Since I've never run a marathon in the U.S, I can't compare the set up of those to this one, but I thought it was organized pretty well. There was a "refreshment station" at every 5K mark, with water, gatorade, and solids later on in the race, and between all the refreshment stations there were "sponge stations". Those are just what they sound like--they hand you a sponge soaked in cold water. It felt amazing. Having something to look forward to every 2 or 3 kilometers really helped make the distance feel shorter, I think. It also helped that we were running in familiar locations, and could check off the landmarks as we passed them: the Colosseum, St. Paul's, St. Peter's, etc.
The other thing that helped keep us going was all the other people! You were never running alone; there were always lots of other runners around, suffering just as much as you were:-) And there were always people there cheering, too. In fact, a bunch of the other archies made signs for us and came and cheered at different points along the course!
So, while the marathon was definitely hard, and definitely long, I felt better during it than I did during my 18 mile run in Sicily a few weeks ago. During that run, I was by myself, I didn't really have enough food and water, and the sun was beating down on me for most of the time (I forgot to mention that the weather for the marathon was almost perfect--overcast and 60s), and by the end I felt like I didn't really have the ability to move my legs anymore...
So I was thinking about this contrast while I was running, and it occured to me that St. Escriva and St. Louis de Montfort would apply this to faith by saying that running alone in the heat without water is like going at the spiritual life completely alone--it's possible to make progress, but HARD. On the other hand, running an organized marathon with lots of other people and people on hand to make it as comfortable for you as possible, and cheer you on--that's like life with Mary and the communion of saints. When you get tired or start to falter, Mary's right there with whatever you need (probably a sponge), and the communion of saints is standing around holding signs and cheering for you. You're still doing the actual running yourself; you take every step of those 26 miles (or 42 kilometers)...but you have a little help along the way.
And not only did I have time to come up with things like that, I also prayed all 4 sets of mysteries of the rosary! It's amazing what you can do with that much time on your hands. 4 hours, 38 minutes, and 32 seconds, to be exact, because that's how long it took me to finish. My goal was to finish, and my secret time goal was under 5 hours, so I was pretty happy about it.
What I didn't realize til afterwards was just how sore I'd be--I couldn't walk down stairs without fairly excruciating pain for about 2 1/2 days. But it's all gone now, and I'll be ready to start training for next one any day now. Just kidding! I'll probably take it easy for a little while. Maybe.
Finally, thank you to all of you who were thinking of and praying for me during the race! I was definitely relying on those prayers. And I probably prayed for you at some point, too--like I said, I had a lot of time:-)
Here are some of us post-race: Gina, me, Evan, Evan's dad, and Courtney. I'm wearing my complimentary backpack and we're holding our finisher medals!
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