So That Happened.

Yesterday, I became one of the 1%. The 1% of the population that has run a marathon.

Now I'm not going to go into some emotional essay about what the whole thing means, or any of that. Really, I'm not sure I feel the emotional storm brewin' like that. Hell, I thought I was going to cry at the end because of how crazy the whole thing was, but that didn't really go through my mind at that moment. So here we go, a recap of my first marathon.

The night of, I was already working on a delightful cold. My forehead was burning up, and was thinking, "Crap, should I even be running? Don't they say it's a bad idea to run with a fever? Oh god."
I started getting ready two times that night, thinking it was time to get up. No, it wasn't at 1:00 AM nor was it at 2:30 AM time to get ready. For some reason, I thought it was.

For the first few miles, things were great. I was feeling good, legs were good, all that jazz. By mile nine, that feeling was starting to go. Weirdly enough, the whole time my legs were fine. It was my stomach that was giving me issues.


This picture of joy is a lie... Sort of.

 For most of the race, I felt really nauseous. I think it was too much sugar the week before? I have no idea. All I know is that it was not a good feeling.

Other than that, things were pretty good. I continuously ran the whole time except for dashing to a bathroom and out. That's probably why at the end of the race, my legs suddenly went, "What the hell have you been doing?" and started aching like crazy. That plus the already upset stomach? Not a good combo. A lady in the bathroom next to me asked if I was okay because I was repeating "Ohgodohgodohgod" over and over again. That's not awkward at all.

Who cares about all of that? I ran a freakin' marathon! Plus, I happened to see some pretty crazy/wonderful/bizarre/cool things. Like:

Before the race seeing all of the people for one.

• Musicians playing everywhere, including a bus blasting the song "I'm Sexy and I Know It", great for getting pumped up
• Some awesome signs, like "Your legs are sore because you're kicking ass-phalt!" and others I can't remember now.
• Justin Bieber running. Well, it looked a lot like him just will a pre-puberty voice.
• People giving out the craziest snacks, including bananas, apples, oranges, skittles, pretzels, candy corn, and beer.
• A random hobo peeing by the side of the course. Told you there were some weird things, it's Portland.

There was a lot to see. It is a big city, after all. I managed to get one mid-running picture on the bridge. Cool thing was, only marathon participants were allowed on it. How exclusive.

The ending shoot was very cool, simply because there was so much stuff. There was a ton of food, but because I felt so sick I didn't want to eat. There was a lot of other stuff though that was super cool. For instance, the Portland marathon finishers get no only a shirt before the race, but they get a shirt afterwards that says " Portland Marathon Finisher" on it. We also received our medals, a medallion, a necklace charm, a rose, and a tree. Yes, a tree. Currently my Douglas Fir is sitting in my house, waiting to be planted. I have no idea where. The other part of the finish included getting a finisher's picture, which I've been waiting for impatiently to be put online.

It was nice that a lot of my family members came out to see me. This came in handy when tired legs wanted a break and had a piggyback ride available.


...Which then stretched out my inner thighs in a hurt so good kind of way. My cousin is a creeper.

 What wasn't so good about a lot of people was too many people freaking out about what to do when all I wanted to do was sit and warm up. Big groups can't decide things very well. What made me sad was that a lot of my friends really didn't seem to care, and it's just because it's an important thing to me. I've been talking about it, but many of my friends didn't even acknowledge it. Except Aaron, who ran it as well. Boy is a beast!

Oh, and I must not forget the swag. Most of my swag came from the race day, but I did get some things at the expo. Mostly magazines. I bought the mug, sticker, and bondiband myself.

Right now, I feel like I should be feeling a lot more special. That might sound weird, but it's a pretty big deal. However, it just feels like it's Monday. No biggie. I just wanted someone to comment on my shirt. (I wore my finisher shirt.)

Something no one ever told me about running a marathon? You get totally bloated afterwards. Or maybe that's just me. At least I don't think it's fat. My stomach feels too full of air for that. I think.

Will I ever do a marathon again? I hope so. What I'd like to do is a marathon for every decade of my life, starting with the teens. Now I've got ten years until I have to do one for my twenties. Perhaps the 50th anniversary? (This was the 40th anniversary)

For now, I just need to crash. I had to stay up late last night to finish homework, and because I was so tired I ended up sobbing about how tired I was when I got to bed. Yeah, I wish I were joking. I was sobbing because I wasn't going to get sleep, which kept me from falling asleep. We can be stupid when we're tired.

Really, all I can say is I can't believe I did that.

Long Run Days and High School Friends

Can I just say I'm sore? Because my rear hurts, and my legs are plain sore. I guess that's what 15 miles does to ya.

I'm going to talk about events that occurred yesterday, because pretty much all I did today was either get ready to run, run, or slowly crawl out of running mode. Also eating. I'm probably going to gain weight, because I've had the craziest appetite. My dad need to stop buying PB Crunch, because I will devour it all.

Anywho, yesterday I ended up hanging out with two of my close high school friends, one of them being my room mate this year. As we wandered around town and watched goofy online videos, I noticed that they really hadn't changed. Or, it didn't feel like it. They may have not changed, but I feel so much more different. Sure, we laugh at a lot of the same things but when it comes to personalities, it feels like they don't fit together quite right. Similar to cogs that are out of sync. I know that it's good to have friends with different personalities than yourself, and I love my friends. However there's something that feels weird about it. We don't seem to want any of the same things in the future. I've always known that we've been different, but I guess I never realized how radically different.

Geez, do I talk enough about being different from high school? Apparently not. Still, that's all I've got for the evening. I hope everyone has a lovely one!

Are you still similar to your high school friends? Or are you very different?

Running Rubbing and Celebrity Friend Groups

I have twenty minutes! Quick, say something witty!

I'm not sure how witty it is, but I've come to discover that seven miles worth of chafing is not a fun thing. Yeah. My inner thighs still sting. Curse that terrible running skirt!

While I was running, I decided to think about celebrities. Curious to find out what celebrities have run marathons, I've discovered that Will Ferrell and Diddy have run marathons. Cool.

Another thing that I thought about with celebrities were celebrities that I would like to be friends with. First on my list? Isaiah Mustafa. Wondering who the heck that is?

Yeah, the Old Spice Guy. I don't know what it is, but he just seems like he'd be one of the greatest people to hang out with. Just look at his name. His last name is Mustafa. Kind of sounds like Mufasa, who is bad-ass in his own way by being a lion.

Guess what he was before Old Spice? A teacher. How awesome would it be to be able to say that you took history from the Old Spice Guy?

In my little group of celeb friends would also be The Lonely Island. Anyone who acts wannabe gangsta but goofs around with it is cool in my book. Honestly, I like to sing along with Golddigger. I can relate.

The last person in my little group that I can think of for now would be Kate Micucci. Once again, another quickly musician. Hopefully she would teach me how to play the ukulele.

There are quite a few celebrities that I like, but these are celebs that I think it would be fun to hang out with. There's just a difference, but I'm not really sure what it is.

I can't believe it's already this late. Goodness.

Who would be in your Celebrity Friend Group?

Giving and Finding Motivation

Finals week... It technically starts tomorrow, right? Hoo boy.

I'm feeling quite a bit better than I was yesterday. My head was killing me, and I was exhausted, but now I've got some more spunk in me. Which means I actually things today to talk about.

Last night I went to a concert on the quad of the local college which was fun! Strangely enough, I ended up seeing more people from my high school there than the graduation parties I attended. Granted, it was like six people, but still. Always a weird experience.

One of the weird things that's been happening lately is that people have been asking me for motivation lately. My sister asked me to help motivate her to eat healthier this summer. Yesterday one of her friends said she wished to talk to me about helping her get motivated to run a half marathon. The odd thing about this has been I've actually been feeling the complete opposite of what one would consider "motivational" for awhile. My last three runs haven't been the greatest, I'm gaining weight, and I've just been feeling gross all around. Motivational? Not in the picture.
Still, as I thought about it, it seemed cool that I could inspire others. Yes, I did run that distance. Yeah, I am training for an even longer race. It's just something I never expected to be.

Motivating others made me think of what motivates me. I know as I said before that I'm not feeling the greatest lately. Still, there are a lot of things that push me to be motivated. First of all, I know that I'm definitely motivated by being signed up for the marathon. One part of that is due to the fact that I threw down $145 for the thing. I'm not wasting that money. Another part of signing up for the race gave me an actual goal that I could work towards. It's a lot easier to have motivation to run if you have a race to work towards. The same idea works for something like a big test. You want to do well in the test, so you make sure you practice and study for it.

There are people who motivate me too. My friend Aaron started running this year, never really running before this to my knowledge. Now he runs 10 or 20 mile runs. It's wild. I feel like I don't want to disappoint him, you know? Also, hearing how people are proud of me when I run makes me want to run more.

I don't know how I can motivate my sister to make better choices. Since she's older, she's intimidating. The motivator can't be intimidated, it just doesn't work like that. Augh.

What motivates you?

Making Big Decisions

Yesterday, I did something a little crazy.

I spent $145 dollars without remorse. Without thinking about it. I won't even get anything from it. I have to pay for what I paid for. How ridiculous is that?

...Actually, that's not really true I guess.

Yesterday I paid for a tee shirt.
Yesterday I paid for a few months of training, either by myself or whoever wants to.
Yesterday I paid for the inevitable pain and soreness to come.
Yesterday I paid to have a day on my calendar filled, with a few hours every week.
Yesterday, I registered for The Portland Marathon.

And the part about not thinking about it? I guess I could say I didn't think about it when filling out the form, but I certainly did take a large chunk of time to think about it before. This has been on my mind for weeks, maybe even months. Really, I probably started thinking about it after my half marathon in January, but it was fleeting thoughts then. After the Cascade, people would say, "Are you going for a marathon now?"

I thought, "No way. A half marathon is one thing, but a full marathon? Now you're crazy."

Granted, the thought is still crazy hence the extensive amount of time thinking about it. I went through the thoughts, "Will I have enough time to train?" or "Can I actually motivate myself to do it?" I gave myself a million reasons why, but the didn't matter. Then I decided to ask why not?

And there wasn't really a good reason. My mileage has been going up automatically. I've looked for training schedules, and I'd already be ahead of schedule.

I'd like to be able to say I ran a marathon before my twenties. Just because that would be really cool. And now, I kind of have to.

I don't mind.

I'm sure it'll register with me in a few days, but for now all I can think is "Huh."

What big decision have you made recently?