Hello lads & lassies!
It's unfortunate I didn't have my camera on hand during last weekend's Knoxville Covenant Health Marathon (half marathon for me). You know magnificent photo ops abound anywhere you find thousands of folks in tight clothes. For instance, I'm looking around while bending down stretching at the starting line and see this vast forest of ankles and new kicks. I was literally standing in a $600,000 sea of tennies...now that's a bunch of sparkly mesh and rubber! "Staying Alive" would've been the perfect theme song for this concrete disco ballroom of tiny reflective lights bouncing from one shoe to the next. A still photo, cool as it might be, would never do this scene justice. And of course the accompanying mixture of traffic sounds, laughter and thousands of chattering voices added an exhilaration factor no photograph could produce.
Ok, moving on. People ask me if I ran with an mp3 player...wouldn't that make the time go by faster etc? Well yes and no. I do love music, but then I'd miss all the fun chit-chat swirling about. People hearing is no less entertaining than people watching. Talk of injured body parts, pronation, inflammation, syndromes, weight gain, weight loss, carb loading, power gel shots (gross or delish?), their dog's awesomeness, how much cake they're gonna eat, and BEER...lots and lots of beer. The undulating (and often cracking) vocal pitches produced by pavement pounding was def an added bonus. And you can't forget the wedding singer-esque cover bands at random mile markers. Oh man, the guy singing around mile six (not sure) full-on destroyed Tommy Tutone's 867-5309/Jenny.
As for me and my performance - sorta slow, but happy. My last half marathon was in 2008 and I was SO not ready for this one. A slight foot injury and other random lower body pains kept me from properly training (and perhaps a touch of laziness). I happily hobbled through the last few miles on nerves and adrenaline then booked the last half mile...the best part! Billy Joel says, "don't forget your second wind" and I didn't (thanks Billy). The finish line was located on the Neyland Stadium football field and your name's announced over the loud speaker upon arrival. A nice perk for me since I've never attended a single UT football game in all my 34 years. At least I got a little slice of UT football fun (enough to tie me over for the next twenty years). Oh, and I LOVED seeing my family wave from the stands..♥.. Can there be two best parts?
You have such an awesome perspective on things. Keep blogging, I love reading it. Wish you had a video of you going across the finish line when they said you name over the speaker. Chariots of Fire moments are so hard to come by naturally.
ReplyDeleteThanks E - You're such a kind lady.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad we don't have that video hehe.