After the insanity of the marathon weekend and the ensuing madness of this week and trying to get caught up, this is the first chance I've had to post. The marathon was incredible...for about 18 miles. Then it was miserable. Sad, but I'm disappointed with it because my hips and foot began to hurt, forcing me to hobble the last 5-6 miles. The foot still hurts, although today it has been much better, so I'm hoping it was just a bone bruise or something rather than a stress fracture as I feared. Now I really want to run another marathon, because I want that experience I had during the first 18 miles for all 26.2.
The whole race, though, beginning to end, was really a testament to the human spirit. There were about 42,000 people in the race, 1.2 million spectators, and no one was rude or bad the whole time. Numerous people commented on my shirt, saying how proud Dan would be, how sorry they are, and sharing their own stories of friends/relatives in the Army. Not one but two women, near the end when I couldn't run, pulled me along with them for a while, encouraging me to finish. The people lining the course were a string that pulled the runners along, to the next bend, the next traffic light, the next mile mark. No matter how depressed or cynical I might feel about humanity, all I have to do is remember that 5 hours of my life and how I fulfilled one of my goals, while all around me people were fulfilling theirs. Truly incredible.
Now I am concentrating on getting through the next two weeks or so. I feel that if I can do that, I will pretty much be home free for the semester. I'll have all the hard work done on my workshop project, and the only other big thing to worry about will be the research paper for J572. And already in just another week or so, I'll be seeing Mark (nice how the marathon and Homecoming conveniently fell just two weeks apart). It's hard to believe it's already Thursday. It's hard to believe how fast time can pass when your mind is elsewhere.
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