Entry#155. 9/16/2023.  
My husband did it!!! Air Force Marathon 2023! in Dayton, OH. I have a lot of things to say about this day, I really do. But first of all, I want to celebrate BIG for his tremendous accomplishments. My eyes were wet several times before, during and after the race. It was freezing cold morning, colder than he imagined. You see airplanes there? It was so nice to see them before the race started. All settings and atmosphere made athletes' adrenaline up high, so as mine.   

This was the start-line. Do you see many marathon runners behind handcyclists? Handcyclists and pushrim athletes did staggered start 5min before runners officially started. 

This race made me feel happier ever for my husband. To tell the truth, there were "downs" at the last week of the preparation, I had been feeling uneasy really. (I'll write about it someday.) The highlight of whole event (to myself) was seeing him with other great wheelchair athletes. It was his very first Full marathon with his racer-type (lower seating style) handcycle. I cannot tell whether he was actually nervous or not. We felt ourselves as "newbies" a bit the day before at the place we picked up the bib. (At least I felt that a bit.) I think it was like "magic" because he had nice chat times with other athletes after he crossed the finish line. They talked about their race, smiling and being proud of themselves. See? I LOVED everything at that time.

I am very proud of my husband. Guess what happened when he talked to other wheelchair athletes? They invited him to another handcycle race in Grand Rapids, MI!! Are you smiling?

9/17/2023.  
I think I would frame this photo because it's special. Two of them tied for first in the men's handcycle (hand crank) division. One is the forth. And my husband is the fifth! Yes, #1,2,4 and 5 are here together in this photo. So special, especially to me. It was really honor to greet them (top handcyclists!). Hurray! for them. 

Entry#156. 
Reflection #1 of AFM from my perspective. 
I think I am really jinxed about Big events. Every time I get excited and make an announcement about it to people in the world, something wrong happens. Thinking back on MU commencement May 2022. After I made an announcement “My husband is going to attend the ceremony! Wooooo hoooo!”, he got sick. Then we had an uneasy time two days before the ceremony. After all, he made it, though.  
This time, I got excited and made an announcement “My husband’s big marathon race is coming up! He is ready.” Then guess what? Yes, you guessed right. He got feeling not good and his last-minute training which he had been planning stopped. He was about to complete his 4 months training for the marathon. I felt bad, very bad for him. Under his SCI body system/condition, it just happens suddenly. Usually, we don’t need to go to ER or hospital, but we don’t have a quick solution neither (like having antibiotics for sinus infection or bladder infection for myself). We just need to wait and observe patiently until it’s settled. As you can imagine, this made me nervous, worrying and uncomfortable. I needed to think about giving up the marathon this year. I even told him “Okay, there is always next year.” It was uncertain how much he could recover and how much his body could handle marathon with not-100%-health.  
Because the race would start at 7:25am, we had a reservation at the hotel in Dayton. At home, I was all behind the schedule for packing stuffs, handcycle and tools/gears. On the day before the race, we made it to drive to the hotel, get a bib and attend the meeting. I was relieved really.
I think these “bad timing issues” would make the event more “dramatic” or “magical”. I was thankful and grateful when he was ready at the start line. My eyes were wet.
On the other hand, I was panicked on the night before the race. Just because I was behind the preparation, I had to pump the tires and check bolts/breaks at the hotel parking lot. I did it okay. Then my face got pale realizing “oh no, I forgot the extra tube in case of a flat tire???!” That’d be so bad, you know?  I had to be careful and I was supposed to be helpful for my husband’s big race. Right?  Fortunately and luckily, I loaded it a while ago into our van, which I forgot about for a while. Wheeew, my mind was settled then.
I was praying for everything of his body, mentality and the actual marathon race on the night before the race, thinking repeatedly “what if a flat tire happens?” “what if he crashes on the road?” and “what if his handcycle is broken in the middle?” Then I realized that he couldn’t sleep enough at the hotel because his body system was a bit upset or something. That made me feel more nervous.  
But, I kept praying and managed our morning routine. See? That’s why my mind was full of thoughts and emotions when I saw him ready at the start line with other handcyclists. I was simply happy to witness his big event. 

Entry#157.  
Reflection #2 of AFM from my perspective
It was my very first time to watch a full marathon with my own eyes. I used to watch high school cross country 5K races. I used to search course maps and find a good spot to be able to see runners multiple times if possible. At the Flying Pig 10K race in Cincinnati when my husband attended as a handcyclist in May 2023, I wanted to watch him at some points beside start/finish lines. It was tricky but I watched him twice at the bridges. It was super exciting out there.
This time, I learned something new about spectators for a full marathon. At the Air Force Marathon in Dayton, they set up a place called “Fairbone Fly Zone” spectator area with coffee and food at a mile 15 mark point. They provide shuttle buses from start/finish areas to this Fly Zone. This idea of buses sounds so convenient and useful, doesn’t it? I was excited when I discovered this system. A full marathon distance is 26.2 mile (42.195 km). I calculated a bit. If I could run 5K for 30min, I might be able to run full marathon for 4 hours 15 minutes (at the fastest). (I don’t think I could…) Olympian (men) runs 2 hours 8 minutes. (Wow)
The bus from Fly Zone would start run back to the finish line at 9:45am! This time-setting would work and would not miss watching the first runner to cross the finish line at all.
However, it wouldn’t work for me at all. Because handcyclists are faster. The champion last year finished 26.2 mi for 1 hour 16 minutes!! What?  My husband set his goal for less than 1 hour 40 minutes. This means I could not use a shuttle bus to go to the mile 15 point to watch a race. I wished I could though.
The only option I could do was staying in the finish line area to wait and watch my husband to finish.
Waiting for 1 hour 30 minutes freezing cold outside sounded a bit tough and boring. But it was fun actually (you doubt my words, maybe?). The mobile phone app (a screenshot is below) saved my waiting time very much. You would be surprised and love it. You could track athletes on the course map and could see where they were at almost live timing. And I did track them, handcyclists! It was exciting really. Then I witnessed top handcyclists, two of them were tied!! They held their hands together and crossed the line. It was amazing. Counted the number of finishers till my husband showed up. I yelled at him and called his name right before he crossed the line even though I wasn’t sure whether he heard me.  I can say that my husband had a blast. You know? So as I!

We learned about “escort cyclists” as well. At first, I thought it was for just only safety, like making sure that there is no accident or crash.  But the main purpose of escort-cyclists is “navigational guide” of the course. It’s very important to let habdcyclists know “which direction to turn” in the right timing, since handcyclists on lower seats have poor visibility ahead. 

At a downhill, my husband would want to go faster as fast as possible, so as any handcyclists. However, if he wasn’t sure which way he turns right after a downhill, he would have to be slow down for a while and lose some time because of that. I’m grateful for having escorts at handcycle division. Plus, when flat tires happens on the road during the race, escorts might be able to help to “fix” flat tires if there are right tools and times. Although it wouldn’t work that way all the time, I imagine.
It is a teamwork indeed and it worked well at AFM for my husband, as well. Here is the photo; my husband and his escort-cyclist!