What are we talking about today?

I'll get back to theme days once I find a groove of posting regularly. In the meantime, most of my posts are about some variation of books, bikes, buses, or Broadway. Plus bits about writing, nonprofits, and grief from time to time.

This blog is mostly lighthearted and pretty silly. It's not about the terrible things happening in the world, but please know that I'm not ignoring those things. I just generally don't write about them here.

20 February 2010

After 26.2

The finish line at Austin is directly in front of the capital. I've never in my life been so happy to see the number "26" (yeah, it was like an episode of Sesame Street), but that's when I sped up, rounded the capital building and ran as hard as I could up the finish chute. The announcer didn't say my name (Boo!), but I pretty much crossed the line by myself, so all 5 cameras in the vicinity were pointed at me, as evidenced by my official race photos (which, by the way, you can see here).

Oh, and I was crying again. If I was dehydrated at all on Sunday, it was more from crying than from sweating, I can pretty much guarantee you. And as I was running up the chute, I couldn't breathe because I was crying. So, for future reference: Crying+Running+Breathing= Impossible.

I crossed the line and collected my medal. And that was it. Six months' worth of training for the two seconds it took to cross the line and say "Thank you" to a volunteer. I wanted to ask if I could cross the line a couple of more times, just to make it last longer!

So, got the medal, got my t-shirt, got my gear check bag (which I didn't need at all, because the weather was so nice), got a bottle of water, a banana, and a Snickers Marathon bar. (Warning: those are gross. Buy Clif Bars instead.)

Chad, Mike & Sharlan were waiting for me at the end of the finish chute, and when I hugged Chad, I started crying again. (On the upside, I shouldn't need to cry again for about six months.) We headed for the car, and in addition to eating my banana and gross Snickers Marathon bar, I also fished out my Clementines from my gear check bag. (So I guess I needed it a little bit.)

Then I started my round of phone calls: My mum, Linda (whose driveway I've been parking in for training runs for six months), my sister, Sherry (who was intently watching the race results to see if I'd finished), Wendy (who didn't answer), and Sarah (who had a screaming-good 1/2 marathon in Austin).

And I had a really unpleasant ice bath at the hotel. It's too bad that ice baths work so well; I'd love a reason not to do it, but it's so effective that I hate to skip it. Eeek.

2 comments:

James & Andrea said...

Wow. I'm so impressed.

So I'm female too, but what's the crying about? Are you so happy? Is it like crying after giving birth? Are you just exhausted hormonally?

Also, is the ice bath to help with day-after soreness? How did you learn all of this cool stuff? I actually have "The Non-Runners Marathon Trainer" book on my shelf. I just might use it someday. I think it would give me such a huge boost of confindence, but I think the running would be so boring and exhausting that the downs would not counteract the ups enough. Maybe you can prove me wrong.

Anyway, congrats and thanks for sharing your story.

Andrea

Recapcha--Run I C

Su said...

Thanks! I don't know about the crying after giving birth, having not tried it myself. At the beginning & middle, it was just the excitement of finally being there & doing it. At the end, it was happiness, exhaustion and accomplishment all overwhelming me at once.

The ice bath is to help with soreness. And unfortunately, as mentioned, it works really well. It's the same principle as icing a sore joint, but for the entire lower body.

Most of what I know about running I learned from Runners' World magazine (and runnersworld.com), but I have occasionally perused running books as well.

The marathon is awesome, but you don't have to run that far to get the benefits! 10Ks are probably my favourite distance, but a lot of people run 5Ks and are perfectly happy with it.

Yes, some days the running is boring. Sometimes it's hard; sometimes I want to quit. The really, really good days are what keep me slogging through the yucky days. :)

That was the most appropriate recapcha ever!