Palmetto 200 and the aftermath

Well it's done. I'd love to post a blog with a bunch of pictures but I don't have very many from our van. I'm hoping to gather some from the team soon. How did it go you wonder? In case you haven't read my previous blogs the Palmetto 200 is a 207 mile relay race from Columbia SC to Folly Beach SC, 'The Edge of America'. 11 teammates, divided into two vehicles run throughout the day and night to make it to the finish.

Our team was a group of people that I know through various ways and for various amounts of time, minus Andy who I recruited online to be part of the team, his motivational ways, and crazy sayings definitely kept it interesting and he was a great asset to have on the team, as were all of my teammates.

Let me tell you, as captain/organizer, it is NOT easy to gather 11 people, get them together, make sure they are all on the same page and have them get along so well! I really lucked out. Let's talk about the happenings:

Our team was scheduled to start at 6 a.m Friday morning. We were a slower team and faster teams were staggered throughout the day so that we could all finish at about the same time. Due to our scheduled start time we got together at Brents place at Folly Beach on Thursday night to pack up the vehicles (one suburban and one van). We hit the road at about 8 p.m.  I had been having some nausea for a few hours but figured it was due to my big lunch and that it would just go away. WRONG.. by the time we hit the Cosgrove Exit on I-26 I realized that I wasn't going to make it to Columbia without getting sick. I was forced to announce to my team that I wasn't feeling well and that we were going to have to stop so I could throw up and assured them (and myself) that once I did I would be fine and we would continue on. So I did my business and felt like a million bucks. I convinced Layne to drive though and not 15 minutes later I was sick again. We tried to push on but my body just wasn't letting it happen. I had to make a touch decision to return home that night rather than hinder my teammates more by attempting to make it to Columbia with them. My brother generously drove out to get me and take me home where I continued to be sick and felt like perhaps I should get medical attention. Also on my mind though was my team. I was the captain, I was the 11th. I was slated to run the most miles out of them all. What would they do? How was I letting them down? I hated that I had to do this to them. I hated that the team morale was probably down with less than 12 hours to the start of the race.

Through emails and text messages I was assured to relax and get better and that everything would be fine. I felt like I was at deaths door and couldn't be so sure. My van finally got to Columbia late Thursday night and the team sat down to discuss what needed to be done. They managed to rearrange the running schedule in order to accommodate a 10 man team. Little did I know that later that night another teammate, Elizabeth, would also fall victim to the same illness I was experiencing.

From what I hear the start line was an amazing sight with runners all lit up in order to be 'reflective' during the dark hours of the early morning. Michael was now our #1 runner and he started us off right around the track and out for his first leg. Meanwhile, I was at home, wide-awake thinking about my team and how much I wished I could be there. I was feeling better but was extremely weak. I knew that if I planned to meet up with my team later that day (which I was determined to do) I would have to be able to keep down food and that I needed to start hydrating. I got up and moved around, showered, ate, drank some water, and laid on the couch. I'm sure I drove my team crazy with text messages needing to know what was happening and wondering what I was missing. By the time 10 a.m. rolled around I felt much better and knew I needed to meet the team or else I would continue to go stir crazy. Once again my brother came to my rescue and drove me an hour to Santee SC so I could meet van 1 while they rested at the mid point hotel. The team briefly told me about their first leg runs, Felicia said that she had run my leg #3 and that it was a beautiful 8 mile run through smalls hills with the sun just coming up. I was happy that she had enjoyed it but was a little sad I hadn't been there to experience it myself. We decided that I would just take legs from people who now had to run 4 times due to the schedule change in order to put myself back in the rotation. I decided to start off with a 'small' 7.3 mile run. I know it was stupid but I was determined to see how I was feeling. The team got a little sleep while I studied and studied the routes to see what else I should take.

A few hours later it was time to go and meet up with van 2 as Layne finished up with leg 10 and Michael was to take over back at leg 11. We got to the exchange point at about 4:00 p.m to wait for Layne, who was running a grueling 10 mile run in the 85 degree heat on a long, straight road with no scenery and no shade. He showed up beaten by the route and overheated. We packed him into Van 2 and sent them on their way to the hotel to rest up, shower, and relax while we ran our legs.

The back our "van" the suburban with all of our gear packed up. 

Michael had a short 3.5 mile run that took him into the town of Elloree where I was waiting at the exchange point to begin my 7.3 miles. I started suiting up with reflective vests, numbers, water bottle, and Ipod and I started to get nervous. I hadn't really eaten much that day because nothing seemed appealing. Was I going to be ok? Should I eat something more? At this point it was too late for any of that, Michael showed up and handed me the slap bracelet that we were using a baton and I was off and running. I never anticipated the difficulty I would encounter during this run. It was still hot, it was a long 5 mile road before I turned into the state park for the last 2.3 and it had a few small hills. Overall I think it was the effect of the illness that made it tough. I had to stop and catch my breath several times and averaged a pace much slower than my normal. I thought about how I might have made the wrong decision but I trekked on focusing on object after object in the distance to run to before I finally saw the turn off onto the state park. The tree lined road here helped some but the urge to stop still tempted me. I could other runners come back at me, giving me words of encouragement, telling me how I was almost there, and that I looked good (thanks for the lies fellas I know I looked bad). I made it though, I passed of the bracelet to Felicia and sat down to relax. It wasn't long before the nausea came back. I continued to nibble on pretzels but continued to be worried that I was going to have more issues. Then came the text message I didn't want to get. Layne was suffering from heat exhaustion and was now throwing up. In less than 24 hours we had 3 team members who were suffering from throwing up. I had to get better because Layne was surely out based on his condition. Van 2 was going to leave him to rest at the hotel while they ran. Kalan from our van said she would run his next leg, a midnight 10 miler. It was by grace of God that I had decided to take her 7.3 leg. After some more pretzels and a lot of laying down on the ground I started to feel back to normal. Felicia, Brent, and Andy all ran their respective legs and as nighttime came we were ready to head back to the hotel again to rest some more. Kalan went off with Van 2 and we went to get some food and rest.

Vans 1 and 2 meet up at the Greater Target A.M.E church to relax while waiting for Jay to arrive

12:30 a.m came way too quickly. We all probably got 1.5 of sleep and figured we had a 1 hour drive to the next exchange where van 2 was finishing up. Thanks to my trusty GPS we headed out, picked up some coffee for Andy and drove faithfully by the guide of the GPS. WHICH got us lost. Imagine our confusion when we pulled up to the Department of Natural Resources instead of the boat landing we were supposed to be at. Being in the middle of nowhere at about 1:30 a.m. was prime time for only me to have cell reception in our car. Luckily we managed to get ahold of van 2 and get ourselves to the next station. We were late and Kalan had finished up her run, due to this Elizabeth took the baton and started to run for Michael until we arrived about 10 minutes later. We caught up with her and Michael took the bracelet to finish out the 4ish miles left in the leg into Moncks Corner.

After Michael it was my turn again. I had a short 3.8 miles through Moncks Corner to hand off to Felicia. It was dark, the roads were dark, and we couldn't use Ipods (obviously) for safety reasons. I was armed with mace, blinking lights, a reflective vest, and a headlamp. I have to admin I was kind of scared. There wasn't much traffic and for a while I didn't see any of our trusty "Runners on Road" signs, which make us aware that we are on the right path. I don't know how far I ran before I got really paranoid and pulled out my phone to call my van support to make sure I was in the right place.. it was right at that time that I saw one of the signs ahead and forged on, 2 minute later my van passed by my honking, waving, and cheering, asking if I needed anything. I assured that I was fine and was keeping a pretty good 8 minute per mile pace. I had to run up a bridge close to the end of my leg and dreaded doing so but I knew the exchange was ahead so I forged on and finished up with a pretty good time.

Felicia and Brent finished up their legs through more darkness. We kept Felicia in sight by leapfrogging her in the van and then pulling off the road to wait for her to pass. She was running in a pretty scary area and I couldn't let my sister-in-law stay out there on the dark roads without knowing where she was. Brent was next with a quick 2.8 mile run passing off to Andy. Andy's leg was one that I was originally slated to do before my illness forced the team to revise the schedule, and I thanked God a bit that I wasn't doing it. 8.9 miles at 5 a.m on the darkest road I could ever have imagined. We waited for him every two miles to make sure he was ok and didn't need anything. The dark and quietness of the road while we waited only made us fall asleep though. We'd been at this for almost 24 hours now with about 3 hours of sleep total. Luckily we managed to wake up and not sleep through Andy passing by.. we gave him cheers and encouragement as best we could through our fatigue and sleepy zombiness. He finished up at 6:33 a.m. the sun was showing signs of rising. Van 2 was ready and waiting to start their legs and we were ready and waiting to get some rest.

We drove into Mt. Pleasant, man it felt good to be in familiar territory. We figured that we were 30 minutes behind our predicted finish time and were happy with that. I was a little nervous though because the heat of the day was coming and it was predicted to be HOT. We got some breakfast and Kalna, who had joined back with us, offered generously to have us crash at her place. It was so nice to sleep on the carpet of an actual residence. We showered, slept, ate, and before we knew it it was time to go again. Van 2 was finishing up and the heat was sweltering. Jay was finishing up Laynes last leg for him (Layne had stayed in the hotel in Santee for the night and his wife had come up to get him). When Jay finished I was a little worried he might end up in the same boat as Layne. He was hot, sweaty, and looked defeated but we forged on and van 2 went to shower and rest in Folly Beach as our van would be finishing out the rest of the legs.

Van 2 with our trusty time/leg spreadsheet, the magic stick, and the suburban we called home

Michael once again took the baton for a 4th run through Mt. Pleasant and over the IOP connector. The sun was brutal and we followed along to make sure he was ok. At this point we figured that we were over an hour behind our finish time and were a little worried. Word at the volunteer stations was that we were the last team out there. Some stations packed up and left after we checked in. People had started arriving in Folly already and we had a long way to go.

It was at this point that we decided to run concurrent runners to catch back up. We notified the race director of our time and he agreed that we should put at least 2 other runners out there if not more. While Michael finished up I dropped off Kalan, Felicia, and Brent to run their legs. By the time this was done I went back and picked up Michael, Kalan, and Felicia and we headed downtown to wait for Brent to finish. It was nice to show up to an exchange that was actually manned with volunteers and to see other runner teams at the exchange stations. We were still very slow though and were very close to being the last team out there. Andy headed out when Brent finished, he had a 6.3 mile run from downtown to the James Island County Park where I would take the bracelet and head out for the final 7.7 mile run. Based on how my 7 miles had gone the previous night I was nervous, tired, and a little cranky. I hoped that I would be able to make it and make a good time. I figured if everyone on my team had stepped up to the plate it was the least I could do to run a strong last leg to the finish.

Andy came in and handed off to me.. my van mates and Corley cheered me on as I took off towards Folly Road. Running on Riverland drive was pretty horrifying. People weren't going as far around me as I would like and there was no sidewalk. The grass was uneven and I was unnerved. I focused on different things, keeping an eye on the cars so I could jump out the way if needed. Ahead of me I could see a runner who had taken off before me. Word on the street was that he had run over 40 miles and had taken up for teammates on his team that had been unable to continue. I felt bad when I passed him because I had run half the distance he had overall. I gave him some positive words and made my way onto Grimball road. My team was waiting at the turn to cheer me on and informed me that there was another runner about 1/4 mile ahead and perhaps I should catch up with him. I could see him in the distance so in order to think about how much my legs hurt or how badly I wanted to stop I kept thinking about catching him. I was keeping at 8:30 pace and by the time we could see Folly Road I was passing him. My watched beeped letting me know that I was 5 miles in, I was on Folly Road with no sidewalk and a lot of 55+ mph traffic.

Running the grass isn't fun. It makes you use muscles that you're not used to using and when you're tired and your legs are sore it sucks big time. I knew that I had about a mile to go before I hit the bike path that would be easier to run on. I focused on reaching the Folly Boat and before I knew it I was there. I had a bike path to run on and the finish was less than 2 miles away. I stopped briefly to take a picture of myself in front of the Welcome To Folly Beach sign and then continued on. I started onto the bridge of the inlet and at the top I could see the finish. People were gathered and waiting.. as I got closer I could hear the cheering and see my team waiting for me. I came off the bridge at a sprinting pace and my team joined me to the finish. 35 hours and 2 seconds later.

The Edge of America. 

Team YuDu then I Do with our medals, reunited at the finish

35 hours and 2 seconds, a lifetime of memories, and a great team of friends. The Palmetto 200 was everything we thought it would be and more things that we never expected it would be. I can't thank my team enough for stepping up to the plate to cover for me, cover for Elizabeth (Brent changed spots with her so she could rest up and get better), and then cover for Layne.  We had a lot of laugh, a little bit of sleep, and a lot of miles that we covered. I wouldn't change it for the world.

*again ignore spelling and grammar errors. I publish first drafts because I am impatient. Sorry for the long post.. there was no ability to condense this experience.

Enjoying beer at the after party.. well deserved.

To my teammates.. team YuDu then I Do

Michael
Kalan
Felicia
Brent
Andy
Kevin
Jay
Nate
Elizabeth
Layne

Thank you! Thank you! Thank You. I couldn't have asked for better team work. I'm sorry that I passed that runner and caused us NOT to get the last place award. Next time I will try better to run slower :).

Thanks to Sarah Hays for sponsoring our team in this adventure. If you have errands you need run please head over to her website http://yudulist.com

I'm Rugged

Well the aforepost mentioned Rugged Maniac obstacle course has come and gone and I am fine. No injuries and a good time was had by my friends and myself. I had signed up originally for this with my fellow trainer and bootcamp trainer, Kindal but a few weeks later another friend of mine, Tyler, also decided to join in on the fun and signed up for the 9 a.m. wave with us. I'm so glad we went at 9 a.m. I woke up at 6 a.m. to get ready but walked outside and it was FREEZING (ok not literally freezing as in 32 degrees but it was 46 degrees and that's pretty frikkin cold to me). My plan was to wear my tri shorts and my tri suit top which isn't that much clothing but it was too late to make a change at the the last minute. I threw on some extra layers of pants, long sleeve shirt, and fleece and headed on my way to Mt. Pleasant at about 7:15. Classically I was at the race super early but as I stood there and the sun came up the layers came off and I was quite comfortable.. UNTIL the no-seeums came out. If you don't know what a no-seeum is it's a horrible gnat-like bug that bites you and swarms in the what seems like hundreds of thousands. I, unfortunately, had not thought to bring bug spray. REMINDER to SELF, bring bug spray to the P200.

The starting line had good energy and they were playing a wide variety of music to get us pumped up. Tyler, Kindal and I stood around chatting while Corley held all of our stuff (he was the official spectator, NOTE: it cost $10.00 to get a spectator ticket but in hindsight no one was really enforcing this rule so I'm pretty sure we could have gotten away with not paying the fee). Corley was also the official photgrapher, from left to right Kindal, Me, Tyler.

While waiting I saw Noah who has a blog called Moore on Running that I found earlier this year when searching for information on the Palmetto 200. I had to introduce myself since I follow him on Facebook and follow his blog. It's always fun to meet people you have interacted with and never actually met. I will see him again at the Palmetto 200.

At about 8:50 we headed to the start line to wait for the our wave (the first wave) to take off. The frikkin bugs got WORSE with everyone packed together and somehow Tyler, Kindal, and I ended up at the VERY front. I don't mind being in this position but I thought it was funny that we didn't even try, it just happened. People around us were jumping up and down and doing all kinds of warm up to get ready, I was dancing to Highway to the Danger Zone.  

When we started I wasn't prepared for the rough terrain, I am no trail runner by any means so I slowed it down to avoid twisting an ankle as we ran through what is normally corn fields. Honestly it was a lot more running that I expected, I SUSpect that it was this way for a lot of people because I eventually saw a lot of those super warm up people walking. 

The first obstacle we came too was a bunch of bamboo that was tied together across the path. Some people went over.. in what became a theme throughout the course I was small enough to go under, so I stayed to the left and crouched down under all of bamboo in the obstacle.  After that we ran, and ran some more with no more obstacles in sight. I had figured that with 14 obstacles they would be more closely compact. Next we came up to a series of wooden walls that we had to go over, then under, under, then over. They were probably 4 feet high and the clearance below was enough that you could roll under them. No problem, then back to more running. 

At one point we passed a water station from which I took a cup, this was the WORST tasting water I had ever had. It was warm and tasted like they had collected it from the fields during a rainstorm. I ended up tossing it on my head.. seriously it was only a 5k I didn't need shit tasting water THAT badly. 

We came upon more obstacles bundled together after that. The cargo net that you had to climb up and then jump down onto a big pad (thank God, I had bad visions of jumping off things and breaking an ankle). Then there was a tire obstacle where you had to run over and through hanging tires, and after that was the walls you had to go up and over. I had been nervous about these but it turns out that they were about 7 feet high and if you could jump up and grab you had ledge at chest high to help you get over it. Sadly, Kindal got sand on her hands and jumped up to grab the wall, pulled up and lost her grip. She ended up falling down straight on her back which took the wind out of her. OUCH! She was trooper though and got right back up. 

My memory gets bad here. We did more running.. and I don't really remember the order of the obstacles. We had to go under some bamboo which was covering a hole in the ground, through some plastic tubes that were kind of corrugated and hurt my knees (once again I realized I was small enough to crawl hands and knees instead of army crawling through). I found myself passing more and more people and kind of kept challenging myself to pass the next chick that I could see since I knew I wasn't that far back as far as girls were concerned. 

After the bamboo was a dirt hill we had to go over and then another one we had to go up, on the downside of that was a slide which launched us into a pool of water. It was kind of shockingly cold and refreshing at that the same time. In the water there were some pipes floating that we had to either go over or under. I snake crawled over 4 of them and was surprised at how much I lost my breath doing this. The last two I went under. I was SPENT at this point and wondered if I would even be able to pull myself out but I could see the finish line and I was kind of competing with another girl that I had caught up with so I pulled up and ran towards the finish. The final obstacle was a mud pit covered by barbed wire. Again a lot of people got REALLY muddy here by army crawling. I managed to crawl on all 4's and remained quite clean. I was still neck and neck with the girl from Trysports and I started yelling at her that we were going to have a photo finish as we both sprinted. 

Seriously I still don't know who won. I've never been that close in a race before. I will be interested to see the results. I don't know what time I finished in because I was too busy trying to beat the other girl and I didn't even look at the clock. At the finish I took a bottle of water, used it to rinse of my face, threw away my shoes and put on the other shoes and socks I had brought and enjoyed some beer. I would like to thank those people who dropped their beer tickets at the registration area, we managed to get 5 beers without paying because we kept finding beer tickets on the ground (for the record I had 1/2 of one beer). 

I would say that it was a good time. The obstacles weren't nearly as hard as I thought they would be which is good.  I thought it was a pretty fair race. Maybe I will consider doing the Mud Run this year to see what that is all about. 

* Since these are ramblings please ignore spelling and grammar mistakes. I type a draft and then I publish it.. that's what my blog is all about. 

I'm Tweeting

Well I'm trying to hop on the tweeting bandwagon again. So if you're reading this and you tweet, follow me jho_417 is my tweet name. Tweeting seems to take a lot of effort though, I don't know why I feel that way, I just do. But I'm going to give it a go and see if I can get into hashtags and tweets and followers. Maybe I can pick up a few Charlie Sheen rejects.

This weekend I have the rugged maniac adventure run. I start in the 9 a.m. wave, in hindsight I should have gone later in the day so that it would be a littl more than 52 degrees when I hit the first muddy water obstacle... brrrr??? But then again it would be a day killer to have gone later so I'd like to get it started, done, have my one free beer and then sianara.. I'm sure I spelled that wrong since it's underlined in red squiggly. Google suggested Sinatra, Sianna, Sian, and Siana. I have no idea what any of those are minus Sinatra so I'm going with what I wrote. Anyhooo... the rugged maniac is a 5k obstacle course run where you go through mud pits, over cargo nets, 7 foot walls, logs, etc. At the end you jump over a firepit.. here is what they show on the website for the firepit jump:

When I looked at the pictures for the Jacksonville event here is the fire pictures from there:

I'm sorry is that a fire or an ashtray? Oh shit there's a chick on crutches in the background. Did she do that during the event? I'm kind of freaked out that I am going to hurt something and not be able to do the Palmetto 200. I'm definitely going to take it easy on this in fear of f-ing over my P200 team.

If I haven't blogged about the P200. It's a 200 mile relay race from Columbia SC to Folly Beach SC. You and 10 other lunatics run through the day and night to make it to the finish line. I have a great team and I am excited and nervous. Planning this thing has been quite a challenge. I'm sure it will all be worth it once we cross the finish line. I wonder if we get medals??

www.Palmetto200.com

Absence

For all of my faithful followers out there I would like to post and say I'm STILL here. I know, I know it's been too long since I've blogged. I ran the Myrtle Beach Half marathon, the one I was so concerned about running in my previous post and I set a PR. Now me being me I have to say it wasn't MUCH of a PR but overall it was a great race, i felt good afterwards and I ran my best half marathon with minimal training. I don't know if I've blogged about everything I have been up to but I wanted to give a rundown of the things that have been going on in my life in the past 6 months or so:

- I went to the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade
- I went to Myrtle Beach
- I went to Las Vegas
- I ran a half marathon in the pouring rain and got 2nd place in my age group
- I ran the Charlie Post 15k and got 2nd in my age group
- I am running a 200 mile relay with 10 other people on 4/8/2011
- In June I am going to an RRCA course to become a certified running coach. I'm not sure what I am going to do with this information but I am excited about it!
- Perhaps I should get a computer certification since that is my day job and career of choice.

I should have blogged about all of those things. You can bet your ass I am going to be blogging about the Palmetto 200 relay. www.Palmetto200.com

Boring post I KNOW... I will try to make it more interesting next time

4 weeks away

I watched my sister-in-law run her first marathon today and along with it I saw many people who were also running their first half marathons,  and I remembered the feeling of being there and having the nervous anticipation of waiting at the start line. I'm glad that I could be out there to help Felicia and other runners along the way, it was a kind of pay it forward to all those people who supported me during my tough moments in a marathon or half marathon. I handed out chocolate, tissues, and oranges to runners who seemed to greatly appreciate it. I can only hope it helped them. 

As of now I'm still trying to get over a cold and my lungs are tight and yet I would like to go for a long run tomorrow. I still have no hopes of trying to set a PR for this half but I do have a hope of looking forward to it a little more. 

I just learned that a good friend of mine passed away today, he was too young. We hadn't spoken in a while but had been in touch through Facebook. I knew of his life now when otherwise I would have lost touch with him a long time ago. It's amazing how close the Internet can keep us. His passing makes me want to run more, to celebrate life while we have such a precious gift. I will celebrate Dane's life because that's what I feel I should do. I pray for those who are missing him most, his wife and parents. Hug your loved ones a little more because life can be short. Say a prayer or have a moment of silence for those who are taken too soon. Most of all, life your life to the fullest. 

I have to admit something.. I've been struggling. I don't know what it is but my desire to run is gone and I seem to find every excuse to not do it. I am still running about three times a week and working out about three times a week but that intensity that I used to have, it's not there. It's hard for me to write this because I don't know who is going to read it and with me being a personal trainer and motivator I feel like I am not supposed to have these issues. But we're all human and we all struggle.

Honestly, the time when I worked out the most was personally for me a very hard time in my life. I used running and working out as a coping mechanism. But now I'm happy in my personal life and I'm unhappy in my physical fitness life. Why is that? Why can't I have both. It's absurd to say but when I used to run I would think about problems in my life and then I would let them all slip away and I would feel free. Now.. I'm just happy. I have a few things here and there that I can ponder on while running but not too much. I know it's stupid that I'm complaining about having no issues in my life from which I need to escape from because that's a GREAT thing to have. What I hate is that I've put on weight and I can't seem to take it off. Fat and Happy? I guess I am for now. I keep signing up for races hoping that they will motivate me but instead they seem impossible.

My performance in the marathon hurt my pride and I'm trying to bounce back from that. EVERYONE has a bad race, a bad run, a bad experience. Why am I letting this define me? I keep going over it and over it in my head
and the answer is to just get out there and do it. I need to get rid of this mental block in my head and find that determination again.. does anyone have any suggestions? I have 6 weeks to a half marathon and the most I've run is 40 minutes. Grrrr


Frustrated.

Marine Corps beatdown

I've tried to write this blog a few times in my head but each time it just makes me kind of sad. I guess I should be happy that I finished my second marathon, and that I had a chance to see all of those people doing their best to finish. When I originally ran Disney I was completely inspired by the crowds and I had expected to feel that same way in DC but there was just something missing. The crowd was great, don't get me wrong but I lost my heart.

After all of my training I did everything wrong. I started off too fast. I suspect I averaged less than a 9 minute mile for the first 14 miles. To put this in perspective I was trying to do a 4 hour marathon which would have been 9:10 miles. I was probably about 20 - 40 seconds faster than I should have been and it caught up with me. It's funny how you feel so good one mile and then the next you feel it starting to slip and you think that the second wind is just around the corner.

I made it to mile 17 on the hope that I would get that second wind, all the time while watching my GPS watch track me slower and slower, and then my head came into the game. I should say that I had wonderful people who were running the race with me and that I had met, through them, a wonderful group of people who had come out to support us. But suddenly at mile 17 I felt very alone and I started to wonder why I was doing this. I had already done this once before, what did I have to prove? Who was waiting for me at the finish line that knew how many hours I had put into training? So I walked and I cried.. and to me that was defeat. I like to think that I am invincible and facing the fact that I'm not is a sore subject. I started to think of all the people I was letting down by walking and how much I was letting myself down. When I would try to run I would be at 10:30, 11:00, 12:00 and then the cramping would start again.

I can't remember how much I walked in those last 9 miles. It seems like it was more walking but I haven't reviewed the data from my watch yet. At mile 25 I was determined to 'run' the last 1.2 so I shuffled. At one point I felt kind of like I was dragging my leg behind me and wondered if it would be appropriate to break out into the Thriller dance since it was Halloween and all. The memorials and monuments I passed are kind of hazy. There was a washington monument or something, a whitehouse lawn where some dude lives. The Federal Reserve which probably holds a bunch of money... I wasn't even really inspired to see Iwo Jima at the end. I was just done. I was beat, bruised, and for some reason I still didn't think it was a good time to eat.

When you start a marathon you are treated like GOLD.. everyone is all about you, the runner. When you finish the marathon you are just herded like cattle and plopped out on a street hoping that you can find the people you are supposed to meet up with. Oh and that bag we so graciously brought to the finish for you?? Yeah it's about a half mile down the road, just walk down there. By the way, here's an 8 oz bottle of water for you and a rotten banana. The shuttles to the hotel? They are about a half mile too but be warned that the line to get on the shuttle is literally a mile long and if you want to take the metro.. it's closed due to all the people? A Taxi, sorry they are all taken. You could just walk 3 miles back to the hotel though.

I spent about 2 hours shivering on the ground somewhere while NOONE offered to help. I had about 5 mental breakdowns and 1 fit of near vomiting. I managed to not vomit until I was finally reunited with my group of people and we were able to get a taxi who took us on the usual fear-for-your-life taxi ride back to the hotel. I thought I might die, not from the taxi ride, but just from how horrible I felt.

I did get my medal at the finish line.. how bittersweet... more bitter. I'm better now but my pride is still hurt. It's going to be a long, long time before I consider another marathon. Don't let my story deter you from yours. I had a great time at Disney. I just made too many mistakes at MCM that lead to all of this. I should have listened to myself when I thought I should slow down at mile 5 and this probably all could have been avoided.

Anyway, that's my MCM story.