Rebecca Runs by runforeternity

Well.  Where to begin. I finished my second marathon, but not only did I NOT finish in under five hours, I took longer to finish than I did last year! How's that for keepin' me humble?!

I had forgotten how truly, gut-wrenchingly painful that is.  It really IS like childbirth.  My theory is that God somehow wipes our memory of childbirth, like, almost immediately after, so that the human race can go on.  But I wonder what His reason is for making us forget marathon pain? Some vested interest in increased marathon participation worldwide?

Plus, the wind coming off Lake Erie was reminiscent of Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz.  It was a killer, head on, gusty wind for about, oh, 9 or 10 MILES. To try to look at the wind as a glass-half-full sort of thing, it did blow the showers out and left some great sunshine behind!

The pluses of this year's Cleveland Marathon definitely included better signage.  The signs were definitely clearer, larger and easier to follow.  If I'm gonna run 26 miles, I ALWAYS want to know I'm going in the right direction! Another plus is the camaraderie of race day.

The minuses included decreased fan support (probably due to freezing temps, rain and wind - just a guess), but the fans that were out were great!  I've also decided I don't really like running the same course more than once. I remembered all the landmarks, and it was just not as much fun to run as the first time through. 

I will also NEVER run without my Ipod ever ever again - USATF better just look the other way.  It was some VERY QUIET miles out there on the second half of the course.

Good news to report, though - my hubby ran his first half and did great (bib #7223); I'm so proud of him.

So hat's off to everybody who ran.  It's been so much fun blogging here and getting your comments and reading your blogs.  Happy running!

Hey everybody! Good luck tomorrow morning - run hard and have fun.  I'm bib 2140 so if anyone sees me, make sure to say hello!

Can't wait to hear how everyone does and your tales of the road.....

Until then, let's try to get some sleep and you'll ALL be in my prayers tonight!

My poor baby! I picked her up from dance team practice after school on Tuesday, and she had a fever and chills and a sore throat and body aches.  She's such a trooper.  She didn't even let on in practice.  So I took her home, made her a cozy little nest on the couch, turned on a movie, got her some juice.  All the usual mom helping a sick kid stuff.

Til the next morning. When I realized that  I have a MARATHON TO RUN ON SUNDAY. I can't run a marathon with a fever and chills and a sore throat and body aches, now can I?!?  So I tended to my sick child from a safe distance, with a Clorox wipe in my hand that I only relinquished in order to surgically scrub my hands.  A few hundred times a day.  I wonder what the incubation time is for this awful illness.  Oh, I know.  A few days.   Which would have me coming down with it THE DAY BEFORE MY MARATHON. 

So now while I'm on illness watch, I'm downing Airborne every few hours and continuing to wash my hands as if I'm due in surgery. Which apparently is how I always wash my hands, according to my friend Katie, who pointed this peculiarity out to me recently.  Maybe I've watched too many hospital-based teevee shows? In any case, I'm just keeping my fingers crossed that I'll dodge getting sick and be able to run this race on Sunday.

Well, my very active (read crazy) dream life had me running in my jammies last night.  I was running along in my subconscious with my lime green flowered PJs on, and in my dreams, I was rationalizing "people will probably just think I'm running in one of those cute, matching jogging suits." JOGGING SUITS!  Needless to say in my waking life, it hasn't occurred to me to run in a jogging suit, or even to buy or wear or call it a jogging suit.  But as I've mentioned here before, there's no making sense of my dreams.  I just go with it.  So down the street I went in my lime green flowered jammies. 

I think part of the reason this happened is that I'm trying to gather up all of my most favorite running clothes for race day.  This requires running this week in my less-favorite items and doing loads of laundry to make sure everything is ready.  I just got back from a 3-miler in 60 degree sun, and I wore long pants.  I was a little warm, to say the least, but my favorite race day shorts are still clean!  Anyone else rationing running clothes at this point? Or is it just me? Again?