Gina's Baltimore Experience

Obviously, my time is a disappointment, but I'm feeling better after a good night's sleep. I am teaching Sunday school this morning, and we're doing family stuff this afternoon before my mom flies home, so I'm not sure I'll have a chance to give you the lowdown and thought I'd better write something while I have the chance.

So, as I told you when I saw you, things went perfect at first. I was running strong and at what I thought was a conservative pace, and I felt good all over. My calf muscle twitched around mile 8, but I tried not to panic. I eased up a bit, stopped to stretch for a few seconds, and continued to because I otherwise felt fantastic. Then the first real cramp hit just a few feet before the 10 mile marker. That's when I called John and asked him to call Angie because I was almost hyper-ventilating from the panic. After that, the cramps just kept
coming in unpredictable waves, despite everything I tried. I had to walk a bit at every mile after mile 8, and I had to walk the majority of the last several. Three times I stopped for extended times to get help from a spectator/medic/vagrant to stretch out the cramp. I was so
demoralized, and I think I was still wavering about whether to quit when we were together. After you and I split, I stayed behind at that one spot for a really long time, and I decided to quit. I was cramping so severely that I couldn't stretch out the cramp myself and couldn't make it stop. Every time I tried to stand back up, it contracted so hard that it felt like a hard labor contraction in my leg! Fortunately, a woman stopped her run and offered to help. She told me she was a physical therapist and that my leg was too swollen and tender and would
not stop cramping until I stopped running. The police office who was there called the medic wagon to come pick me up, and I gave up, almost relieved to have a DNF instead of another awful finish time. Fortunately, a guy standing right there said, "That's bullshit. I've done 7 of these and I get a cramp every time just before mile 20. Do not quit!" The street person next to him agreed. So I made a decision to just complete the race however I could, and I crossed the finish at just under 4:45.

With the benefit of a good night's sleep, I can say that I'm glad I did it, even if it wasn't the result I wanted. The whole ordeal was actually an amazing experience. John dropped in along the course 3 times to dry my tears, and Angie called during and after to offer advice and encouragement. Her best advice was to take as much time as I needed to just cry it out in the shower, which I did. Several strangers helped me out along the way, Hillary was tracking me all day from home, and my biking friend Lynn called me to see how I was, after finishing her own 200K bike ride last night! Am I lucky, or what? Yesterday John actually tried to convince me to try another marathon--can you believe it?! But I think it's time to focus on shorter races that seem to come a bit more naturally to me, so this was my last for the foreseeable future.