04/12/2022
[ ] Once Upon A time, there was a young girl Who lived in the land of Colorado. Now, I want to hear all of this girl's grandparents and answer uncles and cousins went to this magical place Call Rehoboth Beach. The young girl was never able to go. She had parents who mostly took "tax deductible vacations." And nothing about this magical land of Rehoboth Beach was tax deductible.
[ ] In reality this girl didn't entirely know what that meant, other than it had to be some place drivable by car. Well except to a trip to Disneyland when she was 8 or 9.
[ ] But with all of her relatives going to this magical land, and it must be magical, it ended with the word Beach, it was a place that she dreamed of going someday. Though the only thing she knew about this magical place was it was back East and had salt water taffy. In fact, she believed that you could only get salt water taffy from this place. I mean the only time she got salt water taffy was almost once a year when her grandparents returned from this magical place.
[ ] Anyway the little girl grew up, like little girls do, and while she didn't think about it much, it was still a magical place that she hoped to see one day, but as she grew up, her grandparents didn't go every year any longer, sometimes every other year, but then she stopped noticing because she went to college.
[ ] And for many years she forgot about Rehoboth Beach. Until one day, many years later, she started running half marathons, and one of her friends mentioned it. Well she was already registered for another half the weekend of this half In a magical place, but maybe the next year. And then a global pandemic happened, delaying the journey to the previous race a year, so Rehoboth was still there waiting until the future.
[ ] This not so little girl, did the race she had been registered for, and then once registration opened for the race in a magical place, she signed up. She didn't think too much about it for most of the year, well not until it started to get close and she realized she needed travel arrangements.
[ ] And then it was finally the week of the trip. She was a bit nervous because sometimes when you are so excited and have been imagining a place for so long, it just doesn't measure up. So the morning of the trip came. When she woke up to head to the airport she found out there was some issue with the flight, so she changed her flight for one hour later. And drank a cup of coffee at home.
[ ] Then she boards the flight, and the pilot makes them all deplane. Oh no. But they do deplane and get back on. She is not looking forward to the middle seat, but in the magic of this Rehoboth Beach, she is upgraded to first class. Sigh. However, in her rush to catch her connection, she leave behind her book with only 3 chapters left.
[ ] She lands in Philadelphia, 2 hours later than she was planning, but it is ok. However the first 30 miles of the drive is awful, stop and go. And then the highway is closed. But she gets to this magical land at 530 pm, and is able to enjoy the magical Christmas display. She is hungry and the elves at the hotel send her to a delicious restaurant with oyster to eat. She doesn't make it to packet pick up that night, so she will have to make sure she is there early enough the next morning.
[ ] The next morning, her magical map gets her close to the race, but it fails to drop a pin where she parked. And while she tried to think ahead and take a picture, later it was blurry. But she cuts through a lot and heads to check in.
[ ] She checks in. She puts her bib on, and finds a box to put her stuff in. And then she goes into the start area. She starts going at the 30:30 intervals but realizes her shoe is untied. And has to stop. But she keeps going. Arrives at the boardwalk and realizes summer is probably everything she imagined, but since it is December, will not spoil the magic.
[ ] Starts on the first out and back. And then tries to do math after the marathon turns off. Fortunately it is not a test because she cannot figure out that 18 miles puts them 8 miles from the finish and lines up perfectly with the 5 mile marker. But she keeps going, because she is not running a marathon anyway.
[ ] Starts the second and longest out and back. About 1 mile from the turn around, the first of the marathon runners passes her, and people are not getting out of the way. How does he look less tired than I do at his 21 mile mark, when I am at 8? Who knows? She keeps going and make it to flag alley. All these flags and signs. And then she turns around. 9.5 miles done. It starts to pour rain now. She is now walking. No worries.
[ ] As she passes the 11 mile marker, sye turn away from the out and back, and go across the street to a trail covered with leaves. She has a flashback to 2018, where she ran a trail covered with leaves and fractured her radial head and middle finger on her right arm, so she walks. They get out of the forested area and suddenly she is at the 12 mile marker, and there is 17 minutes until the 3 hour mark. Darn it, she know has to make it. So she goes back to walk-run, but it hurts. And the rain is coming down harder. But she does it and crosses the finish line at 2:58. It is cold and wet. She gets some food, has a couple bites and tosses it. Gets some Starbucks and heads to the car. Well tries to anyway. As the finish is not the same place as the start, she starts walking and 0.5 miles later realizes there is no way her car is there. So she turns around. Finally sees something familiar and makes it back to her car 0.7 miles later. Because what else should you do after a half marathon but walk an unnecessary mile.
[ ] But the land is still magical and since it was pouring rain, she did not further explore this magical land of her dreams. And sadly she is realizing, in her hotel room, 2 hours away, she forgot to pick up her salt water taffy
Anyway state #28 in the books, half #53, I think. 2nd half In 6 days
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