Revisiting Maui

Pictures are deceiving. More deceiving that you want to admit. Tonight I revisited the Maui 2005 Runbutan DVD. In truth, sometimes watching the DVD is a bit painful because my memories of the actual marathon aren't pretty. In fact, they're pretty miserable. It was the longest day of my life that I really don't care to re-live. Some of the low-lights included:

- BLISTERS! I don't have a photo of it, but on the DVD, there's a photo of me in the medical tent after crossing the finish line. You can clearly see the two onion-sized blisters that formed on BOTH of my feet. About a 1/4 mile away from the finish line, the blister on my right foot decided it wanted to POP. Yeah. IN MY SHOE! I crossed the finish line in tears and in pain - body aching with warm blister juice oozing inside my shoe. In case you want to get a taste of what my blisters were like, look below. WARNING: The following photo contains an image of graphic nature.



This is what happened to my feet after the trial marathon in San Francisco. In a state of denial, I didn't even take a photo of my feet post-Maui marathon. This was the best I could bring myself to do:



- RECOVERING FROM THE BLISTERS! Each time I had blisters I couldn't walk for at least three days. The marathon was on a Sunday, and I couldn't walk until Wednesday! I spent ten days in Hawai`i and couldn't go into the water because my feet were healing (salt water and blisters are a painful combination).

- Sharing sick and twisted stories with Tzel about my favorite books because I was in a sick-and-twisted state of mind.

- Watching the marathon vehicles follow Tzel and I so they could pick up the orange cones.

- Struggling every step of the way hoping the end would be near.... Finally getting to the end and discovering the finish line had been taken down, the freebies were gone, and the nurse at the medical tent who pointed out to her co-workers how ugly and disgusting my blisters were.

Let's just say these days I'm not signing up for my next marathon and right now, that whole thing is up in the air. Currently, I take a serious two-mile run once a week and do running drills almost everyday during my boxing conditioning classes. While I'd like to actually run perhaps a half marathon, right now, I think I would walk them at best. For now, I'm aiming to walk the SF Half and the Nike Women's Half.

In a recent e-mail exchange, a friend sent me this link that explains ten reasons why marathons are bad for you. There is also this link to consider. Not that I'm anti-marathon, but a little reinforcement as to why I shouldn't run them is nice.

So for now, I'm not signing up for any full marathons and am planning on walking a few half marathons at best. At this point, I like my feet when they're blister free.