Half way through a marathon

I have never run a marathon and I am quite sure that I never will run one either. But I imagine that there are probably three different stages to such a long race. I could be wrong because I have no experience, this is just how I think about what it probably would be like.

In the beginning, there's probably a whole lot of sorting going on as people want to be placed in a spot that is ideal for them. Some want to be in that front pack, others are content to be not right up the front but will conserve their energy for later in the race. But I imagine that at the beginning of the race, a lot is going on as the contestants sort themselves into groups. In the middle of the race, I imagine that it's pretty much just trying to keep on going, maintaining the position that was gained at the beginning of the race, and at the end, I guess that's when the contestants really make their move, breaking away from the packs and trying to get into first place rather than just being content to be in the first group of people.

It seems to me like in these distance races, most of the hard work is done at the beginning and at the end of the race, with the middle being mostly about maintenance. And that's how I'm feeling about my pregnancy journey at the moment.

I'm currently right at the beginning of the third trimester with another three months before the due date. And it was right on three months ago that we first found out that there could be issues with the pregnancy. 

I feel like we have already gone through the process of dealing with the initial diagnosis, preparing ourselves somewhat for those possibilities... the news no longer scares me as much as it did initially, the shock has worn off and I am pretty used to it. We have answered hard questions and thought through difficult scenarios, and I do feel quite content with where we are in this journey. But I know that towards the end of the pregnancy, there will probably be more obstacles to deal with, more trials to go through, more things to process. 

I know that the end of the pregnancy will not be the end of this story - but it will be the end of my pregnancy journey and the beginning of a new journey.

So for now, we're in the middle of this marathon - holding onto the place that we got to earlier in the pregnancy and waiting for that finish line and the other issues that we will need to deal with as it gets closer.