por A

this morning alexey sokolov won the dublin marathon in 2:09:07; the first female, alina ivanova, finished 20min later. congrats to fa(s)tmammycat, who ran a solidly-paced race, running the last quarter of the race faster than the first. that is how "real runners" run, fastcat.

i ran my first -- and i swear on Z's HoL my ONLY -- marathon 6 years ago, right after i'd had my iliac bypass surgery and needed to test the new plumbing. what better incentive than running a marathon? to increase the likelihood of a Finn Cheering Squad i ran in my hometown, and parents, grandparents and almost-forgotten friends from high school came out to watch.

when my mom and i ran the Race for the Cure a couple weeks ago we talked about my grandfather and the influence he still wields today, 5 years after his passing.
-- i remember the first time i ran the Lady Equitable - my mom said. the Lady E was a 10K that ran through the city's inner harbor. it was a spring rite of passage for my high school track team too, though our coach turned a blind eye because the official stance discouraged road racing during the track season. - and i was SO nervous. i didn't get any sleep the night before and i couldn't eat anything that morning because i thought it would just come back up.
- because you'd never raced 6 miles before?
- no, because your grandfather was there. the running part of the race didn't scare me at all.
- aw mom he would have been happy no matter how you ran.
- finn you don't understand. you were the granddaughter. his relationship with you was much different than mine. you could have been lazy, no-good deadbeat and he would have loved you the same. but he never forgave me and weird sister for not being sons.

that may be so.
and when i crossed the finish line far off the boston qualifying time i'd planned to run, i met no recriminations or awkward silences. just congratulations and helpful hands that wrapped me in mylar and bustled me to a sunny patch where i sought to dispel all the lactic acid in my quads and hamstrings by eating a hootenanny of bananas.