So. It's been about 23 years. How are you, readers? I'd like to send a shout-out to all those bloggers who keep it up. Whew. I'm too lazy to blog most days. Anyway.
Welp I had my first marathon on Sunday. It was AMAZING. You all should do one. I promise you can. I told myself I couldn't and that was reason enough to do it. My roommate in San Diego was a woman from my team and I remember her saying at the info. meeting before this craziness began, "how am I going to run a half-marathon if I've never run before?" And she did it. You can do it too. You can do a marathon. I'll be your mentor. Oh yeah, I am a mentor for Team in Training this season. I just couldn't get enough. What else am I supposed to do on Saturday mornings? Sleep in? That ended the second I wrote on my college application "Major: education."
So we got there Friday afternoon and headed to the exposition. One of the greatest parts of the marathon. All sorts of nasty protein shake samples and gross cardboard replacement bar samples. Mmmmmm. I had totally ruined my appetite after going through there. That didn't stop me from eating a good ol' dinner, though. But then again, that is my style. Train for a marathon, eat for a marathon. At the expo you also receive your "goody" bag. I guess this name comes from the fact that you get "goodies" in a bag. And what a great name. For me, it's definitely because I think if not say aloud, "goody!" when I see all the useless pamphlets about pain relievers and the occasional box of macaroni and cheese in it. Oh also the race t-shirt was in the goody bag. GOODY indeed.
Friday night the team from Mass had dinner and I was so confused because here I interacted with my first of many people who said, "what marathon? where?" I mean....don't you live here? Don't you see the closed roads and the banners along the roads? Friday night I also had the hotel room to myself. My roommate's sister lived there so went to visit. I felt so super cool. A hotel room to myself. I especially felt mature when I talked to my sister on the phone while drinking a cup of crappy hotel coffee on the balcony. So mature.
Saturday a family friend, Lea, and I hung out. It was great! It was raining (ugh) but we didn't let that stop us from visiting the San Diego Zoo. When in San Diego...right? Do what the San Diegans do? Okay okay so that doesn't work but what I'm trying to say is, not going to the zoo when in San Diego would be like not visiting the white house when going to Washington DC. You just DO it. It's what you DO.
Saturday evening the team met and we went to the pasta party, thrown for the 2300 runners from Team in Training. Can you believe that the top fundraiser raised 103,000 dollars!?!? Next season, next season. One hundred and four grand. You just wait. So anyway, all the mentors and coaches lined up cheerleader style with their noise makers and screams and festive TNT clothes, cheering on the runners who raised money for TNT. It was awesome. Also kind of overwhelming.
The pasta was SO good. How can pasta NOT be good when, at the bottom of the huge throw-away tin dishes, there is a pool of oil? Always a good sign. There were some speakers at the dinner, and some announcements. I must say, yay TNT but it went WAY too long. Didn't these people understand that we had a marathon to run at 6:30 the next morning!?!? Luckily the time change worked in our favor. I was all over waking up at 3:30 because it was like 6:30 for me and waking up that late is child's play.
But anyway...the morning of the marathon was finally here. I had done all the fun and cute preparatory things the night before. I packed a bag, pinned my number onto my TNT singlet, showered, applied my TNT tattoos (you know it). I was ready. The race wouldn't start until 6:30 but we had to meet in the lobby at 4 to eat and take the shuttle. We got there around 5 and had to leave a bag with all our things with UPS trucks. Man, these marathons are pieces of art. There is SO MUCH that goes into it.
The 2 women from my North Shore team and I walked around together, gathering samples of cereal (all over the samples), going pee whether we had to or not, applying sunscreen, taking it all in. We had to get into our corral (corral number 18 whoop whoop) and bam we were off.
I mean....I don't really know where to start. Oh yes, I'll start right at the 5K mark...3.1 miles into it. So I had drank a little more than usual so had to pee real bad. Not good. Because seemed like everyone else had the same idea around the same time. There were porter potties sprinkled all over the course but the lines were SO LONG and heck no I wasn't going to waste precious marathon time waiting in LINE. So Anne (the woman I have been running with at practices and during this marathon...I credit my speed partly to her) and I spotted a park bathroom and noticed that not many people were around there. Once we approached it, a runner said, "locked" and Anne swore (why do people swear so much I just don't get it) and in the meantime I realized, "heck; we're running a marathon. Let's throw out all modesty out the window." So you know how guys have all the luck when it comes to easy access to using the bathroom...whenever and wherever? I was very very very jealous of all men at that point. But after the greatest decision of the whole marathon, I chose a tree and squatted. Yep. No fear. Bare butt. You gotta do what you gotta do.
And UGH I was so annoyed because I pulled my skirt back up (that's right; I ran in a running skirt because they rock) and was looking around for Anne. So woops I saw other people but of course wasn't thinking about that AT ALL. Some guy was like, "Hey don't look over here I'm pissing!" SERIOUSLY, DUDE? GET OVER YOURSELF. He thought that during the marathon I decided to check other people out? Ew.
Anyway...I found her and we kept running. We kept reminding ourselves to go slowly at the beginning; the beginning should literally be like a warm up because if you let the excitement get you, you're going to start out to fast and it'll kill you for the rest of the race. We also reminded each other to find the flattest surfaces whenever the roads slanted. Which happened a lot. I guess what I'm saying is, we were a good team:)
Eating Gu and drinking sports drinks and water while running is a talent. It is something that has to be practiced. And a year ago I would say "NO WAY" to drinking while running. Let alone consuming any gel. I always got cramps whenever I did that. But just like training to run, you have to train to eat and drink during the race. Here's my suggestion: bend the cup; the liquid has better chance of going into your mouth rather than all over the rest of you. Just a little tidbit.
Around mile 21 is when I hit that proverbial marathon wall. I was done. And I expected to hit a wall sometime, I just wasn't sure when. When I had run my 20, I hit it around 17. So I was psyched when it was 4 miles later than the last. Only 5 more to go! That should have encouraged me, but it just doesn't do it. At this point it was putting one foot in front of the other. Which yay I did...and loved it when I passed other people because they had obviously joined me when hitting the wall. Around mile 24.5 the coach from MA (not my coach coach from North Shore, he couldn't be there....I hated that) who I didn't know very well but I knew who she was, came up and ran with me until about 25.5. It was SO GREAT to have her. I definitely felt myself speed up when she was with me. So a shout-out to her even though she will never read this.
And then, yeah....the finish line. It was there. Couldn't even believe it. I looked at the clock, which said 4 hours 26 minutes, and didn't quite believe it. I went into this marathon hoping for 4:30 but telling myself it would be fine if I got 4:45 or maybe even 5. FOUR HOURS SEVENTEEN MINUTES AND FIFTY TWO SECONDS LATER I crossed the finish line. And started wheezing. I was so excited it was over and ELATED with my time. I was rushed through the finish line, got a medal put around my neck, stepped in front of a photographer to get a picture (I can't even WAIT to see that jewel....I looked just swell) and then just walked around in a daze. I had things to do, people to see, but as far as I was concerned I had just completed a marathon and everything else could wait. I chugged chocolate milk (one of the best things to consume after a hard run), grabbed those beloved free refreshments, as many as I could fit in my embrace. I texted my coach and my mentor who have gotten me here with all their support, saying that I couldn't call them because I would cry if I did.
I kept dropping things because of everything I was carrying. It was so annoying! Whenever it happened I would just look down at the said item. "How do I bend over to pick that up?" I'd just stare at it, baffled at the puzzle in front of me. Seriously, a soreness that I've never experienced before. And it felt so good:) Another thing that changed before to after the marathon? My opinion of the porter potty. Before the marathon I squatted, not willing to breathe in there. After the marathon? Collapsed on the nasty nasty nasty seat and embraced the experience. I really hearted porter potties at that point. Weird.
So what am I going to do now? Mentor for some future marathon runners on Saturday mornings and my goal is to raise money for LLS and run the Disney marathon in January. My coach will be there this time...he is doing the "Goofy". Running the half marathon on Saturday and then running the full on Sunday. Goofy indeed.
Maybe someday.
I love marathons. "It's like a drug".
