Last night I had nightmares about this marathon Im planning to do in October.
As I was trying to fall asleep I kept thinking about this event course and how it weaves all over San Francisco for 26 miles. I could feel my heart pounding as I visualized myself struggling to reach each of the major points along this course. What if I got scooped up by one of those SAG busses at the 24 mile mark? I would feel so embarrassed , so depressed if I was unable to finish the course on time. I kept thinking back on past 1/2 marathons that I’ve done and how awful I felt after just 13 miles. In particular ,I kept flashing back to my first 1/2 marathon, last July.
I think it was around mile 10 mark or should I say…..My mile 10 mile mark. Anyway, I remember starting to feel really fatigued but, I was also feeling a little cocky because I had made it that far and had been passing up a lot of people. It was then that I caught up with a group of very tired looking TNT walkers. We exchanged a couple of nods when one of them noticed that I was wearing a Garmin GPS Pedometer. She asked me if I thought we had enough time to reach the finish line before it closed. I replied, don’t worry! “With 10 miles down and only 3 to go, we have time to spare.” She said, “10…You mean 23 don’t you?” It was then that I realized that this group was doing the FULL marathon, not the 1/2. I thought to myself, these people have been going at this for more than 6 hours compared to my measly 2 1/2 hours.
This morning I awoke feeling more determined than ever to do a 26.2 miler. Maybe I should take the easy way out and find an event that caters to walkers. One that has an 8 hour time limit instead of a 6.5 hour limit. Nahhhh….
You could come to NY. We have a lot of walkers in our marathon. They are every bit as important as the runners.
And nobody quits at mile 24, not if their legs will carry them and they have even an ounce of energy left. The sag wagons won’t pick you up against your will, but they may offer a ride vigorously.