Picking up from last time –
This is the part where I felt terrible… Well, terrible in a different way.
I felt all angry and grr about the dumb mistake I made. But now I felt terrible toward someone else [*hangs head in shame*].
There was this very sweet volunteer who was out in 101 degree heat, just giving us her time! And she greeted me so enthusiastically, trying to put a medal over my head. She seemed like the very sweetest.
And I was so mad at myself and the situation, I pretty gruffly said, “No thanks,” and walked right past her! (It is months later that this is posting, and I am still grimacing at how rude that was. I’m so very sorry, stranger!)
I went over to the medical tent, because my toe was bothering me a lot (and bleeding). So, I went to get a bandage. When the volunteer asked me about my race, I said I missed the turn [*grumpy, grumpy, grumpy*] And he said, “You’re not the only one! I’ve heard from a bunch of people today they missed the turn. The signage wasn’t good.”
I don’t know what percentage of that was trying to make me feel better, and what percentage was just straight truth.
Later, I checked the race’s Facebook page to see if maybe other people did have the same issue. And I saw people asking how many people were signed up vs. how many finished. People we’re all, “I tackled a marathon in 100 degree heat, and I want to know how many gave up and couldn’t handle it like I could.”
And it hurt! I was yelling to myself, “I can! I tried! I would have! Gah!”
Every time I saw a shirt that said “marathoner” in a workout class, I felt like a failure all over again. When it was weighing on my mind, it seemed to be the only thing I could concentrate on.
Also, I wondered if it would count as a DNF or just a half finish. In the Rock n Roll races, if you just run the half without saying anything, they automatically figure it out based on your timing mats and stuff, and give you a finish time for the half.
In this one, I think they were just gonna call you a quitter, but immediately after the race, I went to a tent and was like, “How do I get my time erased? I don’t want to remember this.” So, I’ve been erased completely.
As I complained and complained (like a very poor sport) to people I knew, people encouraged me to write in and complain about the signage. So I did write (in hopefully a nice way – esp since a little time had passed). I wasn’t the only one who missed it. But there weren’t many of us who wrote in.
I will say though, the Long Beach Marathon was amazing with customer service, because they gave me a free entry for next year – and they’re gonna mail me a half marathon medal.
It was unfortunate that I was an idiot and totally wasted my morning – when I could’ve felt so cool saying “I’ve done a marathon in a temperature over 100 degrees (and an ultramarathon in the hail!). I’m killing it y’all!” But no. Can’t say that… Yet.