Determination

April 25, 2012 was easily the most emotional day of Krista and I's life. If you have followed our blog for the past year, you already know that our son Kelson was born 9 weeks premature with a serious condition called Hydrops. He spent the first 70 days of his life in the NICU.

Three days after he was born was the Champaign-Urbana Marathon. My cousin, Sherrie Eimen had flown in from Colorado to participate in the event, along with Krista's doctor, Kate Austman, who diagnosed and delivered Kelson. Sherrie came to visit us at the hospital after her run. I also received a text message from Dr. Austman saying "I ran for Kelson today. Every time I wanted to walk, I thought about him, and how hard he is fighting." It was that day that I made up my mind to run in the Half-Marathon the following year.

I started small. The first steps included taking the stairs (9 flights) each day when visiting Kelson at the hospital, and parking in the employee lot and walking, as opposed to taking the shuttle. Next, I started running a few mornings a week around our property. Slowly I worked up to a mile, then 2. I wanted to push myself, so I signed up for my first 5K in September, and did another one in October. I had to take a short break to recover from an injury, but I didn't let that stop me. I ended 2012 running 4 miles.

Once 2013 came, it was time to push myself farther. Despite bad weather conditions, I committed myself to running at least once a week, adding about a half mile each time. Two weeks ago I hit 11.5 miles, and last weekend I ran 10.

Although I partially ran for myself, running today was really for my kids, Claire and Kelson. If Kelson could go through what he did and survive, I knew I could survive 13.1 miles. Today I have proven to myself, Claire and Kelson that anything is possible if you set your mind to it, and have the determination to see it through. The highlight of my day was Claire joining me for a short run at mile 12. I finished in 2 h 47 min, and resisted every temptation to walk.

Thank you to everyone who had supported me through Facebook and Runkeeper, and special thanks to Krista for making sure I had the time to commit to my goal!