mother, like me wants the best for her children, she wants health, safety and a hope filled future just like I want.

Before we parted ways, Krissy’s mom asked me if I would pray for God to provide a new home for her. She wants a home so that next time we visit her she will be able to welcome me through a proper door into a house with a real floor, real walls and a place to sit and visit.
God, please hear the prayer of my sister in the Philippines.

And yet i made it through another track session.

I’m happy to report that i wasn’t the only one that showed up with a lousy attitude to track tonight…I think everyone there (about 12 people)was complaining about the heat, or their knee hurt or their stomach didn’t feel well…i was so unoriginal in my thinking today…what am i complaining about jet lag or something? whatever!

so, tonights run was 2 laps of warmup followed up with 2 laps of pace running followed up with 4 laps where we jogged for the first 200, then sprinted for the second half of the 200, but had to do that consecutively for the duration of one mile…make sense? yeah, it didn’t make sense to me either until i started running it.

ok, so the first 800 after the warm up was fine…easy enough, i averaged at about 1:45 per lap…not bad considering my shoes felt like they were filled with concrete.

Then came the 200 jog followed by 200 sprint…i’ll admit to you, i’m a sprinter, so the thought of coming around that bend and taking off actually excited me, so the first lap, guess who took off like there was fire in my shoes? yeah, that would be me, then the second lap, not as fast, but still a fair shot, until i came into the finish mark to start my third lap…i frantically searched the sideline for my inhaler and like a horse that should be put down, with only the whites of her eyes showing in panic and pain i sucked on my inhaler as quickly as possible before continuing my slow jog again…third time around for the sprint, my sprint wasn’t much better than my actual pace speed…so, you see the 4th time around was a sad sad event for Krissy Thomas…as I was certain that I would need to be airlifted off the blacktop. I thought I was going to die of a stroke, better yet maybe a lack of oxygen, or even perhaps the side stitch that felt like a spear had pierced my side, but no worries my sweet friends, i’ve lived to tell another story of my running fun.

Actually i got in my car(don’t know quite how)fumbled to open up my phone to report my imminent death to someone, but that didn’t work out as nobody believes me when i say i’m gonna die, so instead i got in some quality talk time with one of my dearest friends who helped me drive home via the cell phone.

All that to say, the drama has returned to the track via, yours truly loved ones!

Ok, so this weekend we start tapering off on our long runs to get ready for the marathon in exactly 2 months!!! YIKES!!! So, help a girl out…if you know of anyone burning to give some money away, tell them about me and my quest for funds for the Leukemia and Lymphoma society!

So my friends,

It’s Tuesday, know what that means? Yes, indeed, it’s Track night and guess who’s not feeling great about running tonight? Yes, i agree, i’m being a whiney little baby about it, but i’m not ready to run very fast after my travels. I feel a bit like i might pass out on the track. No worries though, i’m getting myself together and out the door i will go in an hour.

I’ll be sure to report back to you with what transpires on that lovely blacktop surface tonight.