Around 6:30 on Thursday morning we recieved a phone call from Brenda Peters, my mother in law. To find out David Peters, my father in law was not breathing at 5:00 this morning. Brenda performed CPR on David as the 911 operator was on the phone. The paramedics arrived shortly there after and had to shock his heart into action. It appears he had gone into cardic arrest. The paramedics rushed him to the emergency room. Mr. Peters was in critical condition and was located in the ICU unit.
I just laid in the bed as Heather held the phone so both of us could hear what Brenda had said. Was this really happening?! I prayed continually as I took a shower and took Michael off to school. I knew Heather needed to get up there as soon as possible. I had to quickly figure out how we were going to work this out. I checked on flights and the earliest we could have got Heather up there was 8:00 that evening. Might as well drive. I considered renting Heather a car and having her drive up there and then the boys and I would follow after the race. But, after further thought I decided that we all would go straight up there. If I could I would drive back to Nashville on Friday for the race on Saturday and then drive back up on Sunday. That way I wouldn't miss the race. But, to me missing the race was not the most important thing. On the way through Nashville we stopped by the Nashville Convention Center and I quickly picked up my packet and number so if I could make it back I would. I also got my marathon t-shirt. The t-shirt was actually pretty nice. I was happy with it.
We drove up to Iowa Thursday afternoon and evening. We left Nashville around 1:00 and arrived at the hospital at 11:00. We didn't receive much information on the way up. Personally I did not think that was a good sign and it wasn't. I decided that my window to leave to go to the race was 3:00. I can't leave Iowa later than 3:00 and make it to the race.
We we arrived, David was in bad shape. His chance of surival was low. Friday morning I decided not to go to the race. Based on the situtuation I needed to stay. I told Heather I was going to stay, but I was going to run another race soon. Jermey went on-line and there were multiple marathons to run in May. Since I was at this level, I decided to shift to another race. Now the question is what race will I run? I wanted to make sure I didn't interfere with being here in Iowa to help my in-laws.
10 years ago
