Pasadena Marathon - am I becoming a run-a-holic?

Completed the 2010 Pasadena Marathon two days ago - 1001st place!  Perfect weather - cool, breezy, not much sun.

So far, I have had more fun with every race I have done - though the Iron Man Race was more exhilirating I was DQ'd after the bike ride for being too slow.

Picked up an old pair of shoes in the closet on race day, thinking, "these shoes are hardly worn, I think they'd be perfect for the race."  Unfortunately, I forgot that the reason they were hardly worn was they were a bit too small in the toe box and the sole cushion was a bit too narrow for my foot.  Never again!  The shoes have now been donated to a charity far, far away.

Met a lot of other runners during the race, kept slightly ahead of my target pace of 5-1/2 hours for about half the race until for some inexplicable reason (could it really be the shoes?) I developed huge blisters on the balls of both feet.  This slowed me down considerably - felt like I was walking on those fun packing materials that you squeeze to pop.  This meant that every time the terrain changed, I had to find a new way to walk to minimize the discomfort.  Fortunately, this was very doable.

Then, with about 2.5 miles or so to go, I got a real surprise - all of the skin on the bottom of my left little toe came off in once piece - and took with it my toenail.  That's right, my shoe must have been upset with all the pounding my overweight body was giving it and tried to tortue me by pulling out one of my nails!  Needless to say, the immediate pain was rather sharp.   At the time, I thought the pain was from a blister having broken, but there was no way I was going to let a little pain keep me from finishing the race.

I kind of hobbled the last few miles, but finished in 6 hours 35 minutes roughly.  For the first time, I had a real sense of accomplishment when I finished a race.  I also felt more comraderie with the other runners, and was in a better position to feel a sense of solidarity them - partly because I passed and was passed by the same people many times during the race, and partly because of the three out-and-backs along the course where you got to see more people.  Mostly, though, because I had more of a sense of us all being in the race together and I wasn't comparing myself to anyone.  I could just appreciate the tremendous effort that each person was putting into completing the marathon.

I was seriously tempted to stop after about 20 miles, when I saw the last two hills that had to be climbed and a medical tent close by.  Fortunately, I mentioned to someone that I was thinking about calling it quits and he said to me "You've come this far, you can't stop now."  I started thinking about how I knew that I could finish the race, and I would forever feel a sense of accomplishment while the pain of moving forward would last only a couple of more hours.

From having mentally prepared to complete an iron man race, I knew that I could finish, it was only a matter of having the will to do so.  In fact, the entire iron man experience had taken away any doubt whatsoever that I could complete the course, even with its several 300 foot elevation gains.

By the time my toenail was ripped off, there was no way I was going to stop even if I had to crawl to the finish line.  I offered my pain to God for propitiation of my sins, and contemplated how much more pain Christ was in having been mercilessly scourged on Good Thursday and then having to carry the cross and re-open so many cuts with every step on Friday.  I was able to walk on my heels to lessen the pain in one toe and the balls of my feet, but Christ had no option, as every part of His body had been cut open by the scourging.

Besides finishing, the good news is that I completely eliminated any knee pain by wearing a wrap that kept both knees warm and thereby increasing the blood flow to the area around the knee.  I'm learning something with every race.