Silverman: Don't try this at home kids.

So, I am a marathoner (having now completed, two — count 'em — marathons!  When I told Erika last week that I had agreed to run the marathon at Silverman on the Splish relay, a scant four days out, albeit by taking it "easy" during the whole thing... she sent me a virtual postcard:

Especially funny if you consider what Amanda yelled to me at mile 65 of the bike while I was hanging out the window of a Mini.  Ear muffs:  "Sunny, you better run F#$%ing fast!"

What?!

To be fair, she was just over halfway of the hilliest iron distance bike course I had ever seen. And if that wasn't hard enough, she had some fierce cross-winds and a brief rain storm to contend with.  Understandable.

But really.  My PR for the marathon (if you can call it a PR considering I had only run one other) is 3:15:51.  I had no illusions (delusions?) of coming anywhere near that on the Silverman course.  But, I did want to represent and honor the faith Dawn and Amanda had that I would finish it.

Waiting for the chip in the transition tent (it was slightly chilly).

I took the chip-off from Amanda some time around 1:30 in the afternoon.  Starting this late was a nutritional challenge.  Normally around 2:00 I have hit my metabolic low for the day and am contemplating whether I need a second latté.  Instead, I ate breakfast at 5:00 am, lunch at 10:30, and started immediately with the caffeine on the run.

I forgot to start my watch and the aid stations were positioned almost exactly at the mile markers so that I kept forgetting to look at the clock to see my mile splits.  I couldn't really gauge my speed from the people around me because they were all doing the half-marathon... but I should have realized from the lack of people passing me, that I may have been going out a tad fast.

I was actually hungry during the first half, so I consumed a good amount of gatorade, pretzels, an orange slice or two, and my caffeinated Clif shot.  That proved disastrous as I took two pit stops and dropped emergency trow behind a construction barrier on the second half.  Sorry.. it really was an emergency.

At mile 18 I was running by an aid station, and I picked up a "coke" from the table.  I was so excited to see it had ice in it... but the aid worker came running after me to get it back.  This apparently was her "special coke".  She let me have sip anyway and it got me up that dang three-mile uphill on the second lap.

Also on the second half, my sister Shorty, ran a few bits with me... mile 13, miles 15-16 and miles 23-26 (and in all that, she only had to run up one hill... the smallest one).

Shorty cutting me off at a turn... I have to teach her to run as tight as possible (don't want to run a step further than I have to when it is a marathon!)

 I made it through those last six miles by walking the aid stations, singing Madonna songs in my head, and thinking about chocolate milk... which at that moment was the only thing I wanted to eat or drink.

With 0.3 miles to go, Ira, Dawn, and Amanda met me with my Elvis cape... a fabulous gold and shiny red thing that I draped over my shoulders for the final shoot.  Finishing was something else.  I don't remember a lot about it, except that Amanda got me two cartons of chocolate milk afterward.

On the way back to the hotel, all we could think about was MADONNA.  I downed some water, bread, and ibruprofen (surprisingly similar to my regime after heavy drinking), and a mocha latté from Starbucks (it was convenient and I loved every chocolaty foamy sip).... then it was off to get my Vogue on!