My reacquaintance with poetry; Mississippi River Marathon

there is fury in running.
in the narrowed vision
determination
pain
and the embrace of it
breaking, and
breaking, and
breaking.

there is pleasure in running
my cradle
endlessly rocking
darkness
call of soul
to self
breathing,
and breathing,
and breathing.


The Mississippi River Marathon on Saturday was pretty wonderful if you discount the Friday night experience.  To say the pasta place was overwhelmed is a ridiculous understatement.  Carrie and I had a glass of wine each and then left, as people who had been waiting 2 hours finally started to get their food.  Siri sent us the wrong direction to our hotel, and we ate McDonalds at almost ten.

Still, Saturday morning we were up and boarding buses to head to the start for this point to point marathon.  It was chilly.  We learned that a good-size space blanket will keep three people comfortably warm if you aren't afraid to cuddle.  We weren't.





I learned something important to remember about my marathoning self on Saturday.  Several times now I have said, either to myself or to other people, or both, that I am going to run this marathon slow.  I don't care about time, I am just going to enjoy it and take it easy.  I did do that at Run for the Ranch, except that I was pretty miserable the whole time because of the cold.  But usually around half way through my competitive-against-myself nature comes out and I want to do better.

We did start out on the slow side.  At the bridge we were on pace to run about a 4:35 when I went on ahead without Carrie.  Alone with myself then, I picked up the pace.  I went inside myself.  I felt solid, good.  I decided to sort of go for a PR.  Why not?  Marathoning for me is about rawness at its core, achieving something up against myself.  Pushing, yanking, throwing, digging.  So I did that. 

I missed a PR by 3 minutes.  I ran a really negative split: 2:19 in the first half, and 2:05 in the second half.  I'm really happy with it because I know that if I can get that close last week with no taper and with a first half that including some messing around, I can PR in Little Rock.  (Knock on wood and such.)

Next weekend is the Run the Line Half-Marathon.  With friends--the best way to do it.