Wednesday, June 20, 2007

The Grueling Odyssey

well, i finished the marathon, and i'm still very sore. here's a little bit of a rundown of the whole thing...

here's us looking very happy and surly before the race began. both gareth and i did the full, mom did the half, and joel did two marathons in two days. we have no idea what we're in for!

here i am at the starting line on my way to sore legs and saltiness!


so, i started out pretty good, but probably too fast even though every body was ripping past me. the first cheerer i saw was tyler petkau, which was really strange and welcome because he was my roommate first year at cbc. he cheered well. at about mile 6 i saw a sign that said "Go Jonathan". I saw it and was encouraged, and was planning on making a joke to the cheerers that my name was jonathan. then i realized that my sister was holding the sign. at about mile 7 i finally took a drink. i finally caught up with gareth in assiniboine park. i saw him popping out of the bushes with some toilet paper. you'll have to ask him about that one!!

(obligatory paragraph break)

then i had the wonderful experience of having my wife cheer me on at around mile 13. yaaa!! minutes after that the wiebe's lifted my spirits with some high 5's. after that i kept running, and at about mile 18 i thought, hmmm...maybe i should've been running more than twice in the last six weeks, because i was getting sore. so, after mile 18 i walked and drank every water station. at mile 20 i saw my family again (they are supportive), and at mile 23 i walked the whole way. soon enough a cop on a bike stopped and asked how i was doing. i said "hungry". not, "i'm hungry", just "hungry". he proceeded to give me a peanut butter powerbar, which i appreciated, but could only get half-way through because 1. i don't like peanut butter, and 2. i was feeling pretty gross by then.

the last 3 miles i was running pretty consistent, and the last 2 miles i cruised despite my aching everything.



so, after all of that, i feel, hmmm...i kind of want to beat my time for next year...we'll see...

so good job everybody!! good job mom, joel, gareth, roslyn, and anybody else i know that completed their goal!!!!

15 comments:

Tom said...

HOORAY!!

I was standing outside the church, and then I went back in for two seconds to check on something, and then I came back out, and someone told me you had just run by.

BUT GOOD FOR YOU ANYWAY!!

Amanda said...

Way to go Jonathan! Ryan and I are totally impressed. You did great!

Joel Toews said...

Great pictures and wonderful recount of your grueling odyssey. Must say though, that only running one marathon a year won't get you a personal best, you've got to plan for a fall marathon too. Think about it.

Joel

Mandy said...

Yeah for Jonathan!

jpunk5 said...

joel, i already have a personal best! why do i need to run again??

kimbee said...

My husband is awesome!!!!!

jupo said...

way to go!

jupo said...

.... and then at mile 25.5....

Joel Toews said...

You're the one that said you wanted to beat your time next year.

Joel

jpunk5 said...

oh my goodness, i'm such a jerk!! at mile 25.5 i saw the best people ever. ryan and julia came and saw me run by. they are awesome!!! they even came into the stadium to see me, but by then i couldn't walk and so i didn't go see them, but i did wave. sorry ryan and julia, by the end of the race everything was a blur!! (the following comment will be in sing-song) i'm a jerk, oh, i'm a jerk, tra la la, oh, i'm a jerk.

oh, and i bought a scooter, and it's so fun. i want to ride it right now!!

Tom said...

Wow!

Rebs said...

YAH Jonathan! about the scooter and the marathon!
excellent post - I feel like I was with you the whole way now...minus the soreness :)

you rock

Jeremy said...

hooray for you and marathons

Trev & Rebekah said...

I just heard you two were expecting. A big congrats!!!

Roz said...

Yay for us! Wow, that's awesome, good for you. And your friends and family cheering you on! That's pretty cool. I've definitely learnt some important things for next year. I'm pretty much certain I could shave at least half an hour off my time...(pacing, stretching/warming up before hand, not running 10 miles and playing football in the week beforehand and so forth).