and another one...

And another one, another one bites the dust. I did state 11 - Covenant Health Marathon in Knoxville, TN this past Sunday. It was a 'persevering' experience.

Saturday I got up, did the dishes at my CS host's place since their sink was super full and went downtown to pick up my race packet. I parked in the same lot by the art museum that I did Friday while I was wandering and went down to check out the Sun Sphere (from the 1982 World's Fair, which I didn't even know they had World's Fairs in random years-apparently the Eiffel Tower was from the 1889 World's Fair and the Space Needle was from the 1962 World's Fair). I was expecting this '360 degree view' of Knoxville to be amazing so I was disappointed when it was only 4 stories up and reminiscent of the Canada Tower but not as cool because it wasn't as high and there was no glass/clear floor. I was expecting something more like the Space Needle, but I guess Seattle has everyone beat. There's apparently a bar up there on the 5th floor but I didn't make it that far.

I headed off to the convention center and picked up my stuff. There was a decent assortment of things to look at and I got some car magnets - one of my favorites says "some girls chase boys, I pass 'em." I got another one that said, "I know I run like a girl, try and keep up." I normally don't buy anything but I liked them! I was going to but the "some girls chase boys, I pass 'em" on my car but I feel like I need to get something that says I'm a runner first because people might just think I drive fast or something... which I really don't because I'm paranoid about getting another speeding ticket. :P

Afterward I hit the Hilton's Starbucks to use their free wireless internet and got another 6 hours of analysis for my thesis done! I was stoaked I was being so productive... (I should be editing my final paper right now but I am writing this instead, whoops...). Then I met up with another CSer for dinner where we went to Dazzo's on S. Gay Street and had a bowl of pasta. I had broccoli rabe pasta which was delicious albeit there weren't enough people working that night because it took an hour to get a bowl of pasta. Then I got dropped at Laz and went back to my CS host's place to do some more homework and sleep before the 26.2 in the morning.

Sunday morning I got up at 6AM and went through the motions of checking my stuff, putting on my shirt with number pinned to it (I always pin it on the night before) and socks and shoes. This bib had the timing chip stuck to it so that was pretty neat. I didn't have to put a bright orange timing band on my shoe (I would have thought they'd want to put it on because UTenn's colors are crazy bright orange and white). I packed up my stuff, put it in Lazarus, made a hole in a garbage bag since it was raining and walked 2 miles to the starting line. I'm really glad I brought the plastic bag because I would have been freezing the entire race if I hadn't since it rained before we even started at 7:30AM. I went to the convention center where everyone was gathered in to keep warm and dry prior to the start. I met two ladies from an hour west of Knoxville who were there to run the half. I ended up running the entire first half with them, it was fun chatting and getting to know them. They were both mothers and said they ran for a cheaper "group therapy" option. We talked about tons of things from life and running to food and shoes (a man was actually wearing the Vibram 'barefoot' shoes, I did get a pair to try and I tried them on last night, they were really comfy, I'll have to write about them after I've run in them). I love long distance runners. They're so friendly!

After they finished the half I was off on my own. I took a little walking break (running 5-6 times total since Jan 9/10 is not an optimal training strategy) for a half mile and picked up again when I got to a downhill. Around mile 16 I fell into pace with a man with the last name 'Knox' who had run all 6 Knoxville marathons! It was interesting getting to know him too, the first Knoxville marathon he had broken some of his ribs in a speed skating incident and ran it anyway because he thought he should represent Knoxville as the only entrant with the last name of 'Knox.' For 2 miles we plodded along until it began to rain at mile 18. When I say 'rain,' I actually mean pour like no other. I was drenched in less than 10 seconds, chilled to the bone.

I sped up in an attempt to get done more quickly and eat the gross (yet oddly tastes like the best ever after a long run) cold pizza awaiting me at the finish line. Clearly some of the roads we were on were not meant for pedestrians. I was running in puddles above my ankles and my shoes were squeaking from the water. I was surprised there were any spectators left and I said "thank you" to every single volunteer, spectator and police officer after mile 19. I cheered everyone on after mile 21 because everyone looked so gloomy. Around mile 21.5 a 61 year old by the name of 'Jack' fell into stride with me. He mostly played tennis these days but his daughter had asked him to join in their relay last minute. He had run about 10 times prior to the race, his leg of the marathon was the last 6.2 miles. He ran with me to the finish and after I was tired of encouraging, he encouraged me. As they say, 'Iron sharpens iron' and we need our brothers to pick us up when we fall. I was glad he was there for those final miles.

When I crossed the line the cramps I had been trying to avoid thinking about since mile 10 (yeah, I know I'm out of shape) set in. I went to the athletic trainer tent and some students helped me to stretch and 'knead' out my 'crunchy' IT band and muscles. Afterward I got a ride from two ladies in a golf cart to where the post race 'party' was being held. I was still freezing since I had planned on grabbing some food and heading back to Lazarus to change instead of carrying a bag with me and checking in my stuff.

There were no hand dryers in the basketball stadium's bathrooms so I couldn't dry off. I went to get my food and loaded up on pizza, chocolate chip cookies, granola bars, banana halves, Luna bars and tomato soup. The post race lunch of champions, I know. The granola bars and Luna bars I saved for the drive back to Virginia (since 7 hours is a long drive alone!). I ate my food and conversed with some of my fellow marathon finishers who were at the table I sat down at.

After I was full, I was preparing myself to walk back to Lazarus when I spotted a Lost and Found table... sheer luck. Since I had taken so long for stretching and ate so slowly it was nearly time to pack up and leave (if I had waited another fifteen minutes they would have given me an entire pizza or two since they had so much food leftover). I quickly sifted through the clothes and found the only sweatshirt in the pile, hurried over to the women's restroom, stripped off my soaking wet (I could still squeeze water out) running shirt and tank and pulled on the dry sweatshirt. It was definitely a lifesaver. I wrapped my space blanket around me, pulled on my marathon finisher's hat and walked outside.

It was much warmer with the dry sweatshirt on even though the bottom half of me was still freezing and wet. I walked down to Cumberland Ave. and began the trek back to Lazarus. I stopped in a pizza joint to use the restroom again (I think I drank a lot of water... so at least I was hydrated while running) and a minute after I got back outside the skies opened and it was dumping buckets on me. Luckily the space blankets are that silver water proof material and I stayed relatively dry.

When I got back to Laz, I headed to the CSer's place whom I had eaten my pre-race dinner. He arrived from lunch with church friends and I took a glorious warm shower. (Showers, like food are 100 million times better after you've run a marathon... and even better when you've been frozen, wet and pruny for as long as I had.) We watched the UTenn vs. Michigan State game (sadly UTenn lost by one point with a terrible desparate final shot that didn't even hit rim). I ended up staying in Knoxville a lot longer than I thought I would. Luckily I was able to stop to power nap at a gas station and a rest stop on the way home and made it to work. In all, it was a great visit to Tennessee. I doubt I'll go back again soon since I've checked off my life goals for the state (marathon & jumping pictures in each state), but I enjoyed it.

Now back to homework. School ends this Saturday, commencement is April 24th. I'm so excited for school to be over!

- run for life