"Marathons"

So I am trying to figure out what's the deal with people paying money to go and run 26.2 miles? Not drive, but run. So I recently went out and participated in one of these events. That's right, I acctually ran 26.2 miles! And let me tell you. I don't know what the craze is. It cost me $50 to run in the 30th St. George Marathon. Now I will admit, I wasn't the most dilligent person in the world when it came to my pre-race training. I did a few runs, but not as many as I should have. Having said that, I felt like this race would be the death of me. You start out by getting up at 4 am and getting on a bus which takes you out to the middle of nowhere. This place is acctually fun because they have flood lights set up everywhere, music blasting (much I'm sure, to the shagrin of the homes located not too far away), fires roaring, and people and port-a-potty's as far as the eye can see. The only bad part about this is that it is October in Utah meaning that the temperature is freaking freezing! I think I heared that it was about 30-something degrees out. So if you weren't standing next to a fire, you froze your you-know-what off. Finally, around 6:45 am they have everyone lineup and prepare to start the race. At the start, you have this little chip which is attached to your shoelaces. They do this so that when you acctually cross the starting line, your personal time is recorded and not the time of those in the front of the line. (I hope that made sense) So then you get going. And I have to say that the first 7 miles of this race felt great. You're running through country and the people who live on the ranches and farms out there acctually get up and come out to the road to watch you run by. But then you come to what I am now going to affectionatley going to call "The Wrecker". The Wrecker is a gigantic hill which the course designers so generously placed in the course between the 7th and 8th mile markers. Now, me knowing that my training was not up to par and that the race was 26.2 miles long, I decided that I was going to walk up this hill in an attepmt to conserve energy. I don't want to say that this was a mistake because attempting to run up this hill would have probably prevented me from finishing the marathon, but this hill destroys people. And not just first timers like myself. It also did quite a number on my father-in-law who was running his 18th consecutive St. George marathon. When we got to the top of that hill, my quad muscles felt as though I had never in my life exercised or stretched them in any way. That was a sign of things to come. From there, I acctually got back into a respectable pace and when I came to the 13 mile mark, I felt good. I also knew that my 1/2 marathon time would be considerably slower than any of the 1/2 marathons I have run, but I was okay with that knowing that I still had to run the same distance. That's when the trouble started. Long story short, by mile 17, I felt as though I could not lift my feet off of the ground. My ankles were throbbing, my knees were throbbing, my hips were aching, and my back was hurting. By mile 19-20, the shuttles which are available to pick up runners and drive them to the end of the race were looking pretty inviting. But I decided that I would be very mad at myself, and probably would force myself to run another one in order to finish, if I did not complete this one. So through a slow but steady combination of walking and foot shuffling which closely resembled running, I made it to the finish line. At this point, I could not feel anything from the waist down, save for m throbbing right knee which I think was the victim of some sort of tear. But the feeling of going thourgh the shute, having some old lady hang a finishers medal around your neck while telling you how great you did, and the thought that I never have to go through that again, is one of the most euphoric moments of my life.

To be honest, a month or two from now, I'll probably be ready to sign up for another marathon which will be accompanied by a stricter training regimine. But for now, I still say that it was the single worst decision I have ever made.

On a more upbeat note, I have to comment on the sports world. How about those Detroit Tigers? It's not every day that I will pull for a team from Detroit (considering that my two most hated teams in all of professional sports reside in Mo-town, the NHL's Red Wings and the NBA's Pistons, and the putrid Lions of the NFL exsist only to pester my Vikings), but any time the horrid Yankees go down, it's a good thing. And now, New York newspapers are reporting that manager Joe Torre is out and the "Hampster" Lou Pinelle is in. How great would that be? Also, the NHL is under way and to all you "experts" who have picked my beloved Avalanche to finish in the bottom half of the western conference this season, I want you to watch an Avs game. Watch the so called "kid" line of Marek Svatos, Woljek Wolski, and Paul Stastny and tell me that the Avs are not set for the future. Those kids can play and are good, solid, two-way players. Look out for the Avs, they are due for a championship.

So until next time, I'll be out there on the ice trying not to kill myself.