Le Marathon

Well, it was all they said it would be... and more: the day of reckoning, the ultimate test of will, gut check time. Believe it or not, these cliches were floating and then spinning wildly through my head in between mild fits of delerium during the last 6 miles of the marathon yesterday. And all I can really think to say when people asked me how it was is "hard."

Because it was one of the most difficult things I've ever done, if not the most difficult. It was definitely the most challenging physical task I've ever accomplished. But I don't want to downplay the mental difficulty either. To get through the last mile, which I managed somehow to run every step of (after resorting to a combination of running and walking through miles 21-25), I basically had to turn off my brain. It was the most successful I've ever been at shutting myself up, if that makes any sense. But there was no way other way I was going to be able to make it through that last mile running (er, shuffling, but still not walking).

I owe a lot to Baker, who basically pulled me through those last 6 miles, wearing a tee shirt he'd turned inside out with a D made out of duct tape plastered to the front. (People kept cheering 'Go D,' and it took me a while to figure out why they weren't saying my whole name, since I had "Dana" written down both arms and legs in permanent marker.)

But I finished it. I won't go into the gory details; suffice it to say, extreme nauseau and muscles morphing into rocks were the sensations I was dealing with. Am I glad I did it? Yes. Am I going to do another one? Um... not in the next 12 months, at least. I'll leave it at that.

Despite the pain, however, the weekend was incredible. Seeing friends from Boston whom I hadn't seen in months, meeting new people, curling up on a sofa and eating delicious food made by Baker's mom were highlights of Sunday afternoon. Check out this website to see pictures of the day's events (and notice that in the "Afterglow" shots I'm barely able to stay vertical for the duration of the time it took to take the picture.)

Perhaps I should have waited longer to post this account of the marathon experience, so as to describe it with a rosier glow, but I figured I should honestly describe my immediate reaction. It was tough as hell, but also good, both in ways I never expected it to be.