Mile 4 split: 7:28 marathon time: 30:59
The fourth mile was still packed; hundreds of people were running with me. As people were trying to weave in and out of people, a couple of old sweaty men managed to pass me and rub their sweaty arms on mine…. Ugh! I didn’t want to wipe it off, cause I didn’t want to touch their sweat juices. So instead I had to embrace it and let it air dry…. Meanwhile, some girl comes shooting out of the mass of runners and finds the most central bush. Instead of running behind the bush to gain some privacy, she pops a squat right front blank for the thousands to see and starts peeing. Times like this I feel nothing but pity for women, as many of them do not have the luxury of using a P-Mate.
This brings me back to the one time in my running career that I peed during a race. It was only a 5k, so I really don’t have an excuse… minutes before the start of the race I had mentioned to my teammate that I had to pee. She insisted that it was just nerves. In the last mile of the race, there was a large downhill. With every step that I took, there was a little bit of leakage. Every step. And I was on record pace, so it’s not like I could slow down, you know? Coming around to the home stretch, fans would cheer for me, and as their heads turned to follow me down the runway, their cheers of “Go Erin! Go Temecula!” turned into laughs, and points (or I assume they were, but I was obviously looking forward).
This girl had no shame in peeing in front of everyone. It wasn’t even a girly pee. It was coming out strong. What surprises me the most is that she even still had to pee. As she ran by us, you couldn’t help but look at her pants because they were wet; from peeing in them.
Mile 5 split: 7:46 marathon time: 38:45
Running through downtown now, there are more fans out cheering on the streets. This is one of the coolest parts of a marathon. They bring their yells, claps, bells, and best of all, their signs. My favorite sign in this marathon was seen here, in mile 5 of the race, reading:
“Think of all the gas $$ you are saving right now”
Creative really, and best of all it helps you to smile during an intense race and to focus your attention on something else. Also motivating in this mile was a man on a megaphone shouting inspirational words to us. “Great job” “conserve your energy” “calm your breathing” Calm it!? Are you kidding me?? Dot com! How exactly do you do that in a 26 mile race? But apparently this guy knows; according to other racers, he is a motivational life coach with 20,000 followers.
Mile 6 split: 7:46 marathon time: 46:32
By mile 6, I started scaring myself. We were still in the midst of Downtown and my pace was still quite fast. I was afraid I was going to burn out like I did last year, or in the La Jolla Half. This was probably the most doubtful and negative mile, and luckily it did not last for very long. I kept telling myself that I wasn’t going all out, and if it came down to it, I had less than 20 miles to run. Once you get past Downtown, it’s just a loop around the bay.