Mile 19

At Mile 19 I'm still feeling pretty good. I did OK for the next mile or two as well. But everybody talks about the 20 mile wall and boy are they right. I mostly walked the last 6 miles.

My final place was 10,126 out of about 26,000. So to be in the top half feels pretty good to me. The guy who won the race, by the way, Fred Mogaka, finished in 2 hours 17 minutes and 14 seconds, 4 seconds ahead of the number two guy, Moses Kororia, which means they both, and a lot of other runners as well ran more than twice as fast as I did. I have such respect for that. It's really an impressive feat.

After the run my legs were finished. From the finish line we had to walk another three blocks though a huge crowd of tired runners grabbing free food and resting on plastic sheets in the street. When I finally met up with Peleg and our friend Katie we then had to walk another 5 blocks to a subway station. What a mix of excitement, fatigue, pain, and glory. We took the subway a few stops to where Peleg parked our car then he drove home with me on my back in the back seat with my legs curled up in the air like a bug.

WHen I got home I went right into a hot bath full of epsom salts. Peleg went shopping for a celebratory dinner. After the bath I already started to feel better. I called my folks and a few friends. I broke my alcohol fast with two dark beers, strictly for medicinal purposes, finished a bag of barbeque potato chips, and ate a banana. Peleg returned to make a fabulous dinner of pork chops, braised kale, and mashed potatos and sun chokes. My God it's nice being married to a chef. I went to bed about 9, completely exhausted.

Today I'm feeling fine. Just a little sore. But full of pride. Back to my mile 19 self.