The Marathon

And now a few thoughts on the marathon I ran.

I am mystified having run the thing, why anyone in their right mind would do it again. And yet, having said that I may have to do it again.

I had two goals running the marathon. Aim for a 3:40 finishing time and never walk.

I finished with 3:39:34. But was forced to a walk when with two miles left to go there was a particularly cantankerous bridge with an inhumanly steep incline - practically vertical, should be illegal - proved greater. The tragedy of it was that I was so keenly aware in the moment of how much I'd regret it later but I just couldn't make it go.

And now, reflecting on it my own words come back to smack me in the face. "Champions are greater than the sum of all excuses." . I may run some other races between now and then because already as the stiffness goes out of me and all the soreness eases I am hungry for another run. However, other races aside, I still feel the deep bite of losing face to this bridge before my fellow runners, and my city. I was wearing my pink jersey, along with pink bandanna, and pink shorts, I was flying the colors and put my name to it. Every runner I passed knew that I was Cruton and I was defeated. I must regain my honor before Baltimore.

A quick breakdown of the miles:
1-12: all fun and games, everyone has plenty of energy and is in high spirits.
12-20: work, your moving but it isn't as fun anymore now it is just doing it to get it done.
20-26: this sucks, muscles are burning and it is a struggle to keep putting one foot in front of the other, a lapse in willpower will lead to walking (and I should know)

I was walking along the park on Monday and I put on the super bright neon long sleeved under armor shirt they gave the marathon runners because at the time I was just puttering around the house when I decided to go to the bank. So I had this shirt on and I am walking by the park and I see joggers and I was amused because I found myself thinking "Bow before me joggers for I am your God!" and I am not going to lie, I was serious.

Finishing the race my butt hurt like it hasn't since maybe the infamous 400m run back in my track days.

I saw the gummy bear guy and even took some gummies. The problem was it was so late in the race that I put the first one in my mouth and quickly decided that it was far too much energy to chew the damn thing. I ended up spitting it out and dumping the rest of them I had in my hand on the street.

I enjoyed the parts of the course with bands.

I think I made a major mistake in this race not taking any of those calorie gel things. In my post run analysis I think my walking breakdown was due to a utter lack of available calories. Also, I find in amusing in retrospect how at the start of the race and well through it at the water stops I was able to keep going while holding the water fairly steady and drinking it but towards the end of the race I somehow completely lost the ability to hold the cup still and had to just kind of throw the liquid in the direction of my face and hope for the best.

I talked to Mike and Blue at work. Mike who was aiming for under 4 hours came in hot on my heels with a 3:47 if I recall correctly. Blue apparently ran a marathon in New York when he was younger and got a 3:15.

Quite pleased with the medal, it has some serious heft to it. The crab logo thing is still retarded but the medal is awesome.

That is all I can think of to say about the marathon - Wait!

Taking the turn up I don't know what after running through Patterson on Linwood, and along the course they had at various points Under Armour logos and slogans on the pavement, and we were all running along when there was this guy. And for whatever reason this guy was super pumped. Like there is rooting for people and then there is rooting for people like it is the super bowl and you need this drive to work to win it all. Not crazy ecstatic but genuinely, masculinely into it. And he just really got to me, got me really hyped, and I belted out as loudly and in as deep a voice as I could muster "WHO WILL PROTECT THIS HOUSE?!" I even heard a few people call out the answer "I Will!" Anyway that had me feeling awesome for a while. A feeling I sorely missed a little later on.

When I got to the inner harbor, the halfway mark and a spot for some of the bigger crowds one girl came streaking past me and I thought to myself, yeah, you run like a hero, I'ma see you in a little bit. And sure enough, a mile or two later, when she wasn't high on the crowd I passed her.

Also, I am not sure I could run a distance other than the marathon at an event where a marathon was being held. As running the marathon I looked down at all the other, lesser, distances. Way down.

Lastly, other marathons totally have it figured out. Half marathoners should not finish with the full. You are just starting to dig into your trenches, the pack has thinned out and you know the people in front and behind you fairly well when this mass sea of people is dumped on you. They of course are all jazzed up with energy to burn setting paces much too fast. And I wanted them to die. Spontaneously burst into flames.

Ok, this time I am done. For reals.