The Country Music Marathon Part IIII

After Michael and I embraced I ran over to the women handing out the medals and she placed it around my neck.

It felt wonderful.
Then the rain came down.

Hard.

Harder then before.

I started to walk to exit the race area and get a drink and food but no one was there.
A stack of bagels lay under a tent.

Gatorade unattended.

The only people there were hovering together under a tent standing in front of milk.

I grabbed a bagel and asked for a chocolate milk...

I saw several runners ahead struggling with the space blankets also unattended.

Luckily, a photographer ran over when I went to rip one off.

She wrapped it around me and goes honey you should be proud and said you want to remember this let me take a picture of you.

This picture tells you a lot.

Look behind me.

Everyone was packed up.

I completed the marathon at 5:46 and the course was open until 7.

However, NO ONE was there.

I've been at other races where space blankets are torn apart and laid out for runners ahead of time.

I thought this was bizarre.

Michael eventually just hoped the fence.

I was looking forward to the "after party" but I didn't see people, I didn't hear music.

As we went to the coliseum I was going to get my medal engraved but they were packed up.
The bands gone.

The beer...gone.

 

At that point Michael and I decided to just walk to the shuttles.

The rain came down harder and I started to get really cold.

My space blanket wasn't doing much good since it was ripped off when it was pouring and was wet on the inside and out.

Once we got to the shuttles we were informed they were done running.

I told the R&R worker that couldn't be as we even checked with our hotel and they said they would run until x time.

He told us the hotel shuttles had left and we would have to walk a football field away to buy a R&R shuttle pass.

Begrudgedly, we walked to the tent.

However, the dude under it was a spectator chilling out till the rain let up.

I cringed, the Shuttle guy already left!!!!

We went back to the shuttle area.

Michael spoke with the guy again and he basically he told us we would have to LITERALLY walk two miles over some bridge to get to music row where there would be taxis.

I remember starting to zone out.

I remember grabbing Michael's arm and going I'm going to get sick.

I started to shake.

Michael saw another volunteer, an older woman and ran over to her to see if she could help us.

As I started shaking (not shivering) a gentleman came behind me and covered me with his umbrella. He told me to hop on to a bus several feet away.

He said his son was going through the same thing and I needed to get out of the rain.

So I hopped on to the bus.

The guy had to be my age, his head lay in his hands and he was shaking too.

I cant describe how I felt.

It was so scary.

The shaking was hard and I didn't have control over myself.

I almost cried.

I didn't train for this.

I was scared.

 

A minute, ten minutes, an hour later- I don't know how much later but the guy that sat across from me left.

The bus driver appeared and buckled up.

Long story short the woman Michael talked with and the bus driver had sympathy over me and drove us to our hotel- for free.

Soon as the driver turned the heat on I felt my blood start to flow.

I started to feel alive again.

Michael opened my chocolate milk and I sipped it.

A few minutes later the shaking stopped.

 

My body temperature had dropped way to fast and no one from R&R was there to help me or any of the other runners...

even though the course was still open for over an hour after I finished.

 

I am forever grateful for the photographer, bus driver and gentleman that covered me with the umbrella.

I cant believe that after 26.2 miles the only ones there to help me were not R&R employees or volutneers but random (kind) people.

 

I honestly can say running the marathon was much easier then post race experience.

It was really scary and instead of celebrating such a victory I stood in the rain shaking uncontrollably.

I expected to be sore and tired but never expected this.

Although, R&R failed me, I did not fail myself nor will I allow that bad experience to overshadow my accomplishment.

I ran a freakin' marathon! ;)

So in my next post I will write about What I learned and maybe help another runner prepare for their marathon (outside of running).

Have you ever had a bad post-race experience?

How did you handle it?