![\"The](\"http:\/\/www.ramblingrunnergirl.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/IMAG3004-1.jpg\")
<\/a>The last picture of Sunshyne that my brother texted to me just days before she left us<\/p><\/div>\n
The next week went about as you would expect.\u00a0 We told stories about the Sunshyne that we all knew and loved.\u00a0 We laughed, we cried, we tried to figure out what to do next.\u00a0 We planned how we would celebrate Sunshyne\u2019s life.\u00a0 We ate meals prepared by loving friends who wanted to do something to care for us.\u00a0 We went from one meal to the next simply because it seemed to pass the time.<\/p>\n
We had an amazing service to celebrate the woman who was loved by many.\u00a0 She was sweet. \u00a0She was funny.\u00a0 She was beautiful.\u00a0 She had a huge faith with a personality and a voice to match.\u00a0 She had an amazing smile.\u00a0 I remember sending my brother a text about a month earlier that he needed to listen to the song Just the Way You Are by Bruno Mars because it sounded exactly like what he would say to Shyne.\u00a0 It was the song we used in the video of her photo montage.<\/p>\n
The day after her service I was on a plane back to St. Louis to see my babies after a week of being in SoCal.\u00a0 I was supposed to be on a plane to JFK in New York that day to run the New York City Marathon that I had been training for.\u00a0 But after a week away from my kiddos, I knew where I wanted, and needed to be.\u00a0 Aside from the fact that my body, while trained for a marathon, was somewhat wrecked from the week of grieving with my brother and all of Sunshyne\u2019s friends and family.<\/p>\n
Shyne had just run her first half marathon earlier in the year and was signed up to run the Malibu Half Marathon a couple weeks later.\u00a0 I loved how running had bonded us.\u00a0 She would text me to ask for running advice.\u00a0 Her texts would always start out, \u201cHey sis\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/a>Shyne after the Fontana Days Half Marathon<\/p><\/div>\n
Since Sunshyne was registered for the Malibu half, I offered to come back out to LA the following week to run it in her honor.\u00a0 By the time I spoke up, it was too late, and her bib had already been given away.\u00a0 But I told my brother, since I had just run Chicago a few weeks prior in extreme heat and I was trained for New York, I was going to sign up on my own, to run the Malibu full marathon, for Sunshyne.\u00a0 I believe his response to that was, \u201cAwesome.\u201d<\/p>\n
I made the trip back to LA a week after I had left.\u00a0 It was good to be reunited with my family and be able to love on little Brookie.\u00a0 We spent Saturday visiting with friends and getting ready for me to run a marathon the following morning.<\/p>\n
The Malibu marathon isn\u2019t a very big race.\u00a0 There were only about a couple hundred people gathered in a parking lot about 13 miles inland off the coast of California getting ready to run.\u00a0 The first half was somewhat desolate.\u00a0 There was minimal crowd support, no real scenery to speak of and little to no shade available to block the rising SoCal sun.\u00a0 The \u201caid stations\u201d consisted of a couple of card tables with some jugs of water and some coconut water that I couldn\u2019t even gag down.\u00a0 Trust me, I tried.\u00a0 It didn\u2019t go well.<\/p>\n
So, by the time I got to the Pacific Coast Highway to head south from the point the half marathon had started,\u00a0I was ecstatic to see that amazing costal view and my little fan club consisting of my mom, brother and niece.\u00a0 Most importantly, they had the Gatorade and bananas I had bought at the store which seemed worth its weight in gold to get my trashed body back on track after a very rough first half to the marathon.<\/p>\n
That was without question, the hardest race I have ever run.\u00a0 It wasn\u2019t my slowest, not even my second slowest.\u00a0 But it was the hardest race ever.\u00a0 It was hot.\u00a0 And hilly. \u00a0And my body had already been through the wringer.\u00a0 I walked more than I ever have in any other race.\u00a0 I was dragging myself through parts of it.<\/p>\n
I ran a 30k trail race this past Sunday, which was only my 2nd<\/sup> trail race to date.\u00a0 It was in my favorite park, Castlewood.\u00a0 I had a ton of friends there running, volunteering, supporting.\u00a0 I started with Shalini and Erin, after breaking off from Chad, Tracy and Tim in the start corral, and waving to Nick and Jenny from afar.\u00a0 Most of the crew was running the 20k instead, but I, like Chad and Tracy, had decided to go for the big one.\u00a0 It was 3 loops through the park, up the enormous staircase 3 times, through the creek 3 times and up Cardiac Hill 3 times.\u00a0 I knew it was going to be hard, really hard.\u00a0 I woke up Sunday morning and I have never felt my legs shaking so much before a race.<\/p>\n My text conversation with Shane the night before had gone like this:<\/p>\n RRG: My fan club keeps growing.\u00a0 Imma need it.<\/p>\n SS: Piece of cake for you Lindsey.\u00a0 Come on.<\/p>\n RRG: Only cause I have a good coach\/tour guide.\u00a0 Don\u2019t want to let you down\u2026<\/p>\n SS: Not worried here lady.<\/p>\n RRG: Good, well, that makes one of us.<\/p>\n I was scared.\u00a0 No, scratch that.\u00a0 I was terrified.\u00a0 But here\u2019s the thing, sometimes the best way to get through the hard times is to appreciate our surroundings and the ones who are with us in the process. We count our blessings, if you will. \u00a0The race went way better than I planned.\u00a0 The weather was perfect.\u00a0 I ran most of it with friends, Shalini, Erin, Chad, so it was basically like every other weekend of doing what we do.\u00a0 I saw more friends each trip past aid station 1 where I took a cup from Emily\u2019s hand and Gerry shook a cowbell in my face.\u00a0 I saw Shane at various points on the course since he was the official course marshal on mountain bike.\u00a0 I saw Steve as I looped past the start\/finish area because he had been assigned the duty of post-race refreshments.\u00a0 He was threatened with his life if he didn\u2019t save me some BBQ.\u00a0 He definitely came through.\u00a0 As usual.<\/p>\n Our group of friends that had come to spectate\/take pictures\/cheer us on bounced around all over the course.\u00a0 Tony, Kris, Dan, Wes, Hibbard, Steve.\u00a0 It was like playing hide-n-seek in our favorite park.\u00a0 I never knew where someone was going to pop up.<\/p>\n By the last loop, I caught up to Chad again.\u00a0 He commented on how great I was doing.\u00a0 And that\u2019s when I took off to finish that last loop with a vengeance.\u00a0 I had been hoping to finish somewhere around 3:15-3:20.\u00a0 I smashed that, finishing in 3:07.\u00a0 I was the 8th<\/sup> female overall.\u00a0 And 4th<\/sup> in my age group of women 30-39.\u00a0 But what made that race, was the atmosphere.\u00a0 It was being in a beautiful place that feels like home, with the people who have become my Missouri family.\u00a0 I even said to Shalini that I wanted to pack up our little posse and put them in my pocket to take them with me to all my races.<\/p>\n