#bridge run

welp. today’s one of the days I and the majority of the people I know regret immensely. The day I was spawned into this world. I’d probably try to ignore it but also I made a really nerdy cake so. gotta share that.

in case it’s not obvious what this is I kinda recreated one of the most traumatizing events in Kaladin’s - who I love very dearly - life. you are in fact looking at a bridge run cake because I’m not entirely sane.

a random explanation of what you’re looking at because I understand it’s not very obvious and this was definitely less good than someone with the ability to bake well and an overly allergic family could’ve made and my supplies were weird, my idea weirder. 

the pretzel graham cracker things are bridges, I hope that was clear enough. green and blue m&m type things were for Dalinar and Sadeas’s troops, that blue m&m type thing on the rice krispie monster is Dalinar on Gallant. there’s a rice krispie rockbud in the corner and the gummy bears are parshendi. the raspberry jam is blood for humans and the apricot that you can barely see is parshendi blood cuz theirs is orange. and yeah there are broken bodies where I could fit them cuz I’m a little nutz.

Paraplegic moves toward goal to walk Bridge Run with delivery of exoskeleton

When doctors at Atlanta’s Shepherd Center, the nation’s top spinal cord and brain injury rehab hospital, told him he’d never walk again, Gorlitsky described it “as a punch in the gut.”

And he never truly believed it.

In the months and years to come, friends and acquaintances often asked if or when he’d ever walk again, and despite what he was told, Gorlitsky often responded that he would walk in about 10 years. The answer was based partly in the faith of modern technology.

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A year ago, I specifically remember writing a post how I am not a runner. I was training for my first half marathon to benefit the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation’s Team Challenge. I ended up raising nearly $4,000 and crossed the finish line holding my now-husband’s hand after quite the struggle.

But a quick sidebar, it was perfect symbolism. For the greater part of our relationship to that point, I had been sick. He really hadn’t known me healthy. Our life was marked by my next trip to the hospital or doctor’s appointment. But he always held me up, always held my hand. He has been and always will be a force when it comes to protecting me and loving me. And that’s how it should be. So when he needed me, there’s no other place I would have been that day but helping him cross the finish line.

I know it’s something he holds a lot of guilt about, “not letting me finish.” And despite the fact I think it’s bullshit, we’ve signed up for a second half marathon in October this year. He’s got something to prove. And quite frankly, so do I.

Because somewhere in healing from losing a major organ, I have found running. Some days it sucks and I hate every second my legs are moving, and then there are days like these:

53. Do the Labor Day Bridge Walk

Despite my loving husband’s face in this picture, we both had a really great run. Plus, it crosses off yet another 101 in 1001 item. Additionally awesome, this picture was featured on MLive.com! We felt good, even up the hill and through the rain. It was a really great time, even after the lead up...

On Sunday night we celebrated my college athletic trainer’s wedding in Muskegon. It was a beautiful night and I’m so happy to see her so happy (love you, Jenny!). We left the reception a little after 9pm, drove 4 hours and landed in St. Ignace shortly after 1:30am. Asleep by 2am and a 4am wake-up/check-out was brutal and probably the most expensive “nap” I hope to ever take. Standing in the pouring rain and dark at 5:30am waiting for the start also had both of us looking at each other wondering whose idea it was (admittedly, it was mine).

But it’s doing crazy things like this that remind me how lucky I am, for a variety of reasons. I’m lucky to have such a wonderful man who will take these ridiculous adventures with me; who will wake up after just 2 hours of sleep and run 5 miles then drive another 3.5 hours home. I’m lucky to have someone who holds my hand when life is too hard to stand at it alone.

I’m lucky to have a health status that allows me to even take these adventures. Now, don’t get me wrong. I’ve still got my issues and am recently on a new round of antibiotics to try and right the wrongs my body tries to deal me. But all in all, I’m doing fairly well (nothing to worry about, mom and dad!). I’m lucky to have had a great surgeon and GI to encourage me to take the jump toward better health. As I cross off these things from my 101 list, more furiously now that I’m running out of time, it’s a testament to just how lucky I am.