Ferit was trying to wake me up gently, however I was enjoying my precious sleep and did not have any intention to get up until one of my 2 alarms went off, then at 5:45 did not have any excuse to linger in bed longer when my phone alarm went off. I am losing my touch as an early morning bird for sure.
Met with the crew for breakfast at 6 am, we had gotten mixed messages regarding the weather stats today, initially it was thought to be cool (it was supposed to be starting at lower 50's only to warm up to mid 60's by noon)however my friend Mary Ann had called and warned me that the forecast had actually changed and it was going to be unseasonably warm, close to record heat.(about 80).Except Sibel and her friends everyone else was wearing long pants and settled on short sleeves(which was extremely wise) Teenagers certainly have an invincibility regarding sleep deprivation and heat/cold.
Drove to the Morocco Shrine where the shuttles were going to take us to the race start. I believe we waited close to an hour and was able to get into the 9th bus that came and was at the race site around 7:45 lingered a bit and then headed to the start area.
One of the local news crews interviewed Sibel and me, caught me off guard and I said pretty stupid stuff which I later thought was pretty much off base oh well.. luckily I am not making my living by talking live on the air ! I thought I sounded a bit too arrogant, actually taking credit for others accomplishments.
It can be viewed from :
http://wm.wtlv.gannett.edgestreams.net/news/2008-02-17/grayson6pm.wmv
Since I had a race number I was able to go to the start line with the racers(if only they looked at my shoes they would have definitely figured out that I was in no way competing), hoping to be able to see Mary Ann and maybe walk/jog the first mile with her. However despite all the hollering of the 6:30 marathon race group members we could not locate her (later I learned that she actually had started out with the 4:30race group and let the 6:30 catch up with her). The horn went off and the racers started to move as a single body, I actually had a hard time getting out to the side after walking with them for a couple of hundred yards, it was kind of tempting to try hooking up with them for a couple of miles after all I had trained throughout chemo for this event.. but I knew better 3 days after surgery. Good thing I had not worn my running shoes (knowing myself I did not even bring them to Jacksonville)
Met with bil who had driven there and parked at a nursing home's parking lot to drive to the beach area close to the half marathon turnaround to 6th avenue so we could cheer our crew which would be running on the beach and then also coming back inland. I was trying to shop for Marathon souveniers for the first timers,we stopped for Starbucks and also we were not able to find a safe parking place(ended up parking in a non-parking but safe spot) so we missed the a couple of our runners. But I was able to see Mary Ann and give her a hug ! I do not even recall the last time I saw her.
Of course the plan of snoozing on the beach with my book which I was looking forward to while everyone was running did not happen.
Then we went back to the finish line to greet the runners. By this time it had gotten really warm and I was getting worried about everyone when I heard sirens I was worrying that someone got dehydrated and had to be picked up spectating seems to be really hard.
One by one each showed up pretty exhausted but everyone also had a huge smile, and a story to tell. There were 7 first timers in the crew of 8 and everyone met or exceeded their pre-race goals which was impressive because the course was harder than what they had trained for and the weather conditions were not optimal( high humidity starting at 99% then dropping to 70%, temperature close to 80)Carolina actually pulled a 2:07 !!! her hard training had definitely paid off what a performance on a first half marathon !
I tried to find Jan my friend from work but could not spot her, later when i looked at the results I saw that she must have passed right in front of me at the finish line but I did not see her.
Waiting at the finish line feeling a bit tired(I think I had walked about 2 miles back and forth that day) I sat down on the curb and Sibel came and sat with me, she literally had salt cakes on her eyelids !
Later as I was watching the runners come in I thought how exhausted they looked and how much energy they had spent during the last 2-3 hours, then I thought that all this energy was intended to be directed towards the fight against bc. I almost felt all this energy radiate from the finish line and thought that I was lucky that I was close to it and was able to feel it firsthand.
Went into the Racers Village with the last runner of our crew and since I was holding my race number in my hand they gave me a finishers medal,I rejected the first one, but then it was hard to resist taking the second one(it is beautifully designed and has a suncatcher in the middle). Thought that I would decide on what to do with it later.
Did not lollye around in the Racer Village and headed off to the hotel to clean up and head out of the endorphin filled world of post-race-high to our normal lives. War stories were exchanged in the cars and I am suspecting will be part of the runners conversations for some time coming.
Stopped at Panera, picked up some pick-me-up Java from Starbucks and headed back home trying to beat the post-Nascar/Daytona traffic.
It is quite entertaining to watch people try to get out of a car after sitting in it for 2.5 hours following running a half marathon. The nursing home patients of the facility that we parked in front of probably looked like olympians compared to them ! If they are like me tomorrow might be more painful for them unfortunately.
Told Ferit that we had to do such an out of town event(not necessarily a race but some kind of activity ) once a month. He gave me a funny look, I bet he was thinking about a golf getaway.
Back to normal life tomorrow is a work day, how is one to appreciate vacations/short getaways if not experiencing the frustration of ones daily lives burdens. ( yeah.. I will keep on repeating this to myself while working tomorrow maybe I actually MIGHT believe it ! )
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment