The Race

There are so many different things a person experiences in well over five hours of running. Most if it is pain (not an exaggeration!) I would say the marathon is a test of perseverance above all else. My legs did not feel great after mile 10. Less than the half way point. You have to find a way to get through all of those miles, the middle miles in a very long journey, without losing your mind.

This is not easy.

I had to focus on something other than the finish. The finish was too far away to seem attainable. Fortunately, there were many options. The first thing I did was focus on just getting to the next mile marker. This is where Oklahoma City shined with their marathon preparation. The mile markers (and even kilometer markers) were giant green and white flags that you could see for a few hundred feet. Genius. Each one was a sign of hope and as soon as I would see them, I would get a boost. I don’t think I walked past a single one. For the few hundred feet I could see each mile marker, I knew I could make it to that next point.

At mile 9, I turned to my sister and said “look, there it is, I was hoping for it.” Certain mile markers stood out more than others. Halfway, of course. Mile 16 (10 to go). Mile 18. Mile 18 was in a beautiful neighborhood and in addition to the green flags, there were permanent, beautiful mile marker signs with the survivor tree on them. This is also where the banners with the names of the victims began in earnest. I thought if I could just get to 20 I was through some of the hardest psychological miles of the race.

Mile 24. I saw mile 23 and it seemed like hours before I saw 24. I don’t know if that was “the wall” for me, but I do know that it was the longest mile in the entire race. It was on busy roads, in the sun, and it just took forever. I still think that mile not measured properly and I actually ran five miles between those two markers. I cheered when I went by 24 (at this point in the race a cheer was a quiet “yay” and half-hearted fist pump!) Other miles were memorable for their water stops, for what I was thinking and for where they were in the city. A marathon is a one-mile at a time race. I fought hard not to think about finishing it but just to think about getting to the next mile.

Another thing I focused on were the notes from friends. I had little index cards cut up that people wrote funny things or words of encouragement on. As it turns out, this was a brilliant idea (that I read in a book.) These notes were the best distraction. As it turns out, I have some really funny friends. Many, of course, were inside jokes. But many were words of wisdom and support and just generally funny. A few of the more universal marathon words that people wrote, are below this post. I used these notes as a reward for getting to a new mile. They also turned out to be a great way to think about the person who wrote them for a few minutes (therefore not thinking about how my legs and feet wanted to leave my body.)

------------------------- some words from the notes--------------------------

“what the hell are you doing reading this? Watch where you are going!”
“ I know you will be running along a path that the OKC victims onee walked/ran/drove. They cannot take that path any longer, but you can take it for them, and that is special. Keep running!”
“I’ve learned that finishing a marathon isn’t just an athletic achievement. It’s a state of mind; a state of mind that says anything is possible.”
“You had a blue moo cookie dough milkshake. You have enough energy for three marathons.”
“Jillian [Michaels] has nothing on you. You rock!”
and countless others….
“You have tasted a variety of artificially created goo flavors, only to still feel like your are eating horribly flavored toothpaste.”