what i did today

today i walked a marathon. one thing that is really weird about walking or running any long distance is how the miles pass away. i mean, we were walking for 7:09:07, and yes, it's a lovely & poetic timestamp, but it's a helluva long time. you'd think i'd have distinct memories of each step or something but it never works that way for me. i remember starting. i remember a couple of the water stops where people i knew were working the stops. i remember finishing. i remember a couple things here or there, but i don't remember things in some kind of precise order where i could be like - mile 1: this is how i felt, mile 2: this is how i felt, et cetera. it's more like - we walked a lot and stopped sometimes and finally got done.

i did a bunch of texting and shizzle and ate a bagel and rearranged my hat [backwards? forwards?] a couple dozen times. i know these things are not generally associated with "marathoning" but hell, i was out there walking and wearing a fanny pack so i really had no cool cred to lose at that point.

my ankle feels sort of okay which is better than it usually feels after running 3 miles so now i am all like -- "whatever, ankle! you suck!". it needs to decide how it feels about things and get consistent. yeah, i know - it'll probably hurt tomorrow.

i have blisters on the soles of both feet, including a double blister on the left foot that takes up like the entire frontal lobe of my left foot. i just now punctured all these blisters using a pin from my race bib and drained like a gallon of liquid from them. this did not improve my ability to use the soles of my feet for transportation.

but i wouldn't trade all the pain for anything because i personally know people who could never walk 26.2 continguously in any amount of time and probably don't even walk that far in an entire month. and, i won't always be walking -- i will run again!