MISERY – wasn’t there a Stephen King novel called that?Sunday, October 4th
Way back in the spring, I came across an ad for a delightful marathon that would take place in the finger lake area of New York.
The thoughts of walking hand in hand with my guy amongst cobblestone streets in the crisp autumn foliage, smelling cider and tasting wine… caused such a rush of elation that I signed us both up for the wineglass marathon.
The course was said to be relatively flattish, down hill and then the thoughts of running fast times and of grander and glory then followed.....
I have now realized I am delusional and so glad that joe is happy about that..
Perhaps, the forecast of 42 degrees and rain should have sent up a red flag or a giant flare or something.. I mean why would anyone purposely drive 10 hours (5+ hours up and 5+ hours back ) to run for 4 hours in the cold rain?.
Ok... so perhaps we were a little stressed in having to get mom home from the hospital and make sure she was ok prior to leaving her and the pup with dad… and of course a fight ensues.. because I am a let's get going.. its 7am … and he is more of what the problem if its 8:15am.. .
My biggest fault is I bring a lot of crap to make sure I have everything but all that crap is damn well in the truck at least a half hour before we are “scheduled to go”..
Joe's biggest fault is he can't move or think fast in the am and so everything takes a REALLY LONG time…
so then the fight ensues...I STARE at him(even though I offered to help him move it along) and he glares at me because I STARE AT HIM (EVEN THOUGH I OFFERED TO HELP)..
SO yeah Saturday didn’t start off very good… and to think I have to sit in the truck for 5 hours with him .. f- me.. !!
SO Of course I get hungry about an hour into the trip.. because I have been up for hours WAITING for him… so I ask him to stop at a service plaza on the turnpike because I need some food and coffee NOW…
By the time we got to Corning we were talking again but that was because I was plenty full of sugar and coffee and how can anyone seriously resist me... !??
When we arrive it is drizzling and windy. The expo was cute, people very friendly and nice but I was a bit disappointed that all the 30th anniversary gear was sold out.. but HECK I could buy 28th or 29th anniversary gear if I wanted… sigh
I actually was excited at this point, heck who cares what the weather is like, we are away, somewhere new and it will be fun!!
Damnit I will make it fun!
We get our wine glasses and splits of champagne and walk to find a restaurant that serves a cheap lunch and check into our hotel.
Of course they had jacked up the hotel prices this weekend and we were paying the same price we would for a luxury beach front hotel ….except we didn’t get a beach.. we got a highway instead, and our bed was a tad lumpy (giant bedbugs?) and the indoor pool.. a little too green..
OH but least we could walk to our pre-race dinner at Denny’s, which is anything but really scary but food is food. Then of course Joe went to get gas at the gas station and someone took off without paying and still had the gas hose attached to their get away car… drama follows us like a disease ...
We went to bed thinking omg its forecasted now to be 37 degrees at the start and raining.. whats the point of this again?
Waking up every hour from 1am on is never a good sign on whats to come.. by the time the alarm went off at 4am, and we were dressed and out the door (a little late) by 5:35 am… we jetted over to try and catch the busses that would be take us to the start (26 miles away). OF COURSE I want to catch one of the first busses and of course its once again early AM and JOE NO MOVE VERY FAST
…SO here we go again… me GLARING at him as he takes his time getting his water bottle ready and all his gear… and WTF ....we need to make the bus!!
We “sprint” to the bus and make it on at 6am… and as soon as we get on it goes.. of course there are other busses behind us filling up so technically we didn’t have to get on the first ..
BUT I am glad we did.. because there were suppose to be 3000 people getting on the buses and only 10 port a pots at the start… YEAH I know the math!
So they drop us off at 6:45am at the start… well what we all think is the start.. and its pouring rain out.. its FREEZING..
DID I MENTION FREEZING... and the race does not start until 8am… there is NO SHELTER for any of the runners… YEAH US!… F- us ALL!!
So we stand around in the cold for an 1-1/2 hours before the race (race starts late) and then just because it needs to get a little more exciting, the start is actually 1 mile down the road.. so we all have to walk 1 mile down the road… THANK YOU.. because once we start the race.. if we EVER start the race I won't have run enough so this extra mile is soo helpful.
The course was suppose to be a downward and fast. DAMN I am always duped when it comes to listening to what upstate people say is flat. Sure it was flattish in spots, but it did have some inclines and well for the fast part, heck I don’t know but there were too many turns for me. Flat is SHAMROCK IN VIRGINIA BEACH.. NEVER BELIEVE ANYONE UPSTATE WHO SAYS THEIR RACE IS FLAT.. it is flat to them because the dont run anything but hills!
The first 3 miles I tore it up.. because I am an I-D-I-O-T… I don’t know what is wrong with me.. I have done over 20 marathons now and cannot EVER run them at one pace…
So I FRENCH FRY my legs... I run until i cant run no more.. which this case was... oops 5 miles.. thanks..and have a nice day… I got so warm during this segment of my many hours of delight that I had to take off my jacket and tie it around my waist. I love when I completely trash my legs in the first 45 minutes of a 4 hour run… yeah me.. !!!
I held it all together until about mile 8… and then well.. I noticed that damn it ..I WAS FREEZING... and it was raining really hard... so I attempt to put back on my jacket and my joints were soo frozen that I could not bend enough to get my arm in the armhole... so here is me trying to put on something as simple as a jacket and unable to...
.. this is when you know humanity will be ok... if there are runners in the world... a really nice older gentleman stops his run to help me put on my jacket... chivalry is not dead! Marathon Runners are the BEST!
Once I had my jacket back on I felt a bit better and tried to pick up the pace… but boy was this cold and rain beating me up... I tried to will a shuttle from the half way point to the end… PLEASE.. PLEASE.. PLEASE... LET THERE BE SOMEONE TO TAKE US TO THE FINISH at mile 13.1.. i dont care I will be ok with that.. me no wanna run no more...
BUT NO.. damn I really do have to finish this shit myself....
All the volunteers were amazing… bless them for having to stand in the rain and be nice to us! And I had to take a drink from one little tot who was just too damn cute…. does it matter that I am not thirsty NO>>. that cute little boy with glasses I cannot refuse!!
Although I did refuse the woman who offered me a beer... now if it had been wine.. may have been a different outcome... !not much to tell in the race other than I needed to go from point A to point B as fast as possible and unfortunately my body was not really responding to the fast as possible request.
Life is what you make it.. and I am ok with that. I don’t mind the rain, in fact normally I love the rain… and I usually don’t mind the cold (when I am properly dressed) but combining the two and having to run in it for 4 hours… well.. that’s just a little MISERABLE
I wish I could have said OMG we had a great time at the finish line party… but we were both so frozen that once I crossed the line we left… no pizza.. no nothing… just our medals and left.
Joe finishing in 3:54 and me in 4:36 ish… we got to change out of our wet clothes at the YMCA and take cool showers (yeah I think 3000 people trying to take showers at once didn’t help the water heater)…
I felt like I was in the army with a bunch of smelly half naked woman waiting for a cool shower…
The ride home was fun.. 5+ hours in the rain… with joe and sore legs but we just smiled at each other.. because…
Misery loves company!
