MY OLYMPIC HERO!

It is very difficult to explain all of the emotions you experience when running a marathon. I watched with amazement as the world's elite marathon runners seemingly flew through this year's race. OH to be able to run like those women! A tight race until sometime after mile ten when the eventual gold medal winner, Constantine Tomescu-Dita, from Romania ,broke away from the pack and showed us all how to run like a winner. Such grace and yet power-a truly inspiring experience to watch.

My hero for the race and perhaps the entire Olympics has to be Paula Radcliffe from England. Paula, a long time distance runner with many wins to her credit, came to this year's Olympics with a serious disadvantage. Paula suffered a stress fracture in her femur in May. This led to cross training and the inability to pound the pavement. A necessary part of training for this grueling race is toughening up your body and especially legs to undergo the gut wrenching pounding for 26.2 miles while running at a 5 + minute pace. There are no words to describe my admiration for all of these fantastic athletes. Paula won my utmost admiration for "Gutting it out" while in obvious pain and duress. Slowing a couple of times and almost stopping-she dug deep down inside of herself and scraped up the courage to finish the race. A very respectable time of 2 hours 30 something minutes to boot.

I am no world class athlete and am slow as a turtle, but I do understand what it takes to run a long time in great pain. It takes guts and determination to work through it and probably a huge stubborn streak. Seeing the look on Paula's face as she neared the stadium and then made that final lap, she grabbed my lasting admiration and became my Olympic hero. Her performance and courageous finish might just be my favorite Olympic moment as we begin the final week of the Bejing Olympics.