marathoned

OMG, I ran a marathon yesterday. And I'm still alive and able to remain upright, so yay! But my time was less than desirable, so boo! But if you factor out my bathroom breaks and the fact that stupid people don't know that you grab a cup at the water stations and then KEEP MOVING, I only finished a little bit behind schedule and not a whole hell of a lot, like my time indicates.

So, what was my time? 6:28:04. Before you start scoffing and thinking I'm a puss for taking so damn long, let me point out that you did not run a marathon on Sunday, so shut it. My goal was 5:15, which I obviously did not meet. And in true Regan fashion I'm pushing the blame for this to other places. Such as the before mentioned water stations.

Dear fellow runners, those stations? They are not rest stops. You are supposed to grab your water and then go. Not grab your water and then chill right in front of the tables. You should have practiced running and drinking water at the same time if this was going to be a challenge for you. Or at least had the common sense to move past the tables a bit so as to not block traffic. I wanted to knock you all down.

But the water stations were not really the biggest time suck, that honor goes to the port-o-let lines. I don't know why I was thinking the bathroom lines would not be that long, it was a race with 20,000 people, the bulk of that being women. Of course I was going to easily spend 20 or more minutes waiting in line at the port-o-lets, but that just never occurred to me ahead of time.

I will openly admit that part of falling off pace is my fault as once I hit mile 17 I realized "Oh shit, I'm a bit tired." At mile 18 my running partner met me and if she hadn't shown up I honestly might have quit. But she wouldn't let me, even when I rattled off all the various things on my body that currently hurt. (my toenails hurt, my ankles hurt, my shins hurt...my earlobes hurt) Or when she said she didn't see the hill I was talking about and I snapped back "Gaw, do you have selective blindness or something?!?" Some people claim to hit a wall when running, me I hit a bitch wall.

And thank you to each of you that sent in words of support and to those of you that made it to the race. When I didn't think I could run another step, I knew if you could take the time to send me a note or come to the race on what had to be the coldest day in recent history, then I could run just a bit more. And towards the end that's exactly what it was, running one small section, walking a bit, and trying to run one more small section. And those small sections ended up getting me across the finish line.

It's a huge feat to muster the energy to train for a marathon. Dragging yourself out of bed before the sun rises on race day feels crazy. Standing at the starting line, knowing in a few minutes you will embark on something most people will never do, makes you feel like you've lost your fucking mind. 26.2 seems impossible, but yesterday I learned that I am greater than it.

I'm ready to go again and next time it's 5:15 or bust.