Marathon, redux

First, the facts.

I didn't die.
I finished in 5:04:45. This time does not compare favorably with my previous time of 4:23 (1:34 split). Unfortunately there wasn't a clock at the half-way point, but I feel confident that I did worse this time than last.

I remember distinctly, this time, feeling like I was starting to hurt at around mile 6. This was way before last time, which was about mile 10. I had totally broken down around the halfway point. From then on, I kept moving on pure grit.

I think this is part of the reason why I'm attracted to marathons, especially since I'm not conditioned to really run them well. They are such an endurance test - a contest of mind over matter. I remember thinking that this sort of thing could make me a dualist eventually.

There were all sorts of funny things that were going on mentally. As I ran, I felt like I could turn off the pain to a certain extent. I never really stopped feeling pain, but I could sort of put a wet blanket over that part of my mind - make it more distant, less immediate.

I could also, through a supreme degree of concentration, start to run again, after I had slowed to a crawling jog. If I let my concentration slip, even a bit, I'd be back into the slog before I knew it.

Towards the end of the race, it was a constant effort not to walk. I wouldn't consciously decide to walk most of the time, I'd just slip into it; I'd just notice that I was walking and had been for the past 10 minutes, and pick up the shuffle again.

I have to wonder about my state of mind towards the end of the run. Over the last 6-7 miles, people would almost constantly ask me if I was doing alright. I know that there were a few people over on the side of the road, being taken onto stretchers, but I didn't think that I was that bad off. I guess I'll never know.

Fortunately, I managed to complete the marathon and walked over to a friend's house (who lives a few blocks away from the square). At this point I was so disoriented from running in the sun for 5 hours that I had to ask directions to main street. I ended up passing out for 5 hours after a delicious lunch. I ended up getting to have a wonderful dinner of sausage, onions and peppers, along with delightful company ... and I might have converted at least one person to Toastmasters!

Marathon

I quickly realized that the Seattle to Portland double century was out of my reach this year, so I decided to do something else - run a marathon. I looked and found two local marathons, the Seattle Marathon and the SeaFair Marathon; only the SeaFair Marathon was in the summer, so I signed up for it. It was only after I signed up that I realized: the Marathon doesn't happen in sync with the main festivities in July - it's at the beginning of SeaFair in June... 4 days after I signed up.

Well... now, it's tomorrow. I've picked up my badge, my bib and assorted stuff and I've made arrangements pre and post run (it starts a short jog from where I live, and I have a friend who lives about a mile from where the race ends).

During the first Marathon, Phidippides ran from the plains of Marathon to the city of Athens to bring them news of the Greeks' victory; after delivering his message, he died. Hopefully a less terrible fate awaits me.