If I can't convince you - - I'll at least confuse you.: but pretty crappy

Well and it's a little sticky, salty, sweaty, crampy, musty & ugly.

But it's also weirdly lovely, pretty, funny, crazy & [possibly my] favorite----y.

In the words of Tone Loc . . . "Let's do it"

The first two miles are crazy. Like. crazy. downhill.

Now......unless you can run the course or have some insane downhill areas in your neighborhood. I. have. no. freaking. clue. how. you. train. your. quads. for. this.

But if I run this again next year, I'm going somewhere to train.

I'm going to keep this [mostly] simple with little [pace] data. The numbers show I didn't do it right. That's that.

Gu'd at 9 [usually wait until 13 but thought better safe than sorry.....choked it down]

Low-fived a male BQ'er at mile 10 and he said the words: "We've banked two minutes." I knew that "b" word = trouble.

From what I know . . .

you.
don't.
bank.
minutes.

you. just. don't.

banking = you've gone out too fast/too hard

[yes, my Dad was a real "banker" . . . save. save. save. It's in my blood.] ;)

Anyway.

the gross. [sorry mom, dad & any family . . . .it's what runners want/need to know]

at 11 ummm had to do the duty.

I have never.ever.ever.[one more time] ever had to do this during a race [ya, never] so I use my running turn signal and go left off in the dirt about 5' off course [kinda behind a car] drop the pants, turn to see if anyone can see [uhhh ya, hello! like 22 eyes a blaze . . .] one guy yells out: "hey Spot [yes, he's referencing my arm sleeves], you are not discrete, there's a P-o-P at 13?!.. [laughs]".

Uggg. fine. up they go and I'm running, again.
Get to 13. feeling. has. passed.
so I pass the P-o-P.

I'm feeling not so fab. But I know that once I get past 13, the rest is "easy". But. I. Need. water. and salt pills. IT. IS. HOT.

blah. blah. blah. getting dizzy.

[stopping to drink at every station] I didn't stop once in Portland [yep, my 3:20 marathon PR, {click on 3:20, if you need proof, I clicked on it 44 times already} I did actually run fast back in July, uggg.].

what's. freaking. going. on?

At 19.

I see these:

PLUS. the. Pita. in. his.

freaking.
happy. emz.

little. mishap. on the salt pills I was to pick up here but. it. is. what it. is.
it. was. what. it. was. big smooch to MY Pita.

on. we. go.

oh wait.. .. .. .. ..

not so fast.

19.2 it's "go time". Yep, that "go time".

All I could think about what SUAR. Like WWJD? WWSUAR do?

So I went about 7' this time out to the Tom Petty, "great wide open" and "drop[ed] it low". [sorry, I just love that song].

Then the comments came flying in from fellow runners.

The ones I remember:

"at least your a$s isn't white. nice tan."

"Oh L*rd, why didn't you go off course a bit more?"

"I've never seen a woman [at least he called me a woman] be so blatant about [cuss word]+ing."

Grabbed the biggest/smoothest rock I could find and.......
yay. freaking. me.

back. in. semi-business.

Now here's just a crazy amount of photos.

Toes cramped at 19.5 stayed cramped throughout. Have a 1" blister from the toe overlapping issues. nice.

Toe cramps..............I CAN handle.

Calf cramps.
Quad cramps.
Not so much.

You can't talk your legs out of a cramp.
When they want to collapse.
They will.
And they do.
And they did.

Who walks at 24.1? Me.

I could NOT physically run. It wasn't a mind over matter thing here. It was a cramp taking over my body movements thing here.

It was sad.
It was depressing.
It was what it was. not. my. day.

I'm to [cuss word] stubborn to keep walking so I keep trying to run. Each time making it about .2 of a mile before my foot wouldn't make it under my body weight in time.

[don't read this mom & dad]

At 25.1 you know where the photo guy was last year. when I was all pollyanna kind of happy. [I asked him first] but .......... I. flipped. him. off.

with. both. hands.

Sorry, the Pita's trick is rubbing off on me. [that's my excuse anyway]

I think the contrast of 2009 to 2010. will. be. awesome. to. see.

At 25.5 I saw KP & CP who had their shirts on and had asked the DJ to play "walk this way" [run dmc] for when I came around.

The "walk" this way part did sting a bit. ;) but it was awesome. Oh ya and she's the girl I grabbed by the arm at mile 25 at RnR AZ last year and said, "you don't freaking walk at 25". Yes, my foot tastes awesome though.

I have a girl pass me as my legs gave out [once again]. I let out a too loud, "hell no!" yes, I had a potty mouth this day.

I had .3 left.

I was not letting her cross the line before me.

MY. DAD. WAS. here. He's the reason I try and sprint at the end.

This was going to be ugly. And it was. [Matty-O, make a comment on my form and I will hurt you. That right calf . . . . I have no clue how it was landing under my body.]