It’s over, and I’ve done it. I crossed the finish line waving a Korean flag that my family had given me along the course, and as expected, burst into tears at the end. I’ll never forget the feeling of crossing that finish line….months and months of training, pre-dawn training runs, staying in on Friday nights…it all paid off today at 12:50pm.

And to top it all off, today is my 1.5 year anniversary of being a non-smoker.

Surprisingly, I’m feeling good physically. I felt worse after the 21-miler. My knees are sore, and my left hip feels like it’s had all the cartiledge ground down, but I think the adrenaline from running (and the 6 painkillers I took along the course) has helped kill the pain.

Anyways, I’m off to take a nap. I was falling asleep during lunch.

Well, I’m packing up to head out to GRB. I’ve had my carb-loaded breakfast (oatmeal with honey, banana, a little chicken broth with rice, toast with peanut butter). I woke up in a panic three times during the night - midnight, 2am and then 3:28am - thinking that I had overslept and missed the start of the race. Talk about a recurring nightmare.

Funny that the last time I woke up at 3:28am, when my alarm was set to go off at 3:30am.

I’m all slicked up with BodyGlide, and am going to slab on a few layers of Icy Hot when I get to GRB. I’m not sure if I’ll take my MP3 player with me, to help get through the tough spots….it’s just one more thing to carry. hmmm.

Gonna have a post-Marathon celebratory lunch at Farrago’s with friends & family. White chocolate bread pudding, here I come!

I’ve got butterflies in my stomache. Gonna get some last minute stuff together, then I’m out.

nightmares

• I woke up this morning in a panic. I thought it was Sunday morning instead of Saturday, and that I had missed the start of the Marathon. The first time, I went back to sleep….only to jump up again an hour later in the same panicked state. I tried going back to sleep, but I was too wired. It was 8:30am.

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