St. Jude Memphis Half Marathon Weekend Day 3!

In case you missed my other Memphis posts:

Day 1 and Expo
The Memphis Race That Wasn't in Memphis
St. Jude Children's Research Hospital Tour
Day 2 and Heroes Pasta Party

Saturday morning I felt really weird when I woke up. I was supposed to be running a half marathon that day! But due to the ice storm it was canceled. So we slept in and took our time getting ready. Originally we weren't supposed to leave Memphis until the next day. We had planned on celebrating our race in Memphis that night. But because there was no race we decided to leave a day early.

When I checked the weather I was pretty grateful for my warm hotel room! Running in those temps (feels like 9 degrees!!!) was not something this Gulf Coast girl would be used to!

In our hotel lobby we saw several runners that had gone for a run that morning anyway. Some of them ran part of the route. I talked to a few ladies that ran 11 miles. They said the race officials made a good call in canceling the race because they came across several places where it was pure ice and they had to stop running and tip toe to get through it. They also said while they were running that a tree branch fell down right in front of them because it was so heavy with ice! Luckily they didn't get hurt. Hearing their stories made me feel even better about the cancellation. Safety first!

Before we left we attended the St. Jude Heroes VIP Lounge that the race officials invited all the Heroes to. This was supposed to be an event only for the top fundraisers but because the race was canceled they invited all the Heroes to attend.

The event was held in The Peabody Hotel...which was convenient for us because it was right across the street from our hotel! When we arrived the volunteers were very friendly and gave us three tickets to use at the vendors of our choice. They had all kinds of food vendors there including Panera Bread, Smoothie King, McAllisters, and Moe's Southwest Grill.

Before we ate we went to get our Finisher shirt. These were originally supposed to be for sale at the finish line. But because there wasn't a finish line...they just gave them to us instead. Wow! They had run out of my size so I had to get the next size up. It's a little big on me but I was still grateful to receive it.

After getting our shirts we set out to find something to eat. I chose Moe's Southwest Grill. The taco salad was so yummy!

The table decorations were super cute and inspiring!

After eating my taco salad I decided not to waste my other tickets. So I got a smoothie from Smoothie King. Then I also got a sandwich from McAlisters....which I wrapped up so I could eat it in the car later for lunch.

I also ran into my friend Robbie from Run 4 It! We were hoping to see each other at this race so I was so happy when I saw her!

While I was talking to Robbie, the CEO of ALSAC/St. Jude, Rick Shadyac, came by our table. He thanked us for fundraising and for being there. He was such a nice man! I told him I totally understood his decision to cancel the race and thanked him for everything he does. He said it was one of the toughest decisions he's had to make. 

On the way out Holly, Melanie, and I stopped to take a few pictures in front of the HUGE and gorgeous Christmas tree in the Peabody Hotel!

The St. Jude VIP Heroes Lounge was great! I'm glad I got to experience it! I really believe St. Jude did an amazing job trying to make it up to the runners for the cancellation. They let every Hero attend the VIP Heroes Lounge. They gave us our finisher shirts that we would have normally had to purchase. They gave us three options to choose from in regards to our race registration: 

• We could transfer our race registration to one of these races- P.F. Chang's Rock 'n' Roll Arizona Marathon and Half-Marathon, Rock 'n' Roll New Orleans Marathon and Half-Marathon, or St. Jude Country Music Marathon and Half-Marathon
• We could donate our registration fee directly to St. Jude
• We could request a refund. 

St. Jude definitely handled the cancellation well! I am so impressed with their professionalism and care for the runners! It makes me definitely want to fundraise again and run this race in the future! 

QOTD: What is your favorite part of a race weekend?

St. Jude Memphis Half Marathon Weekend Day 2!

In case you missed my other Memphis posts:

Day 1 and Expo
The Memphis Race That Wasn't in Memphis
St. Jude Children's Research Hospital Tour

After touring the hospital we were all starving and ready for lunch! The tour bus took us back to downtown and we went inside the convention center to decide on where to eat. We decided on pizza and hopped on the trolley and headed to a place called Aldo's Pizza Pies. We probably could have walked there but you know how they were predicting an ice storm? Well yeah...it had started. It was raining ice for sure!

To this Gulf Coast girl...it looked almost like snow!

I was happy to be inside the restaurant where it was warm. The menu there was amazing! They had all sorts of specialty pizzas. But I'm pretty picky so I stuck to pepperoni. I didn't want to eat anything that might upset my tummy before race day. I just ordered my pizza by the slice...and I ordered two slices. Well...the server didn't tell me that the slices were HUGE! One slice would have been enough! I ate a bite of the second slice and just couldn't finish it. It was delicious though! The picture doesn't show how big these slices really were!

My Sole2Soul Sisters at lunch! Love these ladies!

After lunch some of us split ways. Several of us went back to the expo (including me)! We took a few more pictures!

We also signed the wall for the kids at St. Jude!

I did more shopping than I did the day before. The vendors were putting things on sale. I bought two pairs of Swiftwick socks and got one for free! And I found the new flavor of Huma Gel...Mangoes!!!

After the expo we headed back to the hotel to rest before the pasta party. We watched the news about the ice storm and to see if there had been any changes concerning the race. So far...the news said the race was still on. So we started getting our race outfits and warm layers together and making our prayer bracelets.

It was finally time to head to the St. Jude Heroes Pasta Party. Only 4 of us were attending...the rest of our group ate somewhere else. But I do not regret attending the pasta party at all! It was amazing!

When we arrived at the convention center (where the pasta party was being held) we could hear cowbells and clapping and cheering. We soon saw what the noise was about...it was all the St. Jude volunteers and they were clapping and cheering for us! They were lined up on each side of us as we walked into the party. They kept cheering and telling us thank you for being St. Jude Heroes! I lost it! The tears could not be contained. It was so emotional!

We then walked into this huge room with tons of candle lit tables. They were showing a slideshow of pictures from St. Jude. We watched as we lined up to get our food.

Me and Jackie!

They had several tables set up with the food. It was very organized and they had the lines evenly distributed at each table. Each table had the same food so you only needed to go through one table line.

The table you chose to sit at already had your water, bread, silverware, cookies for dessert, pretzels, and a St. Jude notepad.

 The food was good! I was impressed that they also had a gluten free pasta option too!

As we ate we watched the screens. They were scrolling through everyone's tweets and pictures from the weekend! I was surprised to see all of mine on the big screens! They also told us the top 10 reasons to attend the St. Jude Heroes Pasta Party. I LOVED the number 1 reason!

We had just finished eating when we started getting texts from our friends who weren't at the pasta party asking us if the race had been canceled. They had heard that it had. I was confused and told them that no one had said that at the pasta party. So I pulled up the race website....and there it was. The race had been canceled. We were all in shock.

A few seconds later the CEO of ALSAC/St. Jude got on stage and said, "So guys we have to have a conversation. Ok? So I have to give you some news that is unfortunate. And I hope and pray that you all will hear me out...as I tell you that we can't go forward tomorrow." He then went on to explain all the reasons that aided in his decision to cancel the race. It wasn't the roads per say but the sidewalks were icy and that is dangerous for the spectators. The course itself had a tree down and low hanging limbs that were covered in ice and hanging over the course. The finish line area was literally a skating rink. 30% of the volunteers were forced to cancel as well as 15% of the medical personnel due to the ice storm. And the city of Memphis was under a state of emergency. There were about 8500 citizens that were without power. And he didn't think it was right to distract the police force from responding to those citizens that were in need due to the weather. He said decisions like this had to be based upon safety first.

I totally understood and agreed with his decision. But of course I was still very disappointed. I had worked so hard to overcome my injury to get to this race. And I was sad for my friends who this was their first half and first full marathon.

The pasta party went on to include a lady named Hillary who was a patient at St. Jude. She had a bone marrow transplant and while recovering she walked 26.2 miles in the corridors of the bone marrow transplant unit at St. Jude. What an inspiration it was to hear her tell her story!

After that we were told that we, the St. Jude Heroes, had raised a total of $8.2 million dollars that weekend! That is what this was all about! Helping those children who are battling this awful disease. The race may have been canceled but I didn't regret one moment of my time in Memphis and my time spent fundraising.

I also got to see my friend Stephani from Illinois. I was sad that her group had risked the weather and drove into Memphis...and hours later the race got canceled.

Same story for some other friends that had driven from Texas...and then the race was canceled.

After visiting with friends for a little while we headed back towards our hotel. I tried to take a picture of all the ice on the trees but it was hard to see in the dark.

My pasta party friends went to their hotel and I met my roomies and we headed to Beale Street. We couldn't leave Memphis without hearing some jazz! Everyone told us to go to BB Kings so that's where we ended up.

We didn't stay out too late because we were all just emotionally exhausted from the day. We decided to go ahead and leave the next day (a day early) since the race had been canceled. The St. Jude Marathon people invited all the St. Jude Heroes to attend the VIP Lounge (which was supposed to only be for top fundraising people) the next day. So we went to that before we left Memphis. But this post is super long so I'll save that for next time!

Thanks for reading!

QOTD: Have you ever fundraised for a race?

St. Jude Children's Research Hospital Tour!

I left you yesterday with my first day in Memphis. I want to tell you all about my 2nd day too. I'll tell you about the rest of the day in a later post. The morning of the second day included a tour of the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital...and the tour itself deserves its own post!

I will tell you that this tour was very emotional. I didn't expect to see any of the kids. I thought we would be separated from all of that. But I was wrong. Everywhere I turned there were kids. Most of them were riding in little red wagons...some had masks on to protect them from germs. It was a very sad sight. But what surprised me was that these children had smiles on their faces. You could tell that St. Jude tries to make it a happy place. It was amazing! I took a ton of pictures...so you will see a lot. Our tour guide was awesome! She told us tons of stories!

When we got there we immediately saw the statue of St. Jude in the front.

We entered the hospital and it did not look like a hospital at all! It was very cheery! I noticed all the color around me! There were paintings everywhere! It was very kid friendly.

Our tour guide said that St. Jude wanted it to be a place where the kids felt comfortable. They put tons of details into the interior design of the hospital. Just look at the ceiling...it looks like clouds!

There was also a chapel. Our tour guide told us a story about a child whose mom was engaged but when he got sick they postponed the wedding. The child wanted them to be married so he arranged it all and they got married in the chapel! St. Jude goes out of its way for these patients!

Just look at this waiting area and the hallway of the hospital! Definitely doesn't look scary (which is how most kids perceive hospitals).

This was a neat area dedicated to the founder of St. Jude...Danny Thomas. When he died many editorial cartoonists expressed their sympathy with drawings that appeared in many newspapers around the country. This was the drawings that were donated to his family as a memorial.

This is the bust of Danny Thomas, the founder. Our tour guide told us it was good luck to rub his nose so we all did that for luck for our race.

In this same room we looked up and saw flags that represented the doctors and researchers that work or have worked at St. Jude.

Next we visited the cafeteria area. Our tour guide told us that everyone ate together...doctors, nurses, patients. They aim to make it feel like a family. They have the freshest food. They get their produce from a local farmer's market and their meat is all organic. They have kid friendly food like mac and cheese. She told us a story about one little boy who wouldn't eat the mac and cheese. He only liked his grandma's mac and cheese. So the chef got the grandma's recipe and made it for the boy! So awesome!

For Christmas they have a huge gingerbread house! It was all real icing and ingredients! And the dog was modeled after one of the patient's dogs!

The next area was very emotional. It was the wall of the St. Jude ABC's of cancer. It was where a patient took a letter and wrote a poem or thoughts about their chosen word. It all centers around living with cancer. The letters are changed every so often but sometimes families ask for their child's letter to be kept or to be taken down.

This mural was also near the ABC's. I loved it!

The next hallway we went into was emotional too. Here were pictures of former patients holding a picture of themselves when they were a patient. Wow!

Another important research project at St. Jude is the Genome Project. It is dedicated to finding the genetic origins of childhood cancers. This statue outside the hospital represents the Genome Project.

Here are some other waiting areas in the hospital. Again...very kid friendly.

The Today Show always does a lot for St. Jude. This was newly painted by the ABC wall.

This tour was amazing! One thing that really stood out to me was how St. Jude tries their hardest to make things as easy as possible for the patients and their families. They have a dentist, doctors, and teachers on site so that these children and their families don't have to worry about anything. If they have a cavity...no problem because the dentist is there in the hospital. Teachers are there to make sure the patients don't fall behind in their classwork and to ensure that when they go back to school that they will be ready.

No patient ever pays anything at St. Jude, including lodging, travel, and food. It takes $1.8 million a day to operate St. Jude...and 70% of the funds come from the public. Our tour guide said she has no idea how the hospital is able to function...but it just does. I wanted to tell her it is a God thing! ;-)

I cannot even begin to express how amazing St. Jude is! I am so honored to have been a St. Jude Hero! I am so very grateful for all of you and your generous donations! It truly is for such a good cause!

If you ever have the chance to tour St. Jude...definitely do it! It will touch you tremendously!

QOTD: Have you ever toured St. Jude? Or any organization like it?