and then it rained

hello. did you miss me? yeah, you probably didn't even notice i've been away. well, except for mr alfie over there in the corner with the variety of deoderants, which is probably all for the best, really.

the other day, i walked a marathon. "walked" because i am not much with the running these days, although hoping to get back into it soon. what? oh, i hear what you are thinking - walking a marathon must be lonely. firstly, not so much really because my head is full of thoughts most of the time, but secondly, not this time at all because... mini-me walked with me! the whole way! can you believe it? well, believe it!

a couple days before the marathon, she was all, do you think i could walk a marathon? and i was like, sure - any reasonably fit person can walk a marathon if you just decide you're going to do it and decide that it's okay to be tired and in a bit of pain. and she was all, what about this one - do you want company? and i was like, yes sure! so i had to pull some strings and all because it was last-minute, but got it all worked out and so 6:30 sunday morning, we were off!

we tramped and trudged for a couple hours and everything was going okay when the first raindrops fell. we said, hey, it's not supposed to rain for like 3 more hours! but, we said, at least it's not raining hard. it started raining hard. we said, at least it's not raining really hard. it started raining really hard. we said, at least it's not windy. the wind started to push us around. we silently mutually agreed not to mention how it wasn't hailing.

rain and wind. that's miserable, but you know, we were miserable together, and misery loves company. well, a certain sort of company. around mile 10 or so, the rest of the field started passing by. that's not exactly the sort of company you want. see, the actual start was at 8 - we had an early start. except for the very slowest, all the 8-starters passed us. that's just how it is, and i'd told mini-me this was going to happen, but it's still sort of bitter-sweet being passed. you are cheering for the field, but then... you are getting left behind. over and over and over again. there comes a point you just want them all to go on by and leave you alone but after that... there comes a point you get used to it.

one thing about walking for that amount of time, or really, simply living for that amount of time, is that you're going to have to take potty breaks. if you subtract our potty break time from the overall, we made a pretty good pace. even with the breaks included we were still hitting a well under 20-minute mile, so we weren't strolling around out there.

it didn't rain the entire time. we ate crackers and sang songs. we drank gatorade and saw deer. we identified the rare japanese maple. we talked about a bunch of stuff and talked about nothing. i complained. mini-me complained. we both complained. blisters came and went (ow!). knees hurt. tylenol were consumed (in moderation!). uphills became easier than downhills. the miles ticked to 13 and started ticking "back" to 26. we walked. we walked. we walked some more.

when we finished, there were mud and hugs and cookies. we hobbled to the car and went home to take showers. looking forward to it, it seemed possibly impossible. looking back, it was definitely impossibly impossible.