Miles 13.1-20

It's all down hill from here.....

Even though 13.1 is the technical half way point, we are still heading south. Right at mile 13.5, I look ahead and see a nasty hill. I know you think it may be topographically impossible, but these 7 miles were all uphill, even though we crossed the turn around point. To me, the half way point is when you start moving toward the finish line this is the "turn around point." - about mile 17.5. Mile 13.5 and mile 20 are the same point, as you loop back. It is also very depressing to see people run past you. Those guys are 6.5 miles ahead of me!

After mile 17.5, we are heading back to the finish line. At this point, I am only running every other minute. I would jog 60 seconds then walk 60 seconds. Somewhere prior to hitting the TCU campus, we saw a bunch of frat boys handing out tiny cans of beer. What kind of idiot would drink a beer while running a marathon? So I grabbed one! AP told me that it was a horrible idea, but I couldn't' pass up the comedy of the situation. I'm running 26.2 miles and toward the end, I thought how funny it would be to blog that I drank an 8 oz beer. I managed a swallow, maybe two before I realized that AP was right...horrible idea. Not only does it not satisfy your thirst, the carbonation blows up in your stomach. I am now tired, sore, hot, sweaty, and am either going to burp or throw up! Luckily, I was able to burp out all of that air and then I quickly tossed the beer out. Actually, AP carefully placed the beer on one of the cones that guarded us from traffic.

Comedy aside, I'm really deteriorating. Toward the end of this stretch, I have surpassed my longest training run, and I can tell. I'm really starting to break down. AP is a rock, he is encouraging me and all but carrying me to each mile as I beg him to "just go on, I'll be OK"

As we approach mile 20 we see the Carrie and Emily again. This time the AP and Brad posse has grown by 2, AP's wife, and my sister. Apparently, there was some fun at my expense. My sister reminded me that I said, "I really don't you understand just how bad I feel." - not a typo.

Miles 20-26 coming soon.