Not Dead Yet

That's my new battle cry. My previous one had been "Kicking and Screaming", and I started off the marathon yelling that one. But half-way through the race, I screamed to the cheering crowd of volunteers with balloons, "Not dead yet!", and I liked the ring to it, and so that is my new battle cry. It goes for all situations.

So yeah. Ran a marathon today. And it was apparently a marathon of Katies. I was stretching and this girl screamed, "Hey Katie! You're here!" and ran over and hugged the girl stretching next to me. Thirty seconds later, this guy walks by and says, "Hey Katie, you want some water?" and hands a cup to the girl on my other side. A tenth of a mile into the race, a guy on the sidelines was holding up a sign that said, "Hey Katie! Quit now, let's go get pancakes!"

Just under halfway through, I started seeing the most beautiful lights- like a Ferris wheel of sunlight sparkling over my field of vision. It was the most beautiful thing I ever did see, but I was sane enough to be scared of it, because that's all I wanted to look at. I started feeling dizzy but didn't care because the lights were so beautiful. Less than a quarter mile on, there was a water station. I got some sports drink and some of that gel stuff that all the kiddies are talking about, and that made the lights go away, never to return.

Michael and Daena accompanied me down to the race, and then took a bus or a train up north a bit to cheer me on along the way. I am so glad they came out. It really gave me a burst of energy to see them there. It meant so much to see them out there, and I know it must have been boring to wait around the whole time I was running.

As I crossed the finish line, they cheered me on and the thrill of finishing was very emotionally overwhelming. This guy reached out to put the finisher's medal around my neck and I just started to cry in huge gasping sobs. He said, "Now step over here and they'll take the chip... are you okay?" I just laughed, crying, "Yeah, great!" I fell into Michael and Daena's arms and they helped me walk around, and I got a free massage from a Scientologist.

And the results are in.

(This is actually a bit embarrassing, but I'm going to share it anyway, because I'm proud nonetheless.)

Of the full marathon runners, I came in 920 out of 971. My total time was 5:34:03.

My original super-happy goal was 3:00. So it looks as though I beat that twice!

Also, if you look at my results ( lakeshoremarathon.com -- I was bib number 762), you'll notice that I finished the second half quicker than the first. And the second half *was* easier. A lot more painful, but easier regardless.

There should be pictures up within five days. I'll post the web address when they're up. Free service provided by... um... some sport thing or other.

Details to come.

For now, my knee hurts like crazy, but other than that, I don't think I'm any more sore than you would expect me to be after running a marathon. Which is surprising to me because I had hurt myself earlier in the month and haven't really been able to train that much since just after that long run I did mm... sometime around my birthday. I didn't lose any toenails, although several are hurting. The only blisters on my feet are on the tips of my toes, but they're not that bad.

It's all good.

So I guess, just like I was thinking for the entire second half of the race, "Not dead yet. Keep going."