After walking the Little Rock marathon in 2007, as previously detailed on the unknown dog [here], the mother in law casually asked if I would walk the marathon with her the next year. I casually replied that I would be happy to. One of my many many faults is that I open my mouth and stupid stuff comes out. All the time. This was one of those times.
To Lady Colglazier’s credit, she gave me multiple opportunities to bow out gracefully. Stubbornly, I was undetrred. I wasn’t so worried about being able to finish the marathon as I was being able to keep up her pace the entire time.
Note the pre-dawn sky, the optimism and excitement apparent in this marathoner’s face. Also note the relatively low entry number. There were at least 1500 full and 2400 half marathon participants, so #237 is an early bird. Also note the spare shoe tied to her waist- I’ll touch on that later.
Lots of folks were lined up at the early start line. The early start is for those folks who are anticipating taking longer than 6 hours to finish.
The soldiers were in for the full marathon, with packs and boots. Impressive:
Pre-start, getting my number pinned on. This was the point where I started to question my decision making ability…
The number of folks who turn out to support the marathoners is amazing. Folks make signs, put giant speakers on their porches and blast music, bands are all over the place, it’s a great party. The marathon route runs through my neighborhood in one of the historic districts and part of the route is on my very street, only about 5 or 6 blocks from my house.
I have a horrible sense of direction, so I can always use some guides to tell me which way to go…
Roydog came out with pups to support the walking effort:
At some point during this thing, it really starts to dawn on my just how long this walk is going to be. A very long time. While in deep contemplation of this fact, I slip on a dead squirrel. No live squirrels were harmed during this stunt. I’m happy to report that I didn’t really break my stride except to regain my balance. Regrettably, there are no pictures available of this feat of agility.
The walking part of the marathon was easy enough for the bulk of the marathon. I didn’t start to get tired until around mile 18. Around mile 18, I was actually wishing I could jog a bit just to mix it up and give my legs something different to do. It was also quite a bit warmer than normal that day, ironic in that it snowed like crazy the very next weekend. Walking backwards for small spells helped a bit. Looking at this picture after the fact, I can see that maybe the pain factor was already coming into play.
Around mile 22 the general discomfort and readiness-to-stop-walking actually starts to develop into outright acute pain. I call this pain “the grips”. It’s not a pleasant condition under the most ideal circumstances. At this point of the marathon, there’s not too much to be done about it.
The hecklers were relentless:
In my defense, it is hard to make a fanny pack look good. I did the best I could with what I had.
At this point, I am in survival mode. In this picture, I’m only a mile or so away from the finish line, maybe less.
Despite my jovial expression and upbeat demeanor, I’m not actually as enthusiastic as I look.
A local brewery, [Diamond Bear], who make an excellent Pale Ale, among their other offerings, were manning a water station. I think they actually just had Gatorade or Diamond Bear beer. I chose the Gatorade because I want to associate Diamond Bear beer with happy times, not the tail end of a death march.
I am ashamed to say I do not have the full details surrounding this picture- I hope to fill them in soon. If you, gentle reader, have stuck with my tale of a marathon walked this far, you might just recall I told you to make note of the extra shoe cinched around Lady Colglazier’s waist. That shoe wasn’t a spare, it was a shoe who belonged to Christa, {forgive me for factual errors here, I was mainly avoiding a system shutdown} one of Jeanne’s walking buddies, who had her training interrupted by illness, a cancer of some sort. Lady Colglazier carried her shoe and walked as her proxy for 26 flipping miles. Her walking buddy met her close to the end and they crossed the finish line together.
After crossing the finish line, we ran into Richard Vaughn, who made it into last year’s marathon post, too. He finished 2nd in the wheelchair division with a time of 4:36:31. Not too shabby!
The race is over, I’m glad to pick up my massive finisher’s medal (Little Rock is famous for the big finisher’s medals), and head home with a finishing time of 7:13:41.
The End!
