Compromised by a T-Rex

Or at least, that's how I feel the day after my first, and possibly my last, full marathon run.

Yesterday, I completed the Philadelphia Marathon.

For those who don't know, a marathon is 26.2 miles long. Why 26.2? Well because some Greek asshole named Pheidippides ran from Athens to the city of Marathon in 490 BC to report "Niki!" or "Victory!"

And in Greek tragedy fashion, Pheidippides dropped dead after delivering the message. That's were the saying "don't pee on the dead messenger" comes from. Okay, I made that last part up.

Technically, that original run by our Greek friend was only 24.85 miles. But in the 1908 Olympic games they tacked on the extra distance so that the runners would end the run in front of the royal family's viewing box. Pompous Brits.

By the end of the run yesterday, I would have paid dearly for those 1.35 miles.

Don't get me wrong... I'm glad I did it. I set the goal to complete a marathon. Started running in the spring of this year. Completed a half-marathon in September and ran the full yesterday. Accomplishing that... totally outweights whatever pain I endured.

However, had I known that I was going to feel like someone dragged me for 26 miles, I might have changed my mind. Probably not though.

The first half of the run went swimmingly. The second half didn't go so smoothly. I felt really great going into the second half but when I neared the 20 mile mark, I hit the wall. It wasn't like I didn't have energy, it was like my legs just said screw it. My hips lost range, my knees ached, and my feet went numb (so at least I didn't feel pain there).

Leading up to the marathon and speaking to people about my endeavor, many had asked "how far is it?" When given the asker "26... point 2 miles," many had the cheeky reply of oh "that point two is going to be a killer." And we all laughed.

But I was far from laughing that last 2/10's of a mile. In fact, I'm pretty sure I limped, staggered, and cried; and, nearly collapsed when I finished... twice.

I am extremely glad that I did it, and finished it. And with the final time of 4:23:23. Now, I can never do it again. But I probably will...