rock'n'roll marathon

I'm so late in my writing. Actually, "so late" is an understatement... I want to write about the marathon, my trip to San Francisco, my first paper, ... too much for a single post. I'll just write a few lines about the marathon, and will leave the other subjects for upcoming posts!

Roughly one month ago, I've completed my 3rd marathon, the first one completed abroad.
I had been practicing hard for the last four months and I had the expectation of achieving a record time lower than 4 hours. Unfortunately I was unable to get there... still I improved my personal best in 30 seconds or so ... "always look at the bright side of life" :)

As you might imagine, in such a big race, there is plenty of time for lots of stories. And indeed, many things happened during the race. I remember a couple of guys that were handing out beer for contestants (mile 8), Juan and Anna (a couple of spanish friends) were cheering for me at half way point (mile 13) as the race was going just outside their place, and the most embarrassing episode: how I accidentally spit another contestant... I'll come to that!

I have to say I was tricked by my mind. I was doing an absolute all-time record (for me, that is) at the 17th mile. I got so excited about that, at that moment, I've totally slacked off. By the 20th mile I noticed how slow I was in the past 3 miles (maybe 10m per mile or so), and tried to get again into a good rhythm... but my legs just wouldn't respond! This was an absolute nightmare, and it was the toughest part of the race. First, I was just reaching the "wal", and second, there was a lot of wind against us. I honestly thought about walking for a while. My legs resembled two heavy logs, my right knee was killing me and I felt this excruciating pain in my left foot. I was a complete rag at the 21st mile. And 5 miles is still a very long way to go! At this point, I had to use all my veteran experience... I was running close to the right hand side of the track trying to put my feet on the floor very carefully to avoid further pain or injuries. As I had one of my last passages for a supply post; finishing my energy drink first, and water later, I spit to my right hand side, as there was nobody there. Surprisingly, the spit turned back (with the strong wind) passed close to my right eye and hit a lady that was going behind me. I think I've never felt so embarrassed in my life. I really didn't know what to do... either run faster, or much slower... I just couldn't stay close to her. None of us stopped, but I approached her and apologized. Come to think of it, this was not my fault but the wind's. Either way I was very annoyed with the whole situation, and still struggling to finish the race. She understood that, at that time, I was more dead than alive, and even if I wanted to do that on purpose, I could never do it! She was faster than me, at that time, and soon enough, I was alone and back to my growing problems of several aches in my lower members...

Eventually I was able to control my pain, and maintain a steady pace until the 25th mile. As soon as I saw this plaque, something released my energy reserves and I boosted for a very nice last mile (in roughly 7m30s) pulverizing my previous record for the marathon with a strong finish!!

The feeling of finishing such a race, is not possible to describe through words. I had just reached Olympus, and Zeus was expecting me.

As for the organization of the race, at this point, everything was going smoothly. However, in the return trip all hell broke loose: it took me 4 hours to run 26.2 miles, and more than 2 hours just to take the bus back to the parking lot reserved to participants... this was poor organization. Completely avoidable, and everybody was extremely dissatisfied with this. I'm sure they lost a few competitors for next year...

ps- this post is too big to be re-read, and I'm tired now; hence I apologize for any mistakes you might find!