Yes, that's right, I was on the potty when the race start gun was fired. And this wasn't the first year. Last year I was sitting on a port-a-john as well. Only last year I was worried I was going to miss the race. This year, I was more sophisticated.
First of all, there are so many people in the race that you can't get through the start line until well after the gun fires. Second of all, your personal time doesn't start until you step on the timing pad at the starting point. So we were good no matter what. Potty break included, we still had to move backwards to get in line and we still had to wait to get started. But two years in a row on the port-a-potty for race start had me laughing.
I wanted to run "un-enhanced" as I told my neighbor. She talked me down and I decided to take advil and I'm sure it was a good idea. The race was hard. The race was harder than I expected it to be from the very start, which was mostly because I wasn't fully recovered from the virus I had earlier in the week. But I would have been disappointed in myself if I had taken more than anti-inflammatories for the run.
Foot cramping! That sentence deserves more than a single exclamation mark because it was the plague of my run. I normally run on trails and the irregular surfaces and rocks work out the cramps in my feet. This run was all on asphalt and I had to stop and stretch several times, which held up my friends. My feet finally stopped cramping after four hours of running. It was misery in part and annoyance, but I made it through.
A side-effect of the foot cramps is numbness in the toes and balls of the feet. I was in enough discomfort that I told my friends I was going to walk through the water stops, which occurred every two miles. That slowed us down, but I needed that time to get some of the kinks out so I could continue. The numbness in my toes continues even now, after the run. This isn't uncommon. Numbness isn't pain, but I'm sure it isn't ideal either.
I had planned on eating one of the Gu packets every four miles, but I was having such a tough time that I think I ate seven of them instead of my intended six. I also drank Accelerade at every stop in the hopes that more calories would help the perpetual "bonk" I was feeling.
I know I wasn't feeling up to my normal, healthy self, because I thought of quitting every single mile. There was something in me that kept me going though. And if you're thinking that's normal, I would agree...but only after a good number of miles. I was thinking about quitting after mile two, and that just doesn't make sense. But I made it. I have to give a lot of thanks to Uncle Jonathan and my neighbor because they gave me that encouragement I needed when I needed it (which was often.)
From a course perspective, there was this hill I knew about from personal experience. I'd reviewed it on the map and I knew it happened at about mile twenty-four. It was long, it was steep and it was windy. I feared it. I instilled fear for this hill into my neighbor as well. We ran down it early on and I warned them we'd be doing this, "killer hill" close to the end. We fretted. We decided if we needed to, we could walk up the hill. And when we got there, everyone was walking up the hill. But without saying anything, we three just ran up it. It was as if we were beyond complaining, beyond pain, beyond argument...we just wanted to get this race finished. I'm proud of that one point: that we ran up that hill.
Super support. We had the support of our families on the run. We were met by my husband, the children and our neighbor's family (three generations) with signs to cheer us on. It was very motivating. My neighbor's husband even met us at the finish line with flowers and a balloon. It was so exciting. If I wasn't so tired, I would have cried.
What about my number, sixty-nine, you ask? As it turns out, when your number is on your front, people don't see it that much. When we were running past people later, I got comments, maybe six total. Some were funny and one was comiseratory. Mostly, the comments made me laugh.
When we finished the race and stopped running I suddenly wasn't so tired. I'd been running for five hours and I had had thoughts of quitting many, many times. But three minutes of not-running and I was totally okay. It's strange how the body adapts and adjuts. Perhaps it was mental. Maybe it was the thought of the Krispy Kreme donuts I planned on eating (but that my stomach couldn't quite manage when I got there) that made me feel so much better.
I'm not sure I'll ever run a marathon again, but it was quite an experience.
The Big Boy Update: "Miss Daddy" That's right, he thinks daddy is a girl. Actually, he calls the teachers at school "miss" and then their first name and as there are no male teachers at school, this is a reasonable leap. Still, it was funny to hear him say it.
The Tiny Girl Chronicles: Mumbler. She called Mimi tonight. She picked up the phone, asked me to call Mimi and then waited for her to answer. And when she did, five minutes of completely unintelligible conversation ensued. It was mostly one-sided with my daughter telling Mimi about things we couldn't understand. She seemed to be happy about the whole thing though.
Fitness Update: Not a damn thing. Rest. Relaxation. Okay, I went in to substitute for six hours today, but other than that, I was a total bum.
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