Those of you who follow me on Facebook have already seen some marathon snaps, but I think what everyone needs is a recap.
The day dawned with rain. At 3:30am. This was not part of my game plan (both the rain bit and the 3:30 bit) but I stayed in bed and snoozed on and off until 5 minutes before my alarm went off and I then fell into a deep sleep. Why is that always the way? At 5 I got up for real, had a cup of tea, my Clif bar (this was really good, I can highly recommend them).
Then THANK GOD I went to the toilet and did a poop. The reason I thank God for this is pooping my pants is always my biggest fear. Portal loos are foul and they stink, and there is nothing more painful than running when you need to poop.
My taped up feet. I am honoured to have perhaps the ugliest feet in the world. Check out that weird bone on my right foot. And this was BEFORE the run. Post run I am going to lose 3 toe nails. So my feet will be stunning for summer.
I got my gear on, taped my feet, wrote my times on my wrist, woke up my buddies, and out the door and walked to the start. Then it rained again. A slight drizzle, so it was all good. We got to the start, found my brother, kissed the crew good bye, and then we made our way to our starting bit. 42 kms of fun ahead. Now one amazing thing happened on my way up to the actual start. You see I have a marathon runners crush. I am in love with an 80's running legend Rob (Deek) De Costella. I love him so much that I had his quote "RUN THROUGH THE PAIN" written on my arm. As I was just about to run through the start I looked to my right and there he was. My running crush standing on the back of a ute talking. If nothing else I was a happy girl. I'm sure we made eye contact. Or he may have been looking at the guy yelling out " Onya Deek". Whatever.
We headed off towards the Harbour Bridge, me and my thousand or so new buddies, and a few hundred GoPros (do we really need to discuss that? Do you need to film yourself running. Live in the moment people), some of us knew what was ahead, others not so much. You could tell them because they were the ones who were sprinting. Rookie mistake. The only ones who can sprint a marathon are generally easy to spot because they are usually "well tanned" and from Africa (and never have a GoPro).
I will spare you a km by km account, but it was an amazing run, made even more amazing because I had my super amazing friends who were waiting for me at various places along the course. I can't tell you how much it meant to have them waving, cheering and high 5ing me. They helped make this one of the most amazingly fun days of my life. I am truly blessed to have these three amazing people in my life. ( I think the emotional "I am so exhausted that all I want to do is cry stage" is kicking in). I will, however, give you some highlights of the day.
1. I now know Sydney really, really well. And it is a very beautiful place. Except for the bit between the Rocks and Pyrmont. That is boring.
2. I know now to double check your playlist on your shuffle. This would be because it would seem that when I uploaded my super amazing tailor made playlist I accidentally uploaded the whole Shannon Noll collection. This did not make good running music. Except for the song " Lift". That did make me lift but only for the first 10 times I heard it.
3.It helps to have a nice looking man running in front of you. We called him the Sky News man. Even my friends spotted him.
4. No matter what bad shape you think you are in- there is always someone who is struggling more than you. On Sundays' run it was the poor man who had collapsed and was on a drip at the 41km mark. The marathon is 42km.
5. People are really nice and supportive. Strangers encouraging you on is pretty awesome. People are nice and some have really funny signs- like "Run faster- they are nearly out of your size finishers shirt." This made me run, because I only run for the tshirt. I never wear them, but that is besides the point.
6.You have not lived until you have run to the finishing outside the Opera House with hundreds of people cheering you on. I could maybe have done without the people who were dining and drinking wine. They could have at least offered a sip.
7.Make sure your knickers don't ride up. Otherwise you will end up with chafing on your butt. And that hurts.
8. Epson Salt baths are the best thing in the world.
9. Sore feet are the worst. At this point I think it is important to say this because I saw people running in bare feet. And one girl was running in socks. Which makes no sense, because her mum will never got those clean. There is not enough napisan in the world for that.
10. There is nothing nice about the 30-40km bit. It is long, you are tired and in the case of the Sydney Marathon- you see the finish line at 30kms. And then you have to take a turn to the left. It is sort of like when you get on a plane and you have to turn right into Economy, and to the left is Business Class. So close you can almost touch it, but to ever reach it seems impossible.
11. Most people don't like black jelly beans. I can tell you this because by the time I got to the jellybeans at about 38kms there was only black ones left. Luckily for me I like black jellybeans.
12.Don't take it too seriously. At 32kms my feet hit the wall. I was in so much pain and I realised that I could either push myself and hate every minute or I could take it easy, smile and enjoy it. I chose the latter and I DID enjoy it. I was the smiling high 5er. And I don't even understand high 5's.
13. In a big (lots of people) marathon you run further than 42.195kms. In my case I ran 43.89kms. This is from weaving and dodging around people. Especially those people who get in front of you at the drink stations. And then they stop. So you have to run around them, or slam into the back of them. Whatever works. So although my time was 11 minutes slower than my last marathon time, by the time I "adjusted" it, I actually ran a best time. Now I don't know if this is a legit running thing, but I don't care.
14. Running a marathon is like having a baby. Before you are excited but scared, because you know it is going to hurt, but it will be totally worth it. And when they put that medal around your neck, you forget how much it hurt (well sort of). And while we are on the subject of the medal- It could have been a little bit bigger. Just saying).
15. A beer is the best recovery food ever. It tastes amazing. Just remember that you are dehydrated and emotional. Too much alcohol will make you even more dehydrated and emotional.
16. Don't write your times on your wrist with a sharpie. It will rub off with the sweat. While we are talking about sweat did you know that your contact lenses get sweaty? Who knew?
So there you have it. The Sydney Marathon in a nutshell. As I finished I said never again. But on reflection I may have one more marathon left in me. I said to my brother that maybe Melbourne next year. He didn't say yes, but then he didn't say no either.....
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