No ticket to Bean Town today

Marathons are funny.

Marathons are hard.

There is a reason it takes people six swings at it before many get the time they need to go to Boston and live the dream.

The weather was perfect.  In fact, it was beautiful.  My head was on straight.  I was feeling good.

The first half of the race we were on pace, if not a touch fast.  21 minutes in, toe number 4 and five both went numb.  54 minutes in, toes number 3 went numb.  Just remained positive and tried to put it behind the door.

Once we hit Fort Snelling and started running around the lake on a dirt path our times slowed.  It was lonely down there, not a lot of spectators and the run was getting tough.   Then you get to run up a 1.5 mile incline back out, this added insult to injury.  The quads started yelling uncle along with T-odd who was telling us we needed to pick it up and there was not alot of time to give away.

Around mile 19 we got a shot in the arm by seeing our families, these things could not be done without them.  My friend Kuan was on his bike and followed us a long bit of the way and Vincent showed up to cheer Laura on.  I was hoping to get a free dinner invitation to Vincent’s, but no luck.

I’m not sure what mile it was that Laura and I knew this wasn’t going to happen, maybe on the slow incline up, 19, 20, who is to say?

My legs started cramping severely during those last 6 miles.  It was not just my quads, but then my calves got into the action and then came another hill.  Where I ran with my feet locked into a flexed position due to cramping…THAT WAS AWESOME.  But guess what, no toe pain OR bunion pain, they all went back to normal.  Or maybe the cramping just over rode it, does it really matter?

It’s at this point where I am saying to myself, it’s not for lack of training, it’s not because I gave up, it’s not because I am not digging deep enough. 

My mantra for the first half was what Adam told me right before I went to bed, “Whatever you do, don’t give-up.”  My mantra for the second half, “Pain is only temporary!”  Over and over and over.  I came to peace with the fact that I was digging as deep as I could today and that will be good enough.

In the end T-odd finished strong, Laura pulled away and worked her magic like only she can.  And then I saw them, the rest of the running group (plus Becca) waiting almost at the top of the last hill.  They ran me in and they cheered me on and without them I am pretty sure I wouldn’t have made it under 4:00 hours. 3 hours, 59 minutes and 46 seconds to be exact.

Still a PR, so I can’t get too upset.

Marathons are funny.

Marathons are hard.

And for me, marathons take a village.  Hats off to you my village.

Thanks for being there, every last one of you:

Adam, PJ, KP, CT, Roxi, Jay, Becca, Nana, Papa, Ted, Lovie, JC, Teddy, Megan, Jen, Erika, Nathan, Sam, Pete, Ann, Elie, Finn, Kuan, T-odd’s mom and sis and Laura and T-odd.

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