Half Marathon

It all started two days before the festival really.  I was signed up to run the 5K, a distance that I thought I could manage.    “You run so so much,” gushed my friend Alice, who had no concept of what constituted so so much for a runner.  “I run four miles every couple of days,” I answered, “which is nothing compared to other people.”  It is true.  My roommate Laurin had been training to run in the full marathon and was doing twenty mile runs every week.  The thought of that made my knees ache.  Many people gave her a lot of flack for that; she exercised too much, she never ate, she was addicted to cardio, she was “exorexic”.  In my opinion they didn’t understand.  I admired Laurin’s work ethic and the mental perseverance it took to run for that long.  So when somebody told me that their brother was dropping out of the half marathon due to an ankle injury, I considered taking his number.  I was nervous.  No, I was terrified.  Yet I was given an opportunity and I decided I had to take it.

            On October 15^th, 2011 I woke up at seven in the morning.  I ate a banana with peanut butter, some cereal, and an egg white omelet with spinach and tomatoes.  My blue sweat wicking t-shirt was the only appropriate choice, along with some black spandex.  No one likes chafing.  I walked down to Penn Station and hopped on the light rail.  Every other person in my car was also heading to Camden Yards.  The swarms of people had turned downtown Baltimore into a blur.  Before I knew it, ten-thirty a.m. had arrived.  The half marathon began for me when the third wave was released across the starting line.

            For the next two hours and five minutes, constant cheering filled my ears.  I had told myself that all I had to do was finish in five hours, before they shut down the course.  But those yells of encouragement, those kids in costumes and the music blasting from car speakers made it seem like I wasn’t running 13.1 miles at all.  The spectators of the marathon are what gave me the extra push to succeed.  Without candy being thrown at me and the high fives from the sidelines, I don’t think I would have finished the race.  For everyone who thinks marathon running is all about the physical capacity of your body and about the grueling training, think again.  It is all about mental toughness and the support you receive from your fans.