The Power of a Support Crew

Last week, it was starting to look like it was just going to be hubby and my girlies coming to Kelowna to cheer me on this weekend.  While these are BY FAR the most important people and I don't think I could do this without their support...it was a much smaller crew than was planning to be there back when I signed up.

What a difference a week makes. I am so happy I could just cry right about now.

This weekend, my Mother-in-Law decided to join us in Kelowna - both as support and to celebrate Thanksgiving.   It meant a change in our accommodations, but it also means that hubby will have some help wrangling the terrible twosome whilst I run around in circles for 6 hours.  Suddenly, there are more voices to cheer me on and more people to celebrate this personal victory with.

Then, I got a wonderful email this morning.  One of my oldest friends, Meg, wrote to tell me she is planning to come up from Seattle.  If she brings her son - that adds two more people to the cheering squad!  

It gives such a boost to me to have people there to cheer me on.   JS and I were talking on the weekend about the importance of that support crew.  Last year,  had support at pretty much every race I ran, up until Nike.  Then, I sort of started to hand out "free passes" to skip the runs.  I ran so many half marathons that they seemed to hubby like something I just "do" for fun on a weekend.   Not worth coming out for, really.  But as my training has worn on this year, I've felt so isolated and alone.   No one to hug me at the finish line.  Heck - I wasn't evening bringing running partners to my races this year.  I don't even know if I bothered to show off my medals when I got home because I didn't think anyone cared anymore.

Then, a few weeks ago, I started to pull out the "free pass" for Kelowna, giving hubby the option to opt out of attending.  He verbally bitchslapped me and said "Shut up.  We WILL be there to support you in this.  It is a BIG DEAL and we won't be missing it!" (I may not be verbatim there, but the "Shut Up" was definitely at the start)

So, just like that - this weekend is falling into place.  I will be surrounded by people who love me and want to see me succeed.  It's a fantastic feeling.  I can already feel it pulling me over that finish line.