Long Beach (Half) Marathon- Part 3 (My Terrible Attitude & The Aftermath)

November 15, 2015

Aurora with head down in shame in the golf cart in the back of the Long Beach Marathon
Hanging my head in shame in the back of the pedal cart

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.

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