Training Tri's and Life

or my almost 7hrs in hell.  yep, it sucked - don’t get me wrong i am very, very happy that i did it that i actually completed a marathon - cause 26.2 miles is really f’n far!!

lets start from the beginning when i was still warm and dry…

6am - woke up, didn’t hear any rain outside - i was happy at that point in the day and still a little naive.

7:30am - found my friend and fellow partner in misery (little did we know then)

8:15am - the marathoners started - i was still a dry at this point.

the rest will follow in miles as i have no idea what time it was between 8:15am and the time we finished pretty close to 7hrs later.

miles 1-4 - legs were a little tight but all was going well.  the weird thing i found about this marathon was the runners started one hour after the marathon walkers and after all of the 1/2 marathoners - so the slow ass runners (yep that’s me) well you are way at the back of the pack - like there is barely anyone behind you at all.

Mile 5-8 - this sucked a bit of my soul out - you run out on I-90, which if you are not familiar with Seattle is one of our floating bridges.  we got to run on the express lanes so two miles out and back - right no big deal.  there are no spectators and as you are running out you see all the faster people running back, which at least kept me entertained, but when you are running back you see how there are like 20 people behind you and that is it.  which isn’t such a big deal, but it still kinda sucks knowing how many people are in front of you.  the part of this that was the worst was you have no protection from the wind or rain and i was shivering by the time we got off the bridge and had to take my shirt off and put my jacket that was still dry on the inside back on.  i could barely move my fingers. 

Mile 9-11 - was fine saw some more of our friends that were out there to cheer us on. nothing really interesting happened…it was cold and wet.

Mile 12 - ITB in left leg decided it was time to make itself known - this is about where it all started to go down hill.  it was also where we made the turn into seward park and almost got blown away from the wind, the pouring rain was pelting us sideways and yeah i just sucked.

Mile 13 - woohoo we made it half way - ouch, ouch ouch my knee hurts and i want to stop now.

Mile 14-16 - wet, wet, wet and cold, cold, cold - oh did i mention my left knee hurt, well around here my right knee got jealous and decided to hurt as well. at mile 16 we got two garbage bags from the water stop to try to keep warm - i love my garbage bag! not only where my knees hurting at this point, but so were my friends - which i guess is kinda good that we were both in pain, that way at least we weren’t alone.

Mile 17 - this is where the police told us that we had to now run on the sidewalk because they were now opening the roads - oh joy to the world!

Mile 18-20 - kinda uneventful, wet, cold, windy, hurting - did a bit of a death shuffle whenever we could - pretty much death shuffled until it hurt then stopped to walk then death shuffled, you get the point.

Mile 20-22 - up hill, i hate hills, but i still loved my garbage bag - oh garbage bag, you may have saved me.

Mile 22 - we were at 5:30 by this point - what followed was the longest 4.2 miles of my life.

Mile 22-26.2 - there were hills and winding roads and some more rain and mud and sidewalks and wondering if we were going the right way.  met some nice people behind us who were also having a rough time.  finally got to seattle center and summoned everything inside of me to run (yes actually run) the last .2 miles - damn that was a far .2 miles.  crossed the finish line it was almost closed down, but we made it.

so yeah all in all it kinda sucked - it took me until close to 9pm to get warm again and i can barely walk right now.  i am super happy that i did it and even happier it is over.  will i ever do it again - right now i am saying no - i knew i wanted to do it once and i’m glad i did no mattter how long it took and how craptastic the weather was.  for now i am going to stick with tri’s and 1/2 marathon’s - you marathon runners are f’n crazy.  i still love you, but you be crazy.