Crossing Things Off The Bucket List

Okay, this post is going to be long, very long. Just wanted you to be prepared for it. Anyways, here goes:

Danish words of the day: Marathon...translates pretty easily, it's the same in both languages. Rutschebanen...roller coaster... Oh yeah!

Quote of the week: Mom: "Have you ever even run a road-race before"? Me: "I ran the Raymond fun run when I was six..." Mom: "You can count that if you want, but just so you know, most people don't start with marathons..."

So, as you may or may not have guessed by the first portion of this post, I ran my marathon this past weekend in Odense! I was feeling pretty nervous about it, because my last three weeks of training had been pretty bad (a result of me losing a part of my passion for it and also the fact that I was way to busy to maintain a normal training regimen). I went in with a goal of finishing in under 4 hours, thinking that 3:40 would be the best-case scenario.

The course was a two-lapper through most of Odense. The course had a nice mix of scenic park running, quiet running in the outskirts of town, and a 3 mile weave through the downtown walking streets. Now, Denmark for the most part is very flat. However, there were three significant climbs on the course (most of them were brief, but quite steep). One of the climbs was at the very end of the course (the 19th and 39th kilometer), and the first time through, I realized that it had the potential to be a very nasty climb on the second lap. I was right. Climbing that hill for the second time made me want to cry. However, I used most of the other hills to my advantage, climbing at a pretty quick tempo and making up a lot of ground during them.

I also had a very good, fast, half-marathon. I made the turn at 1:39:50 (essentially a 3:20 pace, carrying a 7:38 mile pace). I felt pretty good at the end of the lap, but I had a feeling that that wasn't going to be sustainable for the rest of the race. As I expected, I hit a wall, hard, at about 30 km, and my last two full 5k splits were significantly slower than my first 6 had been. I ran the second half in just under 2 hours, and finished with a 3:39:01, which I was quite pleased with! The second lap hurt a lot, but I still had enough energy (probably pure adrenaline at that point) to turn it up a little bit for the last 195 meters in the track (in metric, a marathon is 42.195 kilometers, so I know that it was 195 because I turned on the jets right as I passed the 42km marker). I ran the last 195 at what felt like a sprint (probably pretty slow on the grand scheme...) and almost collapsed coming across the finish line. One of the people who I started next to at the beginning of the marathon (meaning that we had the same start time) and had passed and been passed by a few times over the course of the marathon was one of the people I gassed on the track at the finish. I ended up eeking him out by about 7 seconds, and we shared a hand shake of mutual respect after we had both had a moment to recover. My time was good enough to land me 465th out of 1965 runners (and for those of you who are wondering, it was in fact a Kenyan who won the race, about an hour and 20 minutes before I got to the finish) and put me in 13th out of 63 runners in the Men 20-24 age bracket.

Now, everything you read about marathons prepares you to feel like absolute dog-meat for the last 6 miles. It has something to do with fully depleting your glycogen stores after 20 miles of running or some such nonsense. I'll admit that they were right, the last 6 miles (10.2km) were by far the hardest thing I have ever done. However, what nobody prepares you for is the feeling at the end of the race. I have never been in that much discomfort. My head throbbed, I felt like I was going to be sick, and every part of my body (including parts as innocuous as my fingertips and elbows) hurt as much as any part of my body had ever hurt. There was no position I could get my body into that would alleviate any part of the pain, and I pretty much just had to suck it up and get some measure of comfort out of the fact that I then didn't have to run another step for a week (or a month, or ever, really...). About two hours after I finished, I had had a calf massage, a shower, a change of clothes, and a little bit of first aid on my very blistered toe, and I started to feel slightly alive again. Walking was still more than I wanted to take on, but I no longer felt like death warmed over. This morning, I can walk somewhat comfortably again (although stairs are still kicking my ass) and I'm thinking that I might be convinced to do another one again at some point in the not-so-near future...

I'd be remiss if I didn't thank a few people for the help, advice, and support that they provided over the last 5 or 6 months. Obviously my family, all of whom were awesome throughout the entire process (starting in last October). Without the help of each of them, I never would have made it this far. The other person without whom this probably would never have happened it Robby Cuthbert, who dragged my ass out of the 4 mile loop I'd been running for about 6 months last march and brought me on a 6 mile run, essentially introducing me to the concept of running anything resembling long distances. He also was an awesome running/training partner this spring and summer, and is largely responsible for my current perception of running as something "fun" rather than something dreadful. I also want to pass along my gratitude to my suite (both from the 08-09 school year and this past summer) not only for the support that they offered me, but also for their understanding regarding the evenings that I neglected them as a result of the running that I was doing or the fact that I was too tired to move. There are numerous other people who played a part in making this possible. In fact, odds are that if you've read down this far, you're one of my closer friends, and I want to offer a blanket thank you to all of you as well.

It may be double-dipping, but I'm crossing "Run a Marathon" and "Run a Marathon in a Foreign Country" off of my bucket list!

This may be a bit of a forced segway, but while I'm on the topic of Bucket Lists, I also can cross a few other things off of my bucket list as a result of Friday evening in Tivoli Gardens. Friday afternoon I met my host brother Jonathan in Tivoli to go on a few of the rides. I added 3 roller coasters to my lifetime count (now up to a whopping 24, including the one of the oldest roller coasters in the world). I'm crossing "Ride a Roller Coaster in a Foreign Country off of the List too.

After spending the afternoon getting our adrenaline up, we met with Carsten and Ingrid to have dinner at a great Japanese restaurant that is right by Tivoli. After dinner, we went back into Tivoli to see a ballet troupe from New York City perform for the queen, her sisters, and the crown prince. It was a very interesting performance, and I enjoyed it. The queen presented a couple of awards in honor of her late mother, Queen Ingrid, after intermission, and it was a great opportunity to be a part of a royal event! However, I made a little mistake at the beginning of the performance... I had separated from the Wredstrøms to use the restroom, and when I tried to find my seat, I went to the A-entrance (as was indicated on my ticket). However, I was unaware that for performances that the queen is attending, the A entrance is closed and secured so that she can safely and quickly enter and exit the hall. As I tried to stroll into the auditorium through that entrance a very large (and surprisingly polite) usher/bodyguard stepped in front of me and stopped my forward progress. Realizing my mistake before I did, he directed me to the B-entrance. This slip-up was made all the more embarrassing by the fact that I was entering at the same time as the queen. In fact, I had tried to enter between the queen's sisters and the queen herself... On the plus side, it was very cool to be about 4 feet away from the queen herself! That being said, I am crossing "Embarrass Yourself in Front of Royalty" off of the Bucket List as Well!

After leaving the ballet, there was a rock concert going on outside (Infernal was playing...Apparently they're huge in Denmark) so we watched that for a while. After seeing some of the concert, we walked around Tivoli to see some of the lights and sounds (it was absolutely beautiful! You can see why Disney himself was inspired by Tivoli). We eventually found a little cafe to get some coffee and a drink before driving back up to Bendstrup. It was an amazing evening.

I don't think it needs to be said (it's mostly been implied already), but this past weekend was one of a kind. It was filled with amazing experiences. There was one dark spot, however. I was informed Saturday of the passing of my grandfather Russell (Bumpa) Hewett. It was not necessarily unexpected (he had been sick for the last few months), but it was still tough news to take. It makes it very hard to be so far away from my family when something like this happens. I really wish I could be there with them. A link to his obituary is included in the links section if anybody is interested in reading it.

I'm sorry to leave you on a sad note, but I hope that everything is going as well for all of you where-ever you may be as it is going for me in Denmark!

Also, I tried really hard this time to add photos, but Blogger hates me. There's a new link on the side (Photoset 4) that has a bunch of pics that you're free to check out!