26th annual Olympic Marathon

Ok, sorry everyone for not adding to the cool blog, Erica, I can't believe you called me out! HAHA oh well. So I ran a 42Km/26Mi marathon today and did really well! I finished at 4 hours and 42 minutes! Not bad for 0 training! The furthest I had run before this was 6 miles! My knees and legs are pretty much shot right now! I must admit, it was probably the proudest moment in my life, next to Erica's birth. But we all know how that's turned out! Anyways, let me paint the scene for you all. We got on a bus at 0700, and rode out to the town of Marathon, Greece. 26 miles away from some of the origianl Greek stadiums, for Olympics. Once we arrived, I met up with a few other people from Sigonella, Italy. We all agreed on a time of 10 minute miles. That's a nice and easy pace, not to kill us. So we start off, the helicopter is trying to get everything it can on film, baloons are flying, and we were pretty much walking out of the gate since there was so many people! This walk lasted a good 2 Km! So yeah like 100 yards after the start point, there were already like 10 runners watering trees! It was priceless! I saw a man dressed up like a Roman soldier, a marathon superman costume, and a lot of Greek athletic dresses. They had water stations every 2-4 Km. We started off making a huge circle around some a tomb of the original Olympians of old. It was just this huge mount in this protected field. Then we started ou 89% uphill run towards the finish. Now 89% was not the actual grade, it was just a nice (not) uphill climb the whole way! We were 6 Americans stong, until 21Km. The half way point. Our pacer fell back, and 4 others stayed with him. Myself and another guy pushed on. I was doing great, giving kids high fives as they cheered us on. Shortly after i got the great idea to try to give some Police Officers the same gesture. Well census showed that the majority were too busy listening to Walkmans or smoking cigerettes to give me a high five, but I did get two! YAY!!! So yeah continuing on, I could not believe the amount of trash that we would throw on the streets after a water station. You're supposed to take a few swiggs of water and toss the bottle of water to the side, when you're done! It kinda turned into a game, to see who could make the biggest explonsion. So 32Km into this bad boy, I was nowhere close to being tired. However my legs were really starting to hurt! I was feeling a lot of pain in my knees and hammies! I stopped off at a few medical stations to get icy/hot put on my legs and wobble off. This was to be the longest 10 Km in my life! (6 more miles) I had to stop at one point, and almost fell out cause my leg went numb, and I didn't know if I was going to catch myself on the next impact. But I had to push on! When I got to the last 120 meters of the race we entered into the statium, to a lot of cheering people! At this point my adreniline kicked in and I spotted my friend Alex, who ran the 5K and was finished way before me. He snapped a picture and cheered me in. I got my medal, and hobbled right into the medical tent where they proceeded to ice my knees and then wrap them, free of charge. I limped all the way to a taxi, got in and returned to the hotel for a nap. So there you have it, that was my first ever marathon, with very little training. I almost cried when I finished, not from the pain, but from the sheer accomplishment, I had just finished THE origianl Olympic Marathon. After getting home to the hotel, I took off my bloody socks, fell into bed, and took a good 1 hour long nap. Now I'm sore as all can believe!