I crossed the finish line!!!

I am so grateful for all of the supportive calls, emails, and text messages I received this past weekend. Thank you so much for thinking of me and keeping me in your prayers. Apparently, all that positive energy did some good – I crossed the finish line for the 2nd time! And, I'm injury free!

My frenzy began on Thursday when I checked my emails, after writing to all of you in a panic requesting some of your favorite songs. The fear that “I Ran” would be stuck in my head during the race was immediately dismissed at the sight of responses in my inbox and those posted on my blog. I received 146 song suggestions!! I spent most of Friday night getting my new music downloaded and organized to transfer to my shuffle. I think you might get a kick out of the songs that you all suggested so I’ve included the list in the previous post below. For your own protection ;-), the people who suggested the songs will remain anonymous.

I went to the armory on Saturday afternoon to pick up my bib, my racing chip, and some other information about the race. I ran into my running mate Carolyn while I was there – which was odd because there were about 20,000 other people there. I agreed to meet up with her and Megan at 7am at the Pentagon Metro stop, and we would walk to the starting line together. When I got on the metro home after the expo, I got really excited looking through the race packet, envisioning myself running past crowds and crowds of spectators to the finish line. I admit I was sad that my Wonder Woman finishing photo from 05 didn't make it into this year's spread, but since I occupied an entire page last year - opposite the measly quarter page message from Dubya - I figured I would let it go.

Tracy, Ryan, Smitty, Juli, Rose, Ravas (Steve #2), Steve and I met for a glorious carbohydrate dinner at Anna Maria’s on Connecticut Avenue in Dupont. The meal was great, and I felt pretty tired afterward. I admit that I was getting really nervous about the race. I may have watched way too many Seinfeld episodes in my day, but I feared that I would sleep through my alarm and miss the race. The cheering crew went out to a Halloween party around the corner while I went home to finish my songlist. I set my alarm and went to sleep.

Somewhere around 2am my clocks set themselves back one hour, having been programmed during their assembly to “fall back” for the end of Daylight Savings Time. I embrace technology - and under normal circumstances, this would have been very convenient. However, this was not the weekend for our seasonal time change.

I got out of bed at the sound of my bedside alarm at 5:25am, thankful for a restful sleep and happy I had some time to eat breakfast and properly prepare myself before leaving to meet my team at the Pentagon at 7. I started organizing my music, making sure my Ipod was fully loaded with all of the great song suggestions I had downloaded the night before. When I realized the mistake a few minutes later - that it was not 5:40 at all but 6:40, I stuffed a power bar down my throat and rushed out the door, leaving Steve to bring me my music and other necessities I didn’t have time to worry about. I lubed up my feet with Body Glide while on the metro – which I admit is totally gross on any other occasion, but since the station was filled with soon to be marathoners, I fit in perfectly among the crowds of people rubbing Vaseline in their body crevices and taping bandaids on their nipples. Ahhhh, Marathon Day.

I met Carolyn and Meg a little after 7:30am and we walked together to the starting line. It was an amazing day for this event – last week’s 4 days of rain gave way to a bright and clear Sunday morning. The temperature was perfect too, once the sun crept above the horizon. As we waited for the guns to sound to signal the start of the race, it was about 60 degrees under a beautiful sunny sky – I could not have hand-picked better conditions for this adventure.

The first 10 miles flew by. The three of us stuck together through Arlington, across the Key Bridge, up and down Canal Road and MacArthur Boulevard to the Whitehurst Freeway. I saw Rose and Steve just as we rounded the curve onto Constitution. It was so exciting to see my fans for the first time – and I was feeling great! Steve gave me his Ipod shuffle, which was queued up with all kinds of great ammo. About 4 miles later, I caught sight of Tracy ahead in the crowd of spectators waving her arms wildly and jumping up and down. Ryan, Juli and Smitty were there too – I stopped to kiss them hello and got back on the route with Meg and Carolyn. I called Steve to tell him I was approaching Hains Point, which had been a source of most of my anxiety about the race. He was stuck on a metro train that had overshot the station stop, and was waiting to get out at Smithsonian. My family was stuck too – Mom, Gerry, Colleen, Keeley, Bridgette, Meghan, Trisha and Tom. I realized I had a good reason to finish Hains Point now – to see them all on the other side!

MCM athletes who have run Hains Point admit that this stretch is where “the wall” sets in. The 3 mile stretch on Ohio Drive is lonely, windy and boring. The environment alone can kill your stamina, crush your endurance, and suck the wind out of your marathon sails. Spectators are sparse at this interval, since they must walk quite a distance to get there. Hains Point is surrounded on both sides by the Potomac River, and in October, the wind coming off the water can be fierce. The route itself is pretty flat (thank goodness) but very boring. Running south, tall trees line the street to the left while a beat down metal fence lines the river to the right. Going North presents the same view in reverse. We runners push on in between without a view of anything but pavement under our feet, other runners on either side of us, and the occasional porto-potty off to the side. Oh, and when you start thinking about the fact that you still have 10+ more miles to go once you climb out of the Hains Point pit, you realize how badly it sucks.

Meg, Carolyn, Al and I ran into mile 14 feeling great, ready to beat the marathon-proverbial Hains Point wall and run strong over the 14th street Bridge into Crystal City. We decided to listen to our Ipods for the first time during the race to keep us going for the next few miles. I was feeling amazing - exhilarated by the miles I had conquered and high on the cheers from all of the fans screaming GO KATIE GO! My watch signaled for walk breaks that I didn’t feel I needed, but I took them anyway since my group was aching for them. At mile 15, when my watch sounded and my running buddies stopped for a break, I kept going, telling them I’d see them up ahead when I took my own walk break. I wanted to be finished with this part of the race – each walk break meant it would be that much longer before I saw my Mom and Gerry, my sisters and brother in law, my nieces, my friends, and my husband – all of whom were waiting for me at the end of Hains Point right before the bridge. I kept running, past the Awakening Sculpture and up along the Southwestern Waterfront. I flipped through my Ipod and laughed thinking of each of you as I heard your songs. I must have looked like a total fruit – running and laughing to myself, occasionally singing to a gem I found along the way. No "Flock of Seagulls" for this girl. I was running 10 minute miles at this point – faster than I trained – and was feeling great. In my mind I could see my friends and family on the sidelines at the end of this torturous stretch as clearly as I visualized my old rusty shopping cart sitting idly in the Potomac River months ago. I never hit the legendary Hains Point Wall. If there was a wall in my way, I could have climbed it, and would have kicked it in the ass on the way over. I felt THAT great.

I was sad that I didn’t have my running buddies by my side any more, but I was on such a great high that I couldn’t slow down and wait for them. I will admit I was a little jazzed at the thought of completing the rest of the miles solo. I knew I could do it. When I looked back as I rounded curve out of Hains Point, they were nowhere in sight. So I kept on. I saw the crowd of fans just after mile 19 and located my cheering section right away. The pictures (links listed on the right side of this page) will show you how happy I was to see every single one of them. Just past where my nieces, my sisters, my friends and Steve and Tom were standing, I found my Mom and Gerry, and I was so excited!!! Mom looked so happy and so proud – and Gerry too – they both seemed thrilled to be a part of all of the excitement. I was super pumped up from their excitement! It is contagious!!

The very generous outpouring of music suggestions came in quite handy as I ran the last leg of the race. “Deep Elem Blues” came on as I started pushing through the long long windy bridge over the Potomac. I listened to it twice as a matter of fact, and had two completely different experiences that I'm not yet prepared to verbalize. “Don’t Stop Believing” by Journey carried me into Crystal City, and it almost made me cry when I crossed the 21st mile marker. The bridge was not friendly and it was cold, and step after step I wanted to be on the ground away from the wind. That was the mile I ran for Cimini - #20 - and it had been one of the hardest, but it wasn't something I realized until I was well into 21. Just like Cim to creep up on you and sometimes make you realize how good you really have it. Smile.

From 21 to 25, I listened to the first minute of almost every song in my Ipod and realized how very different the music suggestions were, and also how different we all are. It made me smile. From Fergie to the Annie Soundtrack – I think I may have spanned every single music genre over those last 5 miles! I was so grateful to have each one of you there with my during that stretch – every song sparked the image of one of your faces in my mind, which was a great reminder of your enthusiastic support! There is one song that sums up the impact that music has had on me throughout the entire training season. Sir Duke by Stevie Wonder. Listen to the song when you get a chance. The first few lyrics are what got me on race day:

Music is a world within itself
With a language we all understand
With an equal opportunity
For all to sing, dance and clap their hands
But just because a record has a groove
Don't make it in the groove
But you can tell right away at letter A
When the people start to move
You can feel it all over
You can feel it all over people
You can feel it all over
You can feel it all over people

This was an inspiration in so many different ways -- mentally + spiritually + physically. I felt it all over people! I again looked like a goon (dorky word courtesy of Amy Lawlor/Tracy Fauls) singing and moving my hands like I was but I seriously felt it all over. I'm a total dork but I have no shame in admitting that. I ran 26.2 miles, people. I felt it ALL OVER!!

Being the youngest child in a family of 5, I am born with a natural inclination to go out of my way to get attention. I know some of you are shocked at this admission. As I neared mile 26, I started thinking about how I could finish this race in such a way that would turn heads and get people talking - maybe even make it into the newspaper or be interviewed on the local news or get into next year's marathon book in another full page spread. I convinced myself it was a great idea to cartwheel across the finish line – hey, I had the energy – and started to mentally practice my gymnastic form. I thought about telling Gerry, Aunt Anne, Aunt Kathy, Rick, Mr. Dillon, Mr. DiRita, Teacher Barbara and Bob Carr about my exceptional finish to the race I had run for them.

At that very moment I stopped running and collected my thoughts – my thoughts were pretty absurd at this point and needed some logical organization. I decided to walk for a few minutes and while I did, I thought hard about these people – this group of survivors who had inspired me so far to run to 25.5 miles. I thought about their fight against illness and the happiness they must have felt crossing their own finish lines. I was humbled by their respective accomplishments, and by the amazing humility with which each of them fought for their lives and eventually won. It wasn’t about the ‘exceptional finish’ at all. It was about winning the fight. And there was no acrobatic move I could do that would make their accomplishments any more amazing. This effort was not about me at all. How could I forget that? I abandoned the cartwheel idea. Instead, I would show my appreciation for these 8 special people by giving everything I had from this point to the finish line.

I started my sprint about 400 yards before the hill at Iwo Jima, and started up the hill passing people with speed I never imagined I could have after running for over 5 hours. The incline was longer and a bit steeper than I remembered from 2 weeks ago, but my sprint never slowed as I neared the crest. A sudden burst of pain shot through my knees up through my thighs then down the back of my legs once my body realized the extra work I was demanding from it. I could not feel anything but heat in my feet, toes, and ankles. My neck was throbbing and my back was numb - in shock at the sudden jerky movements of my arms pumping up and down to help me move up the hill. This, my friends, was that wall I expected to face at Hains Point. It's ugly head unmasked itself in a form I did not expect at mile 26.1 with just .01 miles to go. This wall was different. It wasn't that I feared I couldn't go on, finish, or even climb it and kick it in the ass as I said I would. I did that - kicked it cold and hard as I sprinted the last few yards. It was the immense struggle I met when I reached the top, my body ready to collapse, and realized the finish line was still about 50 yards away. I kept up my sprint and focused, forgetting about my aching joints and limbs. At the top, the path was flat and I knew I had just a few more steps to the finish. I ran my heart out - still sprinting - reciting over and over the names of my honored teammates: Gerry, Aunt Kathy, Anne, Rick, Mr. Dillon, Mr. DiRita, Teacher Barbara, and Bob Carr. I found strength in realizing this wasn't about me at all, and leaped over the finish line to end my 26.2 mile journey. I crossed it very appreciative of my honorees, who have endured (or in some cases will endure) far worse physical and mental strain in much greater capacity than I can even begin to understand. Thank you so much.

My medal is yours.

Feel it all over, people. This is what it is all about!!

After the run I found Steve, Tracy, Ryan, Rose and Bern. We met up with the rest of my family at The Front Page where I was debriefed on the day's happenings wondering around the city. I also learned some of the best news I've ever heard in my entire life: TRISHA AND TOM ARE HAVING A BABY!!!!! A NEW BABY!! OH MY OH MY!!!!!!!!!!! A NEW BABY!!!!!!!!!!!!!! CONGRATULATIONS TO TRISHA AND TOM!!! Check out their picture to the right - you can already see how adorable their baby will be!!!!! It's the Mulqueen genes, I'm sure. ;-)

xoxo

PS - I'm not finished writing my blog yet. There's more to come from this entire experience - and I will share it with you as I post!!! Thank you so much for reading!!!

Kate