I did it!!

A little delayed, but I wanted to let anyone reading this know that training for a marathon is difficult, requires a lot of self-discipline (not to mention the giving up open-toed shoes), but is utterly worth it! This has been one of the best experiences of my entire life, and finishing that marathon has made me feel like, with enough hard work and perseverance, I can do anything.

Ben and I left for our trip very early in the morning; we had a 6:58 a.m. flight (ugh). Yet we arrived in San Francisco early as well--around noon their time. Even our bus ride to the hotel was exciting. Characteristically, I was a bit too excited; I kept thinking every suspension bridge I saw was the Golden Gate...hey, they all look similar!

Our first stop was to get some Thai food, something of a rarity here in Charleston, and then we headed to the Race Expo, where I got my bib number (4082!) and we listened to a less-than-inspiring talk about how to tackle the hills of San Francisco. I think the butterflies in my stomach grew an entire foot.

Nonetheless, I got my mind off of things when we joined Ben's second cousin, Diane, and her husband, Leslie, for dinner at a restaurant called the Cliff House, so called because of its precarious situation looking down on the ocean (they've had to rebuild it several times).

The next morning, we went to Alcatraz. Although I found the stories of escape interesting--why would you spend ten years sewing yourself an army uniform so that you could escape on a ship without finding out where said ship was headed?--the trip is what made this excursion worth it.

I'm going to try and attach some pics here:
Actually, it's easier for me to just give you all the link to my Picasa web album, where you can view these things: http://picasaweb.google.com/beresrogers/SanFrancisco#.

I tried, but this program is slow this morning!!

I really enjoyed the tourist thing but was getting more and more anxious about the race. Fast-forward to pre-race dinner. We (Team in Training) entered this huge auditorium- a convention center. To get in, we descended a long flight of stairs, alone which, everywhere, were coaches and mentors, cheering for us. Mardi gras beads, feathers, kazoos, the works. It was absolutely amazing. Then, after grabbing our requisite pasta and protein, we were treated with talks by Joan Benoit Samuelson, the 1984 Olympic marathon champion, and John "the Penguin" Bingham, who writes a great column for Runner's World: http://www.johnbingham.com/. He was really inspiring and told us something that stayed in my head throughout the race. "What's the hurry?" he said. "Everyone gets that t-shirt, the same Tiffany's necklace. So why not just take your time and enjoy yourself?"

And that's what I did. I started out with a group of TNT people, but our paces didn't gell, so I ended up running most of the race "on my own," but not really. There were other TNT people, everywhere, so I met people from Alaska, New York, New Jersey, and Georgia. And the views were absolutely amazing!! We started downtown, ran along the pier, up through the Presidio district, past the Cliff House (again) and seal rocks (which were amazing!), down through Golden Gate Park, and then along the Great Highway, by the ocean, and around Lake Merced. I do have a few little pictures here -

And this one is my favorite:

I'll try to make a blog link to all of the pictures- we'll see how that works out.

Anyway, so I'm running along, and Ben was going to meet me at mile 13. I look for him but don't see him. Later in the race, I look but, again, don't see...I cross that finish line, and still no Ben. So I go over to the "friends and family meet-up" section (this place was a veritable village) and wait for an hour, shivering from cold by this time and feeling like my finish was anti-climactic. Finally, I borrow a cell phone and call him (brain doesn't work well when you've just run 26.2, by the way).

Ben was at the finish line. He missed me at 13 and thought I was behind my teammates, so he waited there, got to 16 too late, and got to the finish line 6 minutes after I did. It was utterly frustrating for him as well; he thought I had hurt myself or something and got worried when the "bigger people" were finishing and I was still nowhere.

Thankfully, we found each other, and then it hit me. I HAD RUN A MARATHON!!! Sanity not only intact, but self-confidence tripled. It's amazing. And I raised $4300 for blood cancer research. That, perhaps, was my even bigger challenge.

I ran this marathon in memory of my father, of Jean Hamilton Rogers, of Ruth Campbell, and in honor if Ian, Eli, and Arnold Markley. These are the people who kept me going at mile 25! These are the people, in heaven and earth, hopefully smiling that cancer has been given yet another wallop. Hopefully some day, we can "defeat" it altogether. I won't stop trying.