Tuesday, October 5, 2010

how quickly we forget

(too embarrassed to look at the camera)
I am exhausted. On Wednesday and Thursday of last week we drove 18 hours to St. George. I coughed and coughed the entire way, but it is a beautiful drive full of my favorite kinds of scenery, mountains and deserts. My heart gets happy even now just thinking about it. It is, however, a really loooong drive. We spent half of Thursday and all of Friday with the grandparents and playing in my favorite desert in the whole world. And then it was Saturday.  I ran the race and I finished. I learned a whole lot. I learned that you really must train for hills. Specifically. Because if you don't you will get huge cramps in your quads for the last ten miles of the race. This is highly unpleasant and destroys your already lame time. Also, running a marathon while still recovering from the flu is a lot harder than normal. You will not get a PR this way. You will not even come close. You will be downright embarrassed by your time. This is, however, my favorite race ever to run. It's so amazingly beautiful. Every inch of the race is worth staring at for a million years. This was the one benefit of the long, long time it took me to finish this race. I got to look for longer. By mile 18 I had decided that I was taking a break from marathons. This was hard. Why was I doing this to myself? Why wasn't I better at this? But now it's Tuesday. And I'm itching to run. Weird. I will definitely try to get into this race next year just so that I can redeem myself. And I need to completely re-examine the way I'm training because I think I might be doing it wrong. I don't want to be the back-of-the-pack anymore, I aspire (for now) to the middle. But I will do it again, possibly soon, I just can't seem to stop. I will not, however, ever drive the 18 hours home straight through anytime soon. It was pretty awful towards the end, and I don't feel the same way about driving.

7 comments:

Carrie said...

You are awesome!!! I stick with short runs and half marathons. However, I can only imagine the beautiful sights on this run. You know I would have taken my camera! ;)

Kelly said...

You forgot to mention the bloody heat! What a horrible marathon weekend in St. George. Anyone who survived that deserves much praise. Way to go!

Emz said...

Angie.

You are amazing. You did it. While coughing & in terrible heat.

I adore you and look up to you.

Malea said...

Kelly is right! It was the hottest marathon day we've had in a while...too hot for anyone to get the time they were really wanting. My friend who ran the Boston, and did an Ironman was confident this year, but fell 1/2 behind her projected time because of the heat. It's been raining like cats and dogs ever since, 'tho.

Hey...A buddy pass on Delta from your side of the tracks to mine is about $144.00 round trip. In case you ever want to fly and not drive.

Linn said...

I think you are absolutely incredible.

I also think you are too hard on yourself.

(Types the woman that is constantly too hard on herself.)

And you shouldn't be.

Because, if you didn't know, you are absolutely incredible.

Love you friend.

Cassi said...

so freaking proud of you...for realz!

Julie said...

amazing my dear!!!! simply amazing!!!