Thursday, May 28, 2009

I know it has been a while since the promised re-cap, but I suppose this is better late than never.

I'll start at the beginning. (This race recap will be blurry at best since it is seems like so long ago that it happened).

It was a cold (40's), windy and rainy day in the bizarre town of Long Branch, NJ. A last minute stop at the running store secured me the most incredible long sleeve performance shirt that a girl with a tank top could ever hope for hours before the start of a frigid race. After the race start was delayed 3 times, we finally heard the gun and we were off!

Mile 1: Lots of people, lots of excitement. We ran along a fellow Team In Training teammate, Heather, who is also a blood cancer survivor. (She's awesome).

Mile 2: People playing music, legs feeling good. Crowd starting to thin out a little.

Mile 4: Wow, I already ran a 5k. This rocks!

Mile 6: This is when the rain started to fall a little harder and my brain started churning. I started to think about Casey and all the names I proudly wore on my shirt, and I started to lose my breath in the moment, but then I looked over at Heather,a survivor, smiling, and bouncing along, and then at Ken, with his broken foot, winking at me, and I knew the rain wouldn't stop us.

Mile 7: CLAUDIA, MEGAN AND LINDSAY!!!! I really can't tell you how much of a boost it was to see them. At that point, I felt like I could run the whole marathon!


Mile 8: The only hill in NJ, which happened to bring with it no spectators, and lots of cold rain. Luckily, at the top of the hill was our Team in Training water stop and Therese and her husband were there to cheer us on.

Mile 10: All I remember thinking was, "If I had done the Broad Street run in Philly today, I'd be done now. Man I'm stupid".

Mile 12: First signs of real pain in my poor toes (wet socks + existing blisters = ouch) but we were headed up onto the boardwalk for our final mile and NOTHING was going to stop us. WE saw our cheering section again and my toes pain slipped away.

In the last half mile, as we ran along the grey and misty ocean, I started to think about my shirt again, and all the brave people who had fought battles with blood cancer. I started to cry, hysterically. It was the culmination of all the feelings I had been holding on to for this entire journey. A sense of accomplishment, of pride, and of genuine joy and sadness. I cried until the finish line and probably a little after.

Mile 13.1: 2 hours and 37 minutes later, hand in hand, Ken & I crossed the finish line together, the way we started.

In the moments after the race, our excitement got the better of our good sense and we failed to go inside and put on dry clothes and get warm. Instead, we stood in the freezing rain and waited for our friend Emily to finish the full marathon in an impressive 3:40!


The ride home was painful as our muscles had completely seized up and Monday proved to be hilarious for anyone who saw us try to walk. It was in this pain that I decided that I would never run this distance again. . . and in Ken's wisdom that he knew I would reverse this statement within days.

I have since signed up to be a mentor for the fall season of Team in Training, which means I will be doing the Philadelphia Endurance Run (half marathon) in September (Ken is still undecided as to whether or not he will join me). We have also signed up for our favorite sprint triathlon at Parvins State Park, and Ken is registered for his first oly, the Anthracite Triathlon!

The weeks after the race held this incredible sense of "nothing to do". It is a feeling that Ken and I are not familiar with at all as I am a bit of a scheduling overachiever and take great pride in my ability to attend 2 weddings, a shower, a bar mitzvah and a board meetings in one weekend. So, having "nothing to do", no training runs, no exams to study for, no meetings to attend; left us in unfamiliar territory that closely resembled sloth.

We caught up on our DVR'd programs, spent some time in the kitchen and even managed to read a book! And not a socially conscious non-fiction sure to enhance my concern for the world today read, but a fun book! About camp! We also spent a week on vacation in Ithaca, NY to celebrate my sister's graduation from Cornell.

All in all, it was nice to slow down, however, we're finding it's more difficult to pick up the pace again. But, with races to run, and blogs to be written, we must prevail! or at least get off our butts and get moving. More to come ... at some point.

1 comment:

  1. Yippie! Love this final report on your adventure of the race. Got a little teary eyed reading your account of the final push to the finish. Amazing. I hope you were not only excited to cross the finish line for your friend but also for yourself. What a great accomplishment! Love how you said never and then so quickly signed up for another half. I see a full marathon in your future. Come to Cali. It's flat, flatter than Jersey. Hope you enjoyed the post race nothingness.

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