Boring Marathon Memories:

Okay, so this Sunday will be my 5th marathon. Not a great feat, but still it is my 5th.
Looking back on the painful memories….Did I say painful? Hmmm. Marathons are supposed to be fun but not painful. Or, can they be both? I think so. So why all the pain? Why do I keep coming back for more?
My wife says I am stupid. (In a nice way of course) Well, I would agree to an extent.

My first Marathon:
Columbus Marathon 2004:
I have a friend who is just as nuts as I am when it comes to running. Actually, I am crazier than she is for sure. She was cutting my hair one day and she said she was a marathoner and was going to run one in the coming weeks.
I was enthralled by this and said; hey I have been running 5k’s and 5 milers etc….
She said, if you want the ultimate in running experience, that I should run a marathon. Well, I wrote about this briefly in my previous post so I won’t bore you with all that. -Too late, I know.
Anyway, finished that marathon and couldn’t wait for the next.

Cleveland 2005:
I was in the best shape of my running career (LMAO –running career). Anyway, I was hoping for a decent time which never happened. My friend whom I ran Columbus with held me back from breaking 4 hours. That’s why I run races by myself from now on.
I think I finished in 4:13.

Chicago 2005:
Best Marathon I’ve ever ran. At this point, I was nursing a nagging injury that continues to haunt me to this day. The race was unlike anything I’ve ever experienced.
It was my first visit to a “Big City”

New York 2005:
Loved the city, not the race. It could have had something to do with my now debilitating leg injury at that point, or the fact that it was a warm mid 70 something degrees. Very unseasonably warm for November.
I was miserable from Queens to the finish.
My fondest memory was remembering when I was on the Queensborough Bridge that if I didn’t lube up soon, I would have quit for sure. I was chaffed from here to there. As I exited the bridge and was running down the ramp into Manhattan, there were these people with these big boards of Vaseline on them. I mean, there were giant globs of lube on there. I ran by and swiped a huge handful. Thank goodness I did, because I never saw “The Lube” again being handed out.
I had a hole rubbed through the skin on my stomach from a Sponge Bob Square Pants sponge that they had dunked into ice cold water and handed out to people as they ran by.
I grabbed one and stuffed it in the waistband of my shorts. Oh man, it was cold!
I forgotten all about it and by the end, it was too late. I was bleeding badly.
This sponge was a scratchy one: Brillo pad one side, sponge on the other. Well, the scratchy side was against my skin. You get the idea.
Turned out to be a bad day all around. I will probably never run NY again.
My friends’ fiancé was waiting for us at the finish with a bottle of Glenlivet. This definitely took the pain away. Amazing how easy it is to drink in public in NY City.