Indescribable

Everyone, everyone should have the chance to feel the way I do today. I can't walk down stairs but so what? I am a rock star! I'm floating on the fabulousness of it all. I am majestic.

I am a marathoner.
I have a huge amount I want to write about My Marathon no! you gasp, but I'll lob this up as a first step. I wrote it for an online forum I belong to so it's a bit scrappy but I wanted to just get it down before it all fades into glorious memory.
I'll start with a glossary (with added links!) for those unfamiliar with the scene.
Here is the course map. CRs = friends from Cool Running. They gather after the marathon at Transport, which is a bar in Fed Square, about 2km from the finish, just across Princes Bridge.

What a great day it was!
I had 3 plans and 2 goals.
My time goal was anywhere between "in my dreams" 5hrs30 and "do or die" 7hrs - MCG or bust!
Plan 1 (wishful thinking that stupid bronchitis might be completely better after 6 days *rolls eyes*) run first 5km, do 4:1 run:walk intervals to the end.
Plan 2. 4:1 until 20km, then assess every 5km to see if 3:2 would work better
Plan 3 (stupid bronchitis asserting itself all day) 3:2 the whole way
The goals were A. get to 30km by 11.30 so no matter what, I'd have enough time to finish and
B. get to the MCG by 2.00
I stuck to my drink and gel plan all day and it went perfectly. I kept topping up my waist bottle at the drink stations which turned out to be a good idea especially in the last 6km.
I ended up using all of the plans and achieving all the of the goals. I felt fine at the start - 6 days of dr-ordered rest will do that! - so ran the first 5km then dropped back to 4:1 as I'd planned and trained for. That went ok until about 25km when my lungs started to protest. I couldn't get a deep breath and my head was starting to spin. I'd had some asthma spray at 21km (as planned) so I had some more and dropped back to 3:2 run:walk along the beach. I had plenty of legs left, but alas, no lungs - I was working so hard to get in a full breath that my upper back was starting to cramp.
At 30km I had to recognise that enough was enough, for now. While I'm prepared to take some risks with my health (eg attampt my first full marathon with bronchitis) I'm not completely foolhardy. To keep running I would have had to keep having asthma spray every half hour, NOT a good idea, so I started walking as fast as I could. Luckily I'd reached goal A and had enough time, so while this was a disappointing development it wasn't a disaster. I confess I had a wallow in the pity pool for a little while, until I thought of the people I know who'd give anything to be as strong and healthy as I am, and started counting my blessings again. I walked from 30-40km, a lot of it with a nice bloke from Adelaide, I wish I'd got his name but I was concentrating fiercely on moving forward as fast as I could. As my friend EE said to me one step at a time, one km at a time, one marathon at a time.
I put a few comments about the organisation of the 'off-road" course and the services for very slow runners in the "improve melb marathon" thread on CR, so there's not much to say about THAT here.
I saved my last shot of asthma spray for the south side of Princes bridge - I was going to run those last 2km I'd imagined so many times, no matter what! I was threading my way past Transport thinking, oh well all the CRs must have gone home, when all of a sudden crowds of people in blue and yellow poured out, cheering and waving and high-fiving me! What a wonderful surprise! That's the only time I got a bit teary the whole day.

I was so happy, so so happy to finally run around the corner onto Batman Ave and toward the gate. It seemed a long way away but then I was there and running up the tunnel and OMG into the MCG!!! The place just went mad (my whole family - including my mum who'd come up from Bairnsdale on the train as a surprise - and lots of friends were there, they're pretty loud and it echoed EVERYWHERE) and I just seemed to float around the stadium and then I was finished.The race announcer asked me how I found my first marathon and I told him, I just followed the course and there it was. He didn't ask me any more questions.My beloved comrade in Stupid Determination, Mrs Wombat, made it in with five minutes to spare! Thanks for the heart attack darl! She'd looked so done in around Albert Park and along the beach, I'd been so scared she wouldn't make it - but her huge courageous heart got her there. I was so happy for her I couldn't stop hugging her all afternoon.

It was a much longer walk back to Fed Square than it was from there in the morning!
I will quote my friend the mighty Emma in saying you'll have to pry my medal from my cold dead fingers.Noddie wanted to take it to school today but I'm not letting it out of my sight.
A great highlight of the whole thing was raising nearly $1700 * edit - more than $1800 now! for CanTeen! I am so blessed to have such generous friends and family!
Other highlights:
the CR who came up before the run and told Mrs W and I that he really admired what we were doing. I appreciated that more than he knows.
Unexpected hugs from friends - hi Emma and Sara! - along the way
People reading my 'stupidly determined' shirt and cheering me. It really helped.
I was running with a young man on beach road who was struggling. I told him 'don't you give up now, keep going until the full seven hours have passed, you just keep going'. He was the last official finisher. You go mate!!
I want to join everyone else in thanking the volunteers, who were just marvellous, especially the ones who let me use the lift up to the MCG spectator area instead of making me walk out and around and up the stairs
I'd particularly like to say how proud I am to be a friend of Mrs Wombat - whose idea this whole Big Dream was in the first place (remind me to NEVER have a few sherbies with her after a race again) - who is the toughest woman with the biggest heart I know.
A GREAT day - a hard day, but one of the happiest, best days of my whole life.

Team Stupidly Determined - the magnificent Mrs W, LBTEPA and the mighty Emma. Marathon runners.

I want to say to anyone reading this - if you have a Big Dream, GO FOR IT.
Be patient and keep at it, little by little. Don't let it go. You don't have to be able to imagine doing that Big Thing to start, either. You just have to imagine the first step. You'll get there.
More anon
:)