most women want to look like models. they want straight hips and pouty lips and hair that makes the world move in slow motion so you can see it ripple with every head toss. i guess i must be an exception to the rule.
i have this dream. in it, i’m an athlete. i’m strong and tan and fit. i have muscles, not freakishly big like a body builder, just solid. i never let the ball get past me when i play defense in soccer. i can produce that “thok” sound of a baseball hitting the pocket of a glove. i can hit three-pointers with consistency. i can bike to the top of page mill road and back.
and i can run marathons.
i did my 6th road race this morning–my 5th 5k. i finished in 33:09, slower than i had hoped, but the course was also more hilly than any i have run before. it is discouraging that i’m not getting any faster, especially since my goal is sub-30:00 by june… but i still think it’s reachable. heh. today i got lapped by dozens of elementary school kids, so that was a new low. 
still, if you want to see my name, go here and follow the links to the 5k overall results. i’m finisher #791 (out of 2193). i get a kick out of seeing my name on the web, at least.
the amazing thing about this morning, though, was what happened about an hour and a half after i finished my race. i stuck around and claimed a good spot by the rails to watch the first marathoners come in. amazing. how do they run that fast, for that far?? the top male was jonathan ndambuki (he’s kenyan) in 2:18:05. the top female was julieanne white in 2:51:10. the course is quite difficult, with many from sea level…it’s not a course where any records are going to be broken. in fact, the second-place male was a full 7 minutes behind the winner.
still, it was so cool watching them finish. i’d never seen the end of a marathon before, and the speed and endurance of these people just blew my mind. i want to run a marathon. i’m thinking i could a january or february 2003 race…with an off-the-top-of-my-head goal of finishing in under 5:00:00 (maybe i could do it slightly faster, like 4:45:00). how cool would that be? i think i may just make that my goal.
