First of all, I am happy to report that I achieved my goal of finishing the freaking marathon without breaking more stuff. Yay! So to that end, I'm at peace. I hated being licked at SG last fall. I know people don't care about their finisher medals, but it smarted not to finish, and be beat by my hip and the weather than shrank all my tendons. I am again, a marathon finisher. But really, I went into it knowing that I would sink my time. I was sort of looking forward to underachieving and having fun, which I did. Tons. Maurine, who we will now refer to as Miles, picked me up at 4:20 a.m. I forgot or failed to bring any single support item, including my Garmin (who cares anyway, right?). Miles loaned me one of her old watches (which around mile 24 came in handy to see just how badly I was botching the race :) Seriously, it was so fun. I rode the busses Miles (on Sherpa detail for Marion), Marion, and Smooth. The weather was PERFECT, there is just no way to stress how perfect it was. I went across the starting line with absolutely no expectations except to finish. I was filled with the awesome beauty of the canyon, did love Carterville Road instead of the trail, and by 13.1 had run my fastest half marathon ever--I was 1:54 by the watch and 1:57 by the timer. For a while there, I considered a 3:50 finish, but my back/hip really started to ache by 15 and kept it SLOW after that. Around the time I slowed down a very annoying Englishman wanted to pace with me and began talking about how the Pakistani's and African Immigrants are ruining England, and how there are only 5 "whites" on the city council in Manchester and Leeds (the whole place is like 70% Packi's he said) ( I then pointed out that at least it was representative of the population and offered that I was married to a foreigner, and then he finally shut up and fell back--which was my goal). Funny, I love to share my weekday and long runs with friends when I can, but I do not like to talk or listen to you talk during races. Mile 18 was my house, where I had to wait about 3 minutes because every kid in the neighborhood had made me a sign and a cheering squad that was 'not quite ready' by the time I was going by. Quick kisses and hugs all the way around, then gorgeous home turf running. What a gorgeous day, did I mention that? The birds were so loud, the river so wide and clean. Ahhh. But I was hurting and knew that I wouldn't really know where I stood time-wise until mile 24. No Bathrooms for 2 miles at the end of the race sucked. I had to wait literally 10 minutes (3 people deep) for the one port-a-potty in 5 miles. As I expected, by that time I was over 4:00 and just gave it up compeltely and started stopping to stretch, walk and jog. It was very liberating to do whatever the heck I wanted to do. Then as I was coming to the end, there were all my kids (mine and the neighborhood) waiting to run me to the end. My finishing picture will have at least four 12 year old girls ushering me to the finish. I could not have been happier. Smooth came in next , AnnaLisa. Then I checked the numbers for Josse (awesome) and Sasha and Jeff. It made me very happy for them. Then I sadly noticed that if I had held a decent pace from 23 miles on, I would have placed 5th in my division. That was sort of a bummer to realize it wasn't as much of a throw away race as I'd imagined...oops. I guess there's next year. Then a bit later Marion and Miles. It made me cry to see them. Inspiring for the amount of support Maurine offered, and the insistance and will of Marion to finish. Then I drank 2 free bottles of chocolate milk, ate a creamy and went home with my whole gang. What a happy day! | 