rev:text
| - Disclaimer: The following review will be rather detailed and rather extensive.
The Short: It was decent.
The Long: ....
Part 1
4:00 am
Alarm blaring at 4:00 am. Normally this would be a sick joke to me but because it was the day of the Marathon...it was my current reality. You see about 12 months prior I had this crazy idea, I figured, 13ish miles was fun..how bad could twice that amount be? I was about to find out.
So there I am, in the dark, rolling out of bed slowly. This was going to be a long day I figured, not to mention this was something I had been training for, for quite some time..race jitters were there aplenty only to be stifled briefly by the amount of water I was guzzling.
Morning stretches were a must as to hopefully help my now war torn body cope with the beating it was about to take, one step on the pavement at a time.
7:00 am
It was a bit before 7:00 am now, time to begin walking down. (Luckily for me, I live close to downtown so I wouldn't have to brave the horrid traffic that the out of town race enthusiasts had created)
7:20 am
I arrive at the scene. A giant mob of people are around me. I make my way into my corral. Originally it had been my idea to try and sneak into a better corral closer to the start line but this year they checked your race bib at each corral entrance. Nice job Pittsburgh Marathon Volunteers, you kept my sneakiness at bay...this time...this time! I make my way to the front of my corral because you figure the less energy used to run around 1000's of people, the more energy you will have later.
7:30 am
Post anthem and announcement, the roar of the gun goes off and the race begins...for the 1st corral's that is. The anxiety is building up at this point. Hopping in place, doesn't seem to be helping the matter. The line of volunteers dividing the corrals begins to direct us to move forward, I honestly can say I had never felt more like cattle in all my life. Anyways, we moo-ve to the start line.
7:40ish am
And were are off. I press the play button on my shuffle for music...this is going to be a long trip. I being me, try and stay ahead of the mob behind me, feeling pumped from the song by the band Blur blaring through my headphones I unknowingly am running at a sub 5:30 pace...this is not good...not good at all. I figure at this point, I better actually use my pace watch and not just use it as a paper weight on my wrist, so I do.
Mile 1
So many people, still in awe at the turnout and the fact that I am about to run my body into the ground like an idiot.
Mile 2-6
I finally have my pace going steady which is great. I had a nice chat with a friend of mine along the way. He luckily was running the relay, I should have taken notes...but I didn't and instead am running the full. Running through my stomping ground is quite motivational. Normally I run not to get mugged on the North Side, this time it's a bit different...I don't have my wallet.
Mile 6-11
I am able to cross into West End Village and start heading down East Carson St. I chug water like it's my job at every station just to make sure I don't regret not doing later. I see friends yelling my name along the way, it's rather nice. As I run down East Carson St. something occurs to me...I have been drinking a lot of water. In a typical situation one would just use the restroom, but seeing that I had made a couple bets on my finishing time, any delays would have me paying people in cases of beer..and this was not acceptable. (Did I mention that I am idiot?) So as to your guess, I do what one would not want, I pee down my leg.
Mile 12
Holy Mother of Mary.....Oakland apparently has a hill...and it's a big one not to mention the Sun decides that today is the day it will scorch the earth with it's unrelenting rays as if it had just had it's car keyed. That's when it hits me. Why the crap don't I have a better hobby? Maybe collecting stamps would be better?
Mile 13
Peed myself again.
Mile 14-20
I am somewhere in Shadyside I think. Personally I don't care anymore. Location is not important, I have been running for miles up a damn hill and I can't still quite justify why this was a good idea. The sun has been make me it's female dog for quite some time now. I flash back in my head to a statement my girlfriend had made saying that this would be over before I knew it and it would go oh so quick. This is also the point where I realized she apparently enjoys sitting in a throne of lies....this sucks...
Mile 20.5
At this point I am thinking, oh wow..this is awful, the only motivation keeping me going is the bad music along the way. I need to get away from them..that's all I know. I only stop running briefly to then have someone yell to me, "IT'S ALL DOWNHILL AT MILE 21!"..... I remember thinking...I don't care if mile 21 is a cliff we all drop off...I don't want to keep going... but alas..somehow I do.
To be continued....
|