Yup... I did a marathon.
Before and after pictures:












So... the day before, we went to pick up my dorsal (my bib, I think)... and they had this HUGE free "pasta party" with heinous amounts of pasta which was totally worth documenting with fotos. I got lots of lovely free stuff like t-shirts and silly hats that had a battery-operated radio inside it.






So... day of... Julie Ann was ridiculously nervous... I kept myself busy making a playlist during the entire metro ride to the starting line. There were SOOOO many more men than women running. I was more than a little perturbed with there were only 16 porta-potties for 13,000 people... the majority of which were men... so clearly... the BILLIONS of men that were in line to start were pooping when I only had to pee.

Of course we were all greasing up... and here is a lovely picture of me putting vaseline on my arm (Beth was sure to get the aesthetically pleasing tulips in the background).

But let's see... yup... it was hard. It hurt... but it wasn't so much my muscles... but my joints. Knees. Hips. Ankles.

At every water/refreshment stop they offered oil and this crisco like substance to slap on your thighs (or wherever... ew... don't think about that too much)... and also had this spray "icey hot" numbing stuff if you wanted it. The weather was phenomenal. Not too hot at all... 20-24 degrees (celcius, of course)... and absoltuely gorgeous.

The city was phenomenal to run through. Kilometers 30 to 40 were the WORST. (Yes, I'm now thinking in kilometers, at least where the marathon is concerned.) And I was feeling EXTREMELY emotional by the time I got to the last two kilometers and this one man who had already finished was encourging us saying "ya está hecho" meaning "it's already done." Haha... hilarious.

Some guy was annoucing names when you crossed the finished line, and when I crossed listening to my I-pod (the wonderful winning last song happened to be Kelly's "Breakaway"... how beautifully appropriate)... I at first didn't hear mine... so he called it out again and then I turned and he was like "Yeah, Julie!!!" So I threw my hands up in the air and laughed.

They gave us a bag of goodies when we finished as well as a trash bag to keep us warm? (Who knows?) But then, in true Spanish form, they had a GI-normous beer stand available right after the finish line, and men who had finished the race and hadn't even taken off their numbers yet were downing beers. Sick. I hardly wanted anything to eat. But honestly, I was in the best mood. I didn't feel miserable. I felt fabulous. I'll totally do it again. Love this picture of me and Bees at the end... I can't believe she touched me. I had salt cristalized on my face and everywhere from the sweat. And if it looks like I peed my pants... that's just from all the crisco-like oil substance they gave us which was lovely and melted down the inside of my legs. Secret: I love being dirty and sweat when you've done something like that.