OK, I’ll stop talking about the Marathon now.

I couldn’t have done it at all if it weren’t for my sister-in-law, Molly, and our neighbor Glen who ran the half marathon. We trained together all summer. Long 9 milers in the hot sun with no water, and easy 14 milers where it felt silly to stop because we felt we could go on forever. Molly and I share a natural pace so we could chat and chat while we ran. Unfortunately, she is a much more experienced (and younger!) runner than me and I’m afraid I held her back at the end. She still had more in her and wanted to pick it up, which we did a little, but I know she had more in her.

The good news is that she still got 3rd(!!!!) in her division and won $500. I am so proud of her! I was 70th in mine. 70th out of 119. Not nearly as impressive.

It was so awesome. Every time that I thought I was getting so tired I was crazy we’d pass another mile marker and I’d feel the relief of knowing I only had 9 miles, or 7 miles, and then 4, 3, and 2 miles till the end.

By one mile left I was unable to talk, not because I was too breathless, but because I needed all my mental energies to keep going. Rob and a good friend, Megan both had the great idea of meeting us a mile out from the finish and ran with us into Downtown. We couldn’t have done so well without them, it’s almost like they brought us fresh legs, almost…

Then we ran into the stadium and the finish and finally stopped. It was a lot like labor and birth, the labor is riveting and exhausting, and the celebration of achievement is much quieter.

Today I feel like a cement truck poured concrete into my bones. I’m pretty sure I’ll have to apologize to my family for the Beast I’m being to them.

Well, there are only 2 days left. TWO DAYS LEFT!!!! On Saturday morning, before the sun rises I will be up and ready to run twenty-six point two miles. It will take me at least 4 hours and 30 minutes. I have done all I can do to prepare. I had to start resting up this week, no more running after Tuesday. And then the waiting begun. This is probably one of the longest weeks of my life.

I take it back, though, that there is nothing I can do left to prepare. I can eat things. Lots of things. Carbohydrates. Today was supposed to be the big stuff-your-face day. I ate french toast, 4 bagels, pretzels, pasta salad and ice cream. I don’t think I could eat anything else if you paid me. Now I just have to drink an ocean of water to be super hydrated and then I’ll have done everything I can to prepare.

Just for fun, here is a link to the photo from my last road race. That was just a 7.6 mile leg of the 5 person Marathon Relay last September. It was the official beginning of my obsession with completing my own marathon. An hour before that picture was shot I had decided to run the full Marathon this year. And here I am. It feels almost as significant as giving birth.

Rob calls this a “child abuse picture” because of the bruise on her head. The poor thing fell down the church stairs on Tuesday night. She told me, “I cried. I fell down stairs. I hurt head.” Very concise. Strunk and White would be proud.

We were all out enjoying the raspberry bush a couple of days ago and I was snapping pictures. Before I realised that the white balance was off I had 5 or 6 shots. This was one of them. Actually, this is what I did to one of them in Photoshop. I could almost be an artist!

Every morning I check my email after breakfast. Usually the girls are done too, but not always. On mornings when I get particularly high amounts of email things like this happen: