The Days of Our Lives...... in India: My Husband.........My Inspiration

Last year, Corey began running to lose weight and get "heart healthy". When he moved to India last October, his friend Shawn began running with him. They decided to set a goal for all of their hard work and chose to run a marathon. They searched the internet for one they could run in a different country and the Great Wall of China was it!

I must admit at first I was very skeptical because it was far away, it was an "extreme" marathon with steep hills and over 5200 steps, and we needed visas. But I really tried to be supportive and let him work at his goal.

I'm inspired by Corey because he didn't give up his training. With his busy work schedule, he managed to find ways to fit in his runs and also spend time with his family and fulfill church duties. He would get up at 5:00am on Saturdays and run; on his commute home, he would get out of the car and run 10 km then get back in. On days he worked at a closer office, he would actually run home! And that's not an easy task when you're running among cars, two-wheelers, cows, goats, rabid dogs, and tons of people. As well as having to run on part dirt and dodging road side vendors, pot holes, cow pies, (and human pies). He would carry a stick or stone to fend off the dogs. The children would excitedly wave, say hello and whatever english they knew and sometimes run along side.

But if you know Corey, you know that he is a determined guy and doesn't like to give up. Sometimes when I think of throwing in the towel on something, I ask myself, "What would Corey do?" haha! But I'm serious, he does make me push myself harder. And I am positive he has had that affect on some of you!

We were able to walk the wall portion of the marathon 2 days before the race. It was tough! My legs were so sore the next few days. And the guys had to run it TWICE! At the beginning and at the end! In between, they ran through the local villages. 42km total. They were allowed 8 hours to finish but Corey was determined to finish in less than 6.

There were 429 people who finished the full marathon and Corey met his goal by completing it in 5 hours 50 min. and was the 171st runner to finish.

He is so awesome.......he's my hero!