Jamie Garrett’s Wife Completes Years-Long Goal of Running (and Finishing) the New York Marathon

As I was rolling out of bed with an extra hour of sleep and nothing in the way of plans for the day, my wife had already been up and prepping for the New York marathon for hours.

That's become our regular routine.  As I'm blissfully catching some beauty sleep (this gorgeous face doesn't come naturally) my wife is up before 4am and out running with her friends.  She's finished a half-dozen or more marathons, but the New York marathon is one of the biggies, and she's had it in her sights for years.

Even in my thinner days I never ran more than 15 miles consecutively, so when I think about how awful I felt after those 15 miles, I can't even begin to think about adding another 11 miles on top of it.  But, still, she runs.  She's run a marathon in Tyler, San Antonio, Oklahoma City and San Francisco.  New York was the one that was always on the bucket list, however, and after being in the lottery for several years, she got the confirmation that she'd been selected.... in 2012.

Yes, 2012.  "But Jamie, it's 2014".  Yes.  2012.  She got selected to run, but her running partners didn't.  Even though it meant we'd still have to pay the entry fee, despite her not running, to be eligible in a coming year, she held off so she could run with friends.  As it turns out, that weekend was the weekend of Superstorm Sandy.  The marathon got cancelled at the last minute.  I can't imagine building up to that moment, training, buying plane tickets & reserving hotel rooms, just to not be able to run because of that incredible storm.

She held out, waiting for her friends, and it finally happened this past weekend.  Erica and I honeymooned in New York City back in December, 2001, right after 9/11.  We've been hoping to go back ever since.  I figured that would never happen since I'm committed to high school football broadcasts every Friday night in the fall.  Because of my unavailability she invited both her parents.  They'd never been to NYC and were excited to make the trip.  Unfortunately for me, I found out too late that last weekend just so happened to be a bye week for the Temple Wildcats.  I could have gone!!!!

Alas, I sit here at work with Erica having the time of her life in New York.  After arriving in the late afternoon Saturday and running Sunday morning, Erica now has three full days to enjoy New York City with her parents.  I'm happy she gets to have a great time with her parents, but I'm a little jealous.  While she enjoys the Big Apple, I'm playing taxi driver for the kids and laddering up to the roof to get 27 (yes, 27!!) baseballs & footballs off the roof.  There was also one shoe.  A shoe.  On the roof.  And it was a new shoe for school.  Thankfully, it doesn't rain much in Texas.  The shoe is still wearable.

I know how hard she's worked to get to to where she is (literally and figuratively), and it was great to be able to support her along the way via Facebook and texts.  In the time it took her to complete the marathon, I'd washed all the clothes in the house, made breakfast lunch & dinner, and mowed/trimmed the front & backyard.  That's basically like running from Killeen to Temple without resting.  26 miles is a long drive, as Chris Rock informed us on SNL this past weekend.

I loved offering up the same support we've offered as a family as she made that 26.2 mile run.  The boys offered up some support via video, and even her co-workers got into the spirit, throwing her a surprise party last Friday with gift bags and signs.  That was very cool.  She's gotten so used to running these marathons that actually finishing isn't even all that big of a deal to her, but she was blown away by the time her co-workers took to show their support.

She finished yesterday's marathon in under 5-and-a-half hours, and now she gets to relax and walk (yikes) around NYC for the next couple days.  Congrats to you, Erica.  You deserve a few days to celebrate!