Half Marathon Part 2: The first leg
As I arrived at the mouth of the path we are to run the first thing I notice is not the gentle sloping hill, or the trees that line it on either side, what I saw first was the concrete path and the freeway traveling along side of it. But I ran three miles to get here, so stretching I again waited for the others to catch up with the pack.
We were informed that the most we could hope for in regards to an aid station was right there at the start, and when we got back, the same place at the finish. Upon hearing this I took one of the offered water bottles and cans of orange juice and drank.
We were told that the half way point would be marked for us. We were given a few moments to prepare before we started, so I climbed up a large concrete barrier and with my back to the freeway traffic, I peed about half a gallon of nervous energy. I know I was physically prepared for this, my longest run this past six months was only five miles, and my average run was only three. With this run to the starting line and then the half marathon, I will have in one day run more then twice my weekly mileage for the past half of a year. I knew well that injury would be easy to have befallen me, and was ready to turn around and head back at the first sign of pain.
As I climbed down the concrete barrier I saw that the others had already started. Shrugging my shoulders I started down the path. It was not long before I caught up to the next runner. And then I was on my own.
My headphones came off, my iPod shut off, and I ran to a cadence of my feet passing below me and my breath escaping from me. With the three mile warm up before hand, it was not long before I found myself again in my groove, and I was free to let my mind wander where it pleased again. I soon found myself addressing issues that I did not know were slumbering in my subconscious, I prayed to God, I evaluated my life, my goals, what I wanted out of life, what was expected of me, and what God had planned for my life. I thought about Calvary Chapel and its great distaste of the Catholic Church, the Mormons, and any church that has anything to do with the emergent church.
Having attended all the denominations in question, I can not say that I agree with Calvary Chapel at all in their distaste. I have issues with all four church groups for sure, but just because I have issues and think that there doctrine is off at points, I can not say that they are not saved, that they do not follow the true Christ, because the that raises to question, how much of a margin of error are we to be given before we are lost?
While lost in these thoughts I was unaware of the surroundings around me. I kept conscious enough to be able to see when danger presented itself to me, or to drop a courteous hello in French to people as I passed, as I said, I was running on auto pilot, and when on auto pilot, I am physically there, but only mentally there enough to function and survive.
My legs were fluid as I ran, there was a slight pain in my knees as I plodded along, still not going very fast, but faster than on my way here, and I moved through the days run. My thoughts turned to love, not the Eros type, not lamenting over or pinning for a girlfriend, but thinking over the people who love me and the kindnesses they have shown in my life. My mother and my father, Kate and Stephen, my friends and the people currently in my life, as I ran my thoughts touched upon many subjects. Looking up I realized that there were a number of others turning back, as each person passed me I asked where the half way point was, most of them didn’t know or didn’t bother to answer, so I continued on.
Finally one runner stopped and told me where the turn around point was. At the same pace as before, I ran towards it. I was mildly surprised to find that I had run almost six and a half miles by this time. Though I didn’t know how long it had been physically, after nine miles, I should have been in a great amount of pain. But I wasn’t, I felt strong, as though I could run the full marathon after all.
I reached the halfway point not long after that and stopped to stretch my tight leg muscles. As I stretched the aid vehicle stopped and asked me if I was ok. I told them I was and finished my stretch. Once done, I turned around and started back. And then as I tuned to run the final leg of my run, the pain came, and it came hard.
We were informed that the most we could hope for in regards to an aid station was right there at the start, and when we got back, the same place at the finish. Upon hearing this I took one of the offered water bottles and cans of orange juice and drank.
We were told that the half way point would be marked for us. We were given a few moments to prepare before we started, so I climbed up a large concrete barrier and with my back to the freeway traffic, I peed about half a gallon of nervous energy. I know I was physically prepared for this, my longest run this past six months was only five miles, and my average run was only three. With this run to the starting line and then the half marathon, I will have in one day run more then twice my weekly mileage for the past half of a year. I knew well that injury would be easy to have befallen me, and was ready to turn around and head back at the first sign of pain.
As I climbed down the concrete barrier I saw that the others had already started. Shrugging my shoulders I started down the path. It was not long before I caught up to the next runner. And then I was on my own.
My headphones came off, my iPod shut off, and I ran to a cadence of my feet passing below me and my breath escaping from me. With the three mile warm up before hand, it was not long before I found myself again in my groove, and I was free to let my mind wander where it pleased again. I soon found myself addressing issues that I did not know were slumbering in my subconscious, I prayed to God, I evaluated my life, my goals, what I wanted out of life, what was expected of me, and what God had planned for my life. I thought about Calvary Chapel and its great distaste of the Catholic Church, the Mormons, and any church that has anything to do with the emergent church.
Having attended all the denominations in question, I can not say that I agree with Calvary Chapel at all in their distaste. I have issues with all four church groups for sure, but just because I have issues and think that there doctrine is off at points, I can not say that they are not saved, that they do not follow the true Christ, because the that raises to question, how much of a margin of error are we to be given before we are lost?
While lost in these thoughts I was unaware of the surroundings around me. I kept conscious enough to be able to see when danger presented itself to me, or to drop a courteous hello in French to people as I passed, as I said, I was running on auto pilot, and when on auto pilot, I am physically there, but only mentally there enough to function and survive.
My legs were fluid as I ran, there was a slight pain in my knees as I plodded along, still not going very fast, but faster than on my way here, and I moved through the days run. My thoughts turned to love, not the Eros type, not lamenting over or pinning for a girlfriend, but thinking over the people who love me and the kindnesses they have shown in my life. My mother and my father, Kate and Stephen, my friends and the people currently in my life, as I ran my thoughts touched upon many subjects. Looking up I realized that there were a number of others turning back, as each person passed me I asked where the half way point was, most of them didn’t know or didn’t bother to answer, so I continued on.
Finally one runner stopped and told me where the turn around point was. At the same pace as before, I ran towards it. I was mildly surprised to find that I had run almost six and a half miles by this time. Though I didn’t know how long it had been physically, after nine miles, I should have been in a great amount of pain. But I wasn’t, I felt strong, as though I could run the full marathon after all.
I reached the halfway point not long after that and stopped to stretch my tight leg muscles. As I stretched the aid vehicle stopped and asked me if I was ok. I told them I was and finished my stretch. Once done, I turned around and started back. And then as I tuned to run the final leg of my run, the pain came, and it came hard.