May 30, 2012
BEER 14 MILES
I suppose that there must be some kind of weird wiring in the brain of a person who runs marathons. After all, the first person to do so, Pheidippides, fell over dead upon completing his run from Marathon to Athens to announce victory. And I doubt that any runner looks up the after-effects of running 26 miles, 385 yards, on the internet because that would not lend any encouragement to those running.
Our amazing and awesome friend, Kathy, was not afraid to venture to Cleveland to run the 35th Annual Cleveland Marathon. She finished the race in the sweltering heat. And I was not a very good host. At our street corner, she saw this sign (the photo was taken later that evening):
The promise of beer probably had something to do with her enduring the next 14 miles under a "HEAT ALERT;" but, not being a good host, I didn't have a beer for her at the finish line. That was one of the things she could not drink directly after the race, according to the Internet.
Her life was in our hands, man!
Now, this guy -- he lives in our building, and he had just finished his 70th marathon (well, not just finished, I guess he finished in like 2 and 1/2 hours) -- he said that no beer thing was "utter nonsense." I found that out only later in the day, and I now feel terrible.
But I was there at the end cheering her on, opening her surely-unsatisfactory water bottle, peeling a golden ripe banana for her, and trying to open impossible-to-open-without-everything-flying-all-over packages of something marathon runners are supposed to eat after the race so they don't die. And sure enough, she didn't die. And we did not have to take her to the hospital because she peed within the prescribed time limit -- four hours.
And despite all my shortcomings in handling the race logistics and her health care, she said she had a wonderful time. And so did we.
We're going to head on up for a reciprocal visit to the Twin Cities -- no marathon, though. I may have weird wiring in my brain, but not the kind that makes me run 26.2 fucking miles.
Posted by Bill at May 30, 2012 06:09 PM