I AM OFFICIALLY AN IRON MOM NOW

I am officially an Iron Mom now instead of a future Iron Mom!! I completed my very 1st 1/2 marathon in about 3 hrs and 40 minutes at the age of 45 but in 6 days will be 46. I am the mother of 4 with a daughter-in-law and a son-in-law and am raising my 2 grandsons. I believe all of that together along with completing the Iron Mom 1/2 Marathon constitutes me the right to say, "I am an IRON MOM!"

I still am in shock that I did complete it as a severe thunderstorm decided to approach us during the race. I did the last 3.5 to 4 miles in the pouring down rain with lots of lightning. For those of you that know I can get emotional at times YES, I did cry when I crossed the finish line but not because I was hurting but because I crossed the finish line. I also ran the last block and a half to finish.

I already have a new goal since I accomplished this one because goals help mold you. I do want to do another one but my goal is to have my husband participate with me in the next one.

Thanks to EVERYONE for the Love and Support to help me through this. If only all of you knew actually how important this was to me. I didn't let this last year of health issues get in my way and that was really important. I had 2 HUGE diagnosis' in the past year that I have had to come to terms with. The 1st one being that my heart is backwards. I have a "Right Sided Aortic Arch" and it occurs in less than 1% of the population and I obviously was born with it but had never been ill so it had not been caught. Most infants do not live with this diagnosis however, the ones that do are usually found or caught after the age of 40. That being me at the age of 45. Then less than 3 months after I found that out what I thought was maybe "carpal tunnel" in my right hand was Rheumatoid Arthritis. My counts were severely high and had not had any symptoms until all of the sudden. Months of medication that worked somewhat but not really caused increased frustration, sadness, huge amounts of pain, loss of sleep just kept haunting me more and more as I had never been sick as a child or an adult. There would be weeks where I would have to have Paul help me get dressed and undressed. I couldn't do simple things like turn a door knob, open a soda bottle, button or zip. I was in a down spiral. Finally, the insurance allowed me to be put on a new medication that costs $20,000 a year (Humara) and instantly the pain decreased. The problem was I still couldn't sleep. My confidence had completely went down hill which has taken me over 20 years to build to where I was at. So I read a news article one day on "West Kentucky Star" online about a 1/2 marathon called the Iron Mom. I right away liked the sound of it and thought you know that would be perfect for me to strive to achieve. I had thought about the previous year doing a 1/2 marathon but convinced myself there was no way I could do it. I was too old, too fat, too out of shape, etc. So I thought with the name that it had I could call myself the "Future Iron Mom". So now from my blog as you can see is now history because I achieved that goal.

I want everyone to know how important it is to not let people, events, illness, things (materially or mentally) to get you down to where you cannot rise. Everyone is worth something and it is your job to let others know that you know you are worth something!! Set goals that are achievable but not too easy and strive to reach those goals because setting them and achieving them makes yourself know that you have lots of worth and you will be an inspiration to others while you are helping yourself.

I do have a secret to tell. I called my husband less than a mile into the race and was crying and wanted to quit!! Yep, not even a mile into the race. There was over 750 people at this race and when they said "GO" everyone took off. They took off at a pace that I don't like to take off at. However, I tried to do what everyone else was doing and it didn't help whatsoever. It made me miserable. I hurt and I knew I couldn't keep up. I had a game plan and did not want to detour from that. The problem was I also did not want to be last. So it was all conflicting because I was trying to be like everyone else. Paul calmed me down on the phone and said "Stick to your game plan". You know what you can do and what you can't. You want to finish don't you so quit trying to do what everyone else was doing. I listened to him and I was the actual very last person for the 1st 4.5 miles. I could hear the running of the vehicle behind me bringing up the rear and I kept thinking, "Oh I bet they are wishing I would just quit." Well, I kept my same pace and eventually passed 3 people and got a 1/4 to 1/2 mile distance between us. Sticking to my game plan help me achieve success because I did my best to keep my own pace except during the STUPID storm and I was successful in my own eyes because I did cross the finish line.

So if anyone gets anything out of my traveled road to being an Iron Mom I'm kind of hoping that it would be to NEVER GIVE UP and to be yourself not what others want!! It took me a very long time to do both of these. If something gets in your way and begins to bring you down set a goal to you can achieve it to bring you back up.

Love to all my family and friends! Thanks for everything!!