I wrote the following and sent it as a mass email the day after I ran my first marathon, in December 2001, in Honolulu. I ran for the San Francisco AIDS Foundation.
Okay so story time. As soon as I got off the plane I realized I had forgotten my running shoes at home. I had run in them the previous night, and had left them out to air out. Then I forgot to bring them. So, how many people can say that they are stupid and tenacious enough to run a marathon in brand-new shoes?
Auntie Doris came to get me as soon as she got off work, and whisked me off to the running store. Fortunately, they had my exact same shoe in stock. I went for a run that night to acclimate to the weather/humidity, and to road-test my brand-f***ing new shoes. She lives in a brand-new housing complex that looks something like the tract housing in the suburbs around here. There's a mini-mall around the corner with a Starbucks, and Office Max, and a Jamba Juice. You get the picture. So when I went out for my run that night, I promptly got lost. On my way out I had noted my path by lawn ornaments. A very bad idea. Do you know how many people in the lovely town of Kapolei have the exact same deer on their lawns, in the exact same configuration? I'll tell you--a lot. This is me, so I don't have Auntie's phone number or address in my head. This is the same person who, upon arriving at work each morning, writes down where she parked so she can find it at the end of the day. You'd think that, being so good at compensating for my own weaknesses, I would have had the foresight to write down the address on the piece of paper before I left, but no. So I ended up nocking on a random door, calling home collect, waking Dave out of bed in a state of relative panic (why's she calling collect?!?) to get Auntie's number, then calling her. She came out to fetch me. It was a beautiful run though--I hadn't seen so many stars against such a dark sky in a long time.
The following morning, my breakfast involved whole milk and butter. That's all I'll say on that topic. You gotta love Hawaiians, that's all I can say. When I got back to the madness at Waikiki and downtown Honolulu later that day, I was feeling rather smug.
Marathon day was awesome. I met my training group at the hotel to walk to the start line together. There was an awesome fireworks display, and then we went shoving off, quite literally. It was a packed crowd. Ran with my running buddy Heather until mile 10ish, then her knee began hurting really badly. I fed her two Aleve then told her to give it 15 minutes to kick in before giving up. Walked with her for said 15 minutes, and it still hurt, so I dropped her off at the aid station. (Was feeling really bummed at that point. Heather was the person with whom I'd run my very first training run in Mountain View, and we shared a certain something. And she had been jumping up and down all excited the previous night and into the morning. Anyway she must have recovered because I later found that she came in 35 minutes after me.) Then took off on my own.
Got kinda bored. Also without watch and wondering whether I was pacing okay, taking my walk breaks at the prescribed times, etc. Ran comatose for a few miles, then fortuitously bumped into the AIDS Marathoners of my EXACT SAME pace group, only from LA! I'm such a lucky duck! We played 20 questions for the chunk of the race. A really great group, composed of three other kick-ass girls, and four flamboyant gay guys that really kept things interesting.
"So what was your name again, Tulip?"
"Daisy"
"Oh, I'm sorry honey! You can call ME Tulip! Oh BOY! The cops in Honolulu are kee-YOOT! Woo-HOO!"
The last few miles my feet really started to hurt, but I don't know if it was because of the new shoes or just that I had just run twenty miles... In any case, these are the moments when I count on my group. It's funny how people who were strangers a couple of hours before are suddenly your best friends. If I had been alone I probably would have walked to the finish, but they made me keep running. The final sprint to the finish line was awesome. It's funny how after a long run like that, no matter how completely exhausted you feel, you can always, always find that one last reserve of energy for that final sprint. It is a truly beautiful thing.
Finally, I would like to remind both you and myself that this is about something much larger than just my own self setting a goal to kick ass and having a great time doing it.
Here is a link to an article written by Kofi Annan, the secretary-general of the United Nations: http://www.iht.com/articles/40449.html
Right now, as I sit in my cube, I am wearing, along with my finisher's medal, a little beaded pin in the design of the red AIDS rememberance ribbon. It was sewn as a thank-you gift by South Africans from a village that has been hugely impacted by HIV. A chunk of the fundraising I've done is going to efforts to fight AIDS in the developing world. Anyway I just wanted to close this on that note.
Here I am at the finish line!
