Sunday, October 25, 2015

The AthHalf

Amanda 2014 AthHalf
       Today Sarah and Amanda are running the AthHalf – the Athens, Georgia half marathon – 13 miles. It was this same weekend last year that the girls ran the AthHalf, and I later wrote a story about it. And here it is.
          From the AthHalf of 2014 – in Athens, the home of UGA where both daughters went to undergrad school and the city where Amanda and Tony now live, Mike and I drove up to spend the two plus hours of the half marathon with John and Tony and the grand-kids while Sarah and Amanda ran.
          It was a beautiful Sunday morning, a bit brisk but just right for the runners. We were on our way into town when a policeman at Broad and Milledge stopped us – the runners were coming through. We had a ringside seat! After texting John we learned Amanda was in a gray tee shirt and Sarah was wearing maroon – that made looking for them a little easier. Finally we saw Amanda – and we hooted and cheered – she waved and smiled. There was a break in the runners, and the policeman motioned for our car to go by. So we did not see Sarah.                  We met the others at a 24-hour famed Athens establishment called The Grill – the staff was not expecting marathon-related patrons that day and they were out of a few items, like pancakes.
          We all squeezed into one booth – Tony's brother, Tommy, was there too, on fall break from West Georgia College where he is taking his senior year of high school!
          Horatio was excited to see Mike and sat on his lap for the food portion of the meal, and H explored the underside of the table at The Grill when we were done eating.
          Virginia was alternating between a highly doctored cup of coffee and a glass of chocolate milk. When I saw her sip the coffee I commented, “You are just like your Aunt Manda!” - Amanda was Virginia's age when she started to like week-end weakened coffee with her dad. But Ms V immediately turned to me and said, “I am not like Aunt Manda – I am right handed!”
Sarah 2014 AthHalf
          After The Grill, we walked down a few streets and then onto the campus. The kids ran after squirrels – expending a lot of energy and learning much about squirrel escape strategy. John talked about the different buildings we were walking by – we have always delighted in John's tours of UGA and were eager to hear more that day.
         The half marathon was going to finish up with a lap around the famous UGA stadium and then a brief run out of the stadium to the finish line.
          It was about two hours into the race when we ourselves walked toward the stadium. The plan was to watch the girls go by and then cut across a corner and hopefully get to the finish line at about the same time that the girls completed their lap and exited the stadium. The brisk of the early morning had warmed to a glorious day. Runners who had already finished smiled and walked by; families and other spectators chatted and got to know each other as the still running AthHalf participants passed.
          Finally, we saw Sarah! She smiled and kept moving. John and the kids started their trek to the finish line. Tony, Tommy, Mike and I were watching and waiting for Amanda. Mike and I walked up the street a bit – I was trying to get to a spot where the sun would not be in the way of my picture taking – dang that sun! And Mike was looking for a building that was open so he could use the bathroom.
          After a while, Amanda came by – we saw her go past Tony and Tommy and the guys immediately started through the crowd to get to the finish line. Mike said he was going to keep looking for a bathroom, and I kept my eye on Tony and Tommy as I followed them. We went down a street, then onto a sidewalk, down steps which led to a concession area, and then back up steps again. There was a huge building, I guessed it was the Tate Center that Tony and John had talked about. Tommy and Tony were way ahead of me – it looked like they were about to go down more stairs. A band was playing to my left – where the building was. The walkway was a huge brick expanse – lots of people, but I could still see Tony and Tommy – maybe if I ran I could catch up to them – or if I just walked a little faster.
          In the middle of this brick walkway expanse, is the seal of the University of Georgia at Athens – raised about an inch or so from the flat ground level – right in the path where I was walking, where I was looking straight ahead.
          Time slowed down as I tripped over the seal of UGA raised one inch from the walkway. My hair flew over my face and the thought that went through my mind was that it would delay the embarrassment factor a little bit. I heard glass break. The camera around my neck hit the bricks – my nose and mouth hit the camera and the camera then sprung out in front of me slightly to the left– (it was on a strap around my neck) – my sunglasses flew off a little to the right. My thoughts at that point were – oh the camera is broken, and the sunglasses, and my nose, and my nose is going to start bleeding, and I don't think I'll be meeting the girls at the finish line.
          By then there was a woman on each side of me each asking if I was okay. The band was still playing. I waited a moment, and then the drip drip drip of blood from my nose began – dripping onto the hair in front of my face. One woman handed me tissues, the other said she is a nurse and asked how many fingers I saw her holding up. The answer was one – the answer was that I had no concussion. They asked if I wanted to go to first aid. I thought it was someplace nearby – and I wanted to be out of the attention of the crowd – the bleeding might gross them out. So I said yes.
          They called for campus security – that was embarrassing. A very tall, polite man in uniform said he would take me to first aid. And we went into the Tate Center and walked across the lobby. Sarah and Horatio were sitting there! Sarah jumped up and yelled “Mom!” I said, “Oh Darlin! Congratulations on the run!” I was holding a wad of tissues to my nose. “I fell on my face; please text Mike and let him know I'm at first aid.” A few chairs down the lobby later, John and Virginia jumped up and yelled, “What happened?” I said, “I fell on my face – going to first aid.”
          It seemed like we were walking forever – why wasn't first aid, like, right there at the entrance to the building? The nice cop and I were about to go down a flight of stairs – I got the impression he was wondering if he should hold my arm for me, but he was also squeamish in case I did not want him to touch me, and then you know, there was the blood.           Just before the top step, Mike texted me that he was at the corner where we had been petting the lady's dog earlier. He had gotten the text that I was at first aid, he just had not gotten the message that I was in need of first aid – why would he think that I needed medical attention? I was just fine when he left me! Mike thought I was just sharing a location, so he shared his location!
          I looked at the cop and with one hand on the tissues and the other hand not on the stair railing as it should have been, I told him I was going to have to call my husband – and that is what I was doing with the other hand. We got down the stairs all right, and walked and walked and walked some more. And then we left the building!
          First Aid was at the finish line – it consisted of one EMT truck with two women inside who had not seen one single medical incident all morning. Until I came along. Amanda and Tony and Tommy were there. I said, “Congratulations Darlin'.” And Amanda said, “Always trying to steal the lime light from us, aren't you, Mom?”
          The first aid ladies put on gloves and cleaned up my face so they could have a look at it – the top of my nose had a cut, but probably did not need a stitch. The inside of my nose had stopped bleeding, and there were no mouth injuries. My left knee hurt – it was sore, and my left wrist hurt a little – I did not mention those two items to the nice ladies because if the knee or wrist were broken, the pain would have been much greater, and if they were not broken, I did not want a lot of fuss over them. A female campus police person came by to write up the incident report. By then Sarah and John, Virginia and Horatio had joined us.
          My camera was not broken! I took a picture. My phone was not broken, and neither my sunglasses nor my regular glasses in my purse were broken. Mike arrived. We told the policewoman we did not think I'd be requiring any hospital or further medical attention, and she gave us a case number and her name so we could follow up.
Celebrating AthHalf
          On our way back to our car by The Grill, we walked near the scene of the incident so Mike could understand exactly what had happened. The band was still playing. Sarah said she walked right up to the spot and could see my blood there. We should have taken a picture.
          After that, we all went to Amanda and Tony's to clean up before heading out to a victory lunch. My nose was a bit swollen and kind of purplish – especially at the tip. There was brushburn down length of the nose. Sarah’s legs were aching, and Amanda said she had had stomach issues throughout the whole race.
         The next morning, I sent a company-wide email so all the co-workers would know what happened before they saw me.
          A week later, my nose still looked brush-burned – with a scab on either end. During the week two bruises appeared on my cheeks where the bottom of my sunglasses had banged into them. And what about the sound of the breaking glass that I heard when I hit the ground after becoming airborne? Well, a guy at the lab, who is a runner and knows about injuries, explained that the sound most likely came from either my knee hitting the ground or my nose hitting the camera or both – busting cartilage sounds very much like breaking glass. Oh my gosh!       

Mom Stealing the Limelight
       The girls are not sure if I should go to Athens with them again this year – but I'll be there – looking to see if my blood is still on the seal, and directing others away from the hazard!
298 20151025 the AthHalf



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