Mile 16
This might have been the worst mile of the whole race. When you see the sign that says Mile 16, the first thing that runs through your mind is “wow… already at 16, I must be getting closer.” But that is very short, and since you have already run 16 miles, the blood rushes through more quickly- so do your positive thoughts. In a marathon, something that you can do to pass the miles more quickly (at least in your mind) is to think- well, in another 7 or 8 minutes, I can think about the next mile. Not in mile 16, my friends, not in mile 16. This was my slowest mile (almost 10 minutes… shhh!) and the hardest one to get through. After 7 or 8 minutes, I was still in the same mile! My thoughts went from wow, 16 miles to s— I still have 10 more miles to go! I can go on about what this means, but basically it is more than an hour of running, more than a run around Mission Bay, and more than an episode of America’s Next Top Model (for all the non-runners). That is a heck of a long time left to go.
mile 17
I never believed in a runner hitting “the wall.” To me it has always been something that I can tell scary stories about and intimidate those people that have no clue what it is but you know all you are doing is making yourself look better. Almost like when I would ask people for tips on travelling through Europe. All I got were scary stories and suggestions to tape my passport where the sun don’t shine. Now that I am here, I know its not that scary. I don’t have to tape anything anywhere, and just because someone is following me with arms full of scarves and Prado purses (don’t tell Eurobella) I know they aren’t going to jump me and steal my American identity and leave me here to beg for money outside of the Colosseum. But during mile 17, I did not feel the same. Not to make a scary story for you all, but I felt like my legs were running ahead of me and running backwards, kind of like they were laughing at my struggle. I felt like my head was not getting any blood running through it. Nothing was getting black, but it was dream-like.