Lest I Forget

Some moments from the Banquet and the marathon that I wanted to get out here before I forget them.

First, here's a picture of yours truly during the speech.

I had to lean forward for the microphone to pick up what I was saying

I wore a suit but once I got there I just took the jacket off and never put it back on until I left. I chose to wear my red shirt because it's supposedly the color of power and confidence, or something.

This is another shot of me, from my awesome blog buddy Angie.

my bib in lights, if you will

* At one point, all the multi-marathoners were asked to stand. Of the Lopers in attendance, one had run 56 marathons (Art, one of my pace leaders); another had done 90 and another had done 145. And many had done more than 20. When I lovingly called the Lopers "crazy multi-marathoners" during my speech, that's what I was referring to. Seriously, with so much experience in the group, how can you not do well?

* On the back of the program or agenda or whatever, there was something that talked about Marathon Ambassadors. It was a great list of things that happen once you cross the finish line of a marathon. I will post it in full length later this week (it's kinda long) so keep an eye out for that. One of my Marathon Ambassador duties, for instance, is to help a first-time marathoner cross the finish line at least once. Not sure when or where that will be, but that will be a great moment when it does happen.

* When I mentioned that the first race I ever signed up for was the Camp Pendleton Mud Run, I got a little bit of a reaction from the crowd. A few oohs and some murmurs. Yeah, even Lopers know that race is no joke.

* Mrs. LB told the people at our table about how I needed help sitting down after Surf City. I'd forgotten about that. I did need help to sit down. She was with the girls about a block away from the finish line, but I didnt' realize that until long after I crossed the finish line. Since I had no coverage I couldn't communicate with her so I walked and stood for awhile until I finally got in touch with her. I walked over to where she was, well, walking is too strong a word. With the grace and speed of a three-toed sloth, I lumbered my way over towards her. I wanted to sit down but I tried a few times before realizing that my legs didn't want to. They just wanted to remain in the same position they'd been in for nearly six hours. I hadn't sat down, after all, since I'd left the hotel room at 5:30, and it was now about 11:30 or so, and sitting down was a chore. So I asked Mrs. LB to help me sit down. It was painful but once I was sitting I felt okay.

* Back to the speech: I must have practiced the speech about 145 times the week before. I just kind of started talking about the things I wanted to talk about until I formed the basis of an outline, then I wrote that down. I broke it up into three parts: my weight loss, becoming a runner and my experiences with the Lopers. It just seemed logical. When I practiced my speech, it kept coming out to about 18 minutes but I cut it down kind of on the spur of the moment. I don't know how long the speech was -I'm guessing around 12 minutes. It didn't really feel like an eternity, and I think I did okay not to stammer my way through.

* When I was practicing my speech, I would tear up and start to get all emotional. Grrr.... I'd kind of wanted to get all that out of my system so I wouldn't break down in front of everyone. There were a few times I got choked up but overall I did well to just give the speech.

* I still can't believe I ran an effing marathon.

* I suppose the tradition with the Loper Banquet is to wear all the medals you've accumulated from one banquet to the other. Dammit! I didn't know. I just wore my Surf City medal because that's what I was told, to bring the Surf City medal. I would have loved to have sported my Ragner Relay medal too. Oh well. I guess I'll just have to wait until next year to wear the Ragnar medal and hopefully a pair of new marathon medals.