Gotta use two hands

Finished the Newport Marathon yesterday :)

The drive out to Newport went pretty smoothly and we had dinner at the Rogue brewery. Although I wasn't nervous at all, I got almost no sleep Friday night. I couldn't get comfortable until after midnight, then woke up every hour practically on the hour. At 2am I was too hot, so I opened a window. About 3am one of the NROTC students called Chris. Can't remember what woke me up around 4:15am (probably just paranoid about the alarm not being set). Then it was time to get up at 5am.

I was actually able to eat breakfast. Usually my body wants absolutely nothing to do with food before the race, so eating was a nice change. We sat around watching crappy TV. The only thing on besides cable news or infomercials was the movie I am Sam with Sean Penn. Ug. Then it was time to leave for the start.

I felt pretty sleepy for the first 5 miles or so. Spent a lot of time questioning why I was running instead of being in a comfy bed with Hubby (especially when we ran past the fish processing plants in town. Yeah, that's what I want to be smelling :P lol) After my first Gu's caffiene kicked in and the scenery improved, I was cruising along quite nicely. I was feeling good until the turn around at mile 15. The majority of the course was an out and back along Yaquina Bay with the runners staying on the eastbound side of the road. I'm not sure if the road's cant did a number on my legs or what, but after the turn around, my right ITB decided it was done with a capital D.

In a way, I was kinda lucky. Yesterday my ITB (which btw, if you've never had problems with your iliotibial band feels like being stabbed in the side of your knee) only hurt when I ran. I could run for about 3 or 4 telephone poles before the pain became too much. I'd walk for about a half mile, the pain would receed, and I could run for a bit again. That may not sound that great, but when I've had problems with my ITB before, once it started hurting it wouldn't stop regardless if I was running or walking. So even though doing 15 minute miles and being passed by speed walking grannies doesn't sound like much, being able to get at least some relief was better than it could have been.

I hobbled along. Slowly, painfully, eventually, the day was done. Marathon #6 was finished.

Now I need two hands to count my marathons with :)