So today did not start out well. I seriously need to get a more reliable alarm than the one on my phone. The alarm went off at 5:15am as planned and I hit snooze and relaxed and waited for it to go off again in 5 minutes. The next thing I hear is my wife saying, "Honey, don't you have to get going?" and of course I did the same thing I do whenever somebody tells me what to do - I got annoyed. Then I looked at the clock. 6:10! What the f**k? I have 20 minutes to get ready - 25 if I stretch it - so I shotgun two cups of coffee and start walking around, praying that I can coax a bowel movement out before I leave because God forbid I have to go 12 miles without one. I'll spare you the details - just suffice to say that all went well.
So I got out of the house at 6:37 - 23 minutes should be plenty of time to make it to Griffith Park and I'm driving when all of a sudden the low tire pressure light goes off on my dashboard. The last time this happened I had a completely blown tire so I'm praying, "Please God, not now" and I pull into a parking lot shifting into Darren McGavin mode from A Christmas Story saying out loud to no one in particular "Four minutes. Time me." I get out of the car, check each tire - no flat tire. None of them even seemed low. So I hop back in the car figuring I'll just take it easy in case something is actually wrong but the next thing I know I'm doing 80 on the 101 figuring screw it, if it blows, it blows. Thankfully, I made it to Griffith Park in time to loosen up a little and listen to the pre-run announcements. And have some Gu, since all I ate was two Trader Joe's Gingeroos which I grabbed as I ran out of the house.
Then it was off to do 12 miles. My role today was what we call the DD - the Designated Driver - which means if someone falls behind or gets hurt I have to get them to the next water station where they can be taken care of. We had a couple of new runners who just moved up into our pace group this week so I kind of hung back with them (two of them were doing a recovery run from the San Francisco Marathon so they were just doing 8 miles) and then after a while, one of our runners was starting to having sciatica pain which had caused her to drop out of the 10-mile run a couple of weeks ago. I stayed back with her and we lagged a little (but not much) behind the rest of the group and I don't know how, but she gutted it out while I kept calling off the mile markers and we made it - three minutes at a time. I was so impressed by her. Then we got towards the finish line and one of our new members was having a lot of pain in her knee so she wisely decided to walk it in. I walked with her for a little bit and as we got close to the finish line, I ran and caught up to the rest of my group and crossed the finish line with them and then walked back out to her so that she wouldn't have to cross the finish line alone. I'd have to say our group did pretty awesome. I was proud of all of us.
Of course it was a sobering realization that damn, this isn't even half a marathon. But still, 12 miles! I've never done that before.
Came home, took a nap and iced both knees and ankles as a precaution. I also learned another valuable lesson today - toenails - clip 'em! Toe pain is not fun.
Don't forget to check out my AIDS Marathon Home Page. $6,430.69 and counting. Thanks to all who contributed.
Until next time,
Bart
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