As i sit here (in Waterford,Ireland) on a quiet Tuesday night, I remember this time last year which was quite the opposite. I was luck enough to finish he marathon and was back at my hotel when terror struck at 2:50 local time. I had just got off the phone with my wife telling her how the race went and how great everything was and i was off to meet up with a friend of ours over there and have a great night with Cian, our friend and whomever was out on the town from the GRT. That notion i had was wiped away immeadiately when “that” happened. It was a very strange and uneasy feeling that swept over me for the next 2 hours, As i watched on the TV in my hotel room of what was happening a quarter of a mile away from me,  my thoughts went to where Cian was. He had been aiming to break 4 hours in the marathon and that would have put him very close to finishing at 2:50, I knew that, and it was a long, long wait for me in my room to wait for him to get back there. I dare not move incase i missed him, I had no other option but to wait in my room and hope that he turned up….He did, eventually, a little shell shocked and worse for wear but he made it back. The next day and a half before we flew home was a non-event, all the positivity, all the happiness, all the hype of this great sporting event…ripped away from everyone that was in the city that day. It was a sad end to a wonderful few days i had over there.
Fast forward one year and i am ready to go again. I fly out Friday morning for my second marathon with the GRT and extended rare disease community and i cannot wait.
I am looking forward to meeting up with all the gang again and get to spend some time with others that were on the team last year that i didn’t get to speak much to last year.
My patient partner, Andrea will be in town also to celebrate this occasion with us all and finally i will get to meet her after a couple of months of mails and facebook chats.
2014 will be memorable for all the right reasons.
The work the GRT board do to put this all together cannot be taken lightly, a huge amount of work has gone into this and i am blessed to be going back for a second bite of the cherry.
Roll on Marathon Monday, lets make this one to remember!
See you all at the dinner on Saturday night (and some of you at the 5k Saturday morning)
-David
Thanks David for sharing your insights and being a part of the 2014 run. I am a fellow MS Ambassador with Andrea and am so glad you two are partnering up for such a worthwhile cause, dear to my heart. Sending you support and thanks from the Midwest, USA. Newburgh, Indiana.