Well, here I was all ready to talk about my experiences with the half marathon when Bin Laden was confirmed to be dead as a doornail. I'll still talk about the marathon and post what few pictures there are, but I feel it would be negligent to ignore the issue. Some of my peers have called this one of the biggest events of the modern day, others have said that it changes nothing. While I'm not sure if it'll be one of the biggest events in modern history, it is a gargantuan event now. Even if you ignore Bin Laden's role in the leadership and organization of terrorist activity, he was still a major symbol of defiance against the United States. His continued survival as Public Enemy #1 showed the thugs and murderers of the world that there were limits to the strength of the United States military. In the words of Johnny Cash, "You can run on for a long time, sooner or later, God'll cut you down."
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| This look is triumph. And a little bit of agony. Mostly triumph! |
Now, on the marathon side of things, I'm extremely pleased with how I did at the race yesterday. I made my share of rookie mistakes but I'll talk about that later. I have to give credit where credit is due, I hated every moment of hill training (even the downhill minutes, because they filled you with false hope) but it paid off in a big way for the Country Music Half Marathon. I actually didn't know that the hills had begun until they were almost over (my other coach, Sharon Perry, had to tell me that during the race). The only hill which was a bit daunting was the final ascent around mile 12. But I believe that was more a product of having run 12 miles than of the hill itself. The next big surprise was how well organized the finish line was. After I crossed the finish line, I was greeted by a person handing out medals, followed by a person handing out water bottles, and then a veritable grocery store of recovery snacks. I'm also pleased to announce that I beat the historic mark and was not half dead after the half marathon. I may have been 40% dead, but that's still better than half! I was also surprised by how much I recovered today. I certainly wasn't 100%, but I was able to move around all right and still managed to fit in a thirty minute bike ride today. . Even though my legs were killing me at the end, I couldn't help but smile as soon as I got my medal. Even now, it feels so unreal that I actually ran a half marathon.
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| The medal is so very, very cool. |
Now onto the less good. I did make a series of rookie mistakes, but nothing was too crippling. First and foremost, I definitely got caught up in the adrenaline of the start of the race and ran faster than I normally would. My first mile was completed in 10:30 and I would finish with a pace of 12:20/mile. Nothing too bad, but I definitely was running at a pace I couldn't sustain. Next, I definitely should have used the bathroom right before the race even though I didn't feel like I needed it. Around mile six, I was reminded about the cost of being very well hydrated. Luckily, I'm a guy so all that I needed to take a bathroom break was a well located tree around mile 6. Unfortunately, the ladies had to wait in a line for a port-a-john that was at least 8 people deep. That detour only cost me a minute. The last mistake is a bit hard for me to pinpoint. This is because miles 8-12 have blurred together for me. I remember running them and seeing Sharon around Mile 9, but the exact locations escape me. But I digress. By this point, we had left dawn and were dealing with full-fledged day time. This meant less shade and higher temperatures on top of the fatigue of having run 8 miles already. My strict pace of run 9 minutes, walk 1 minute had slipped to run 8 minutes, walk 2 minutes. Then it slipped to 7 and 3. There was one stretch that was 6 and 4 due to a well placed series of water tables and the need to replenish electrolytes. It was hard to start running again at that point. But I didn't fold to the convenience of walking a mile or try to convince myself to rest and get back up to full strength. I persevered and I finished strong.
I sprinted all the way down the last hill and across the finish line. The easiest part of the half marathon was getting my medal right after the finish line. The hardest part was walking back to my ride. But all that is in the past now. Six months ago, I would never have thought I could do this. But now that it's over, I've achieved my goal and no one can take that away from me
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| Behold! The Bumper Sticker of Destiny! It was all worth it! |
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