Reminder: Pain pain pain! Two okay hours followed by two very unpleasant hours of pain pain pain! Find something other than pointless physical fitness leading to pain pain pain to fill void of meaning in life!
My last marathon, New York, was four years ago and my memory of it is focused less on the trauma I enacted on my body than on the thrilling experience of running through throngs of cheering spectators. How quickly we forget. I am a creaky old cow. It hurts to hoof it. San Francisco is a beautiful course in a beautiful city - highlights included the waterfront on the Embarcadero, the Golden Gate Bridge at daybreak with fog obscuring the tops of the towers and the Marin coastline, and the huge pine trees in Golden Gate Park - but why didn't anyone tell me this city has a hill or two? And that these hills would last 1-3 miles at a time?! After three and a half hours of this, even the 15" curb one had to step up at mile 24 seemed extraordinarily tall.
Funny sensations started in my body early; these turned into shin splints, instep blisters, and joint torture. I made a deal with my body that I would not run for a long time if it would just take me to the end, and eventually resorted to motivational mind games like cajoling myself to run to the next lamppost, run to the next traffic light, run as slow as you want but don't take it down to walking. I was better trained for this marathon than for either of the other two, but nonetheless I was not prepared to be steamrolled by pain. My overconfident first half trotting pace turned into a crotchety hobble and I barely got my ass to the finish in 4:05. R and O, who graciously biked alongside me at points, offering succor and energy gels, said that I looked really angry. Perhaps they mistook my pain rictus for my anger rictus? I really, really wanted to hail a cab.
On the plus side, after I finished, I ate a banana, a scone, a smoothie, two slices of barbecue chicken pizza, a white nectarine, two dozen cherries, almond butter and jelly on a plain bagel, nearly a pint of cookies and cream ice cream in a waffle cone, stir-fried veggies with ground beef and tofu and shrimp and rice, three Andes mints, a bag of Pirates' Booty, and a bowl of hot clear soup with Chinese soup balls. Now I am hungry again and I think I will have some wontons and nigori sake and then go to sleep.
2 comments:
Congratulations on the race, and nice time! I also ran it - the curb at Mile 24 was the worst. I had to psyche myself up just to scale it.
I might learn how to run so I can eat more. Congrats!
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