Sunday, August 5, 2012

Another post on the Olympics

I am sitting here watching the Women's Olympic marathon, because you know, it's hot as balls outside. Once upon a time (in 2010) I made the dumb decision to run a marathon. I don't regret it, I am super proud of myself for doing it, but I am 99% certain I will NEVER DO IT AGAIN. That 1% is a part of me that would like to get a better time, and maybe not do it in pouring down rain. Anyway, watching this marathon and thinking back to my own, a few thoughts popped into my head...

1) The announcers just said that the runners were keeping a "comfortable 2:25 pace." That would mean running the ENTIRE marathon in under the time it takes to watch Hunger Games (plus a couple minutes of previews.)

2) 2:25 is NOT a comfortable pace. That is a 5 and a half minute mile. I can't even do one mile in 5 and a half minutes, much less 26.2 of them.

3) Its raining in London today. It was raining in 2010 in Portland when I did my race. That's like the same.
Me after the 2010 Portland Marathon
4) Each runner had bottles filled with "their own concoctions" at each water station. Would it be against the rules to have a crystal light/vodka in the water bottle?

5) The women are essentially running in bikini bottoms and a sports bra.
Source

Chaffing much? I guess if you have -3% body fat you don't have to worry about your thighs rubbing together.

6) The winner just took a victory lap, holding the Ethiopian flag above her head. (She was from Ethiopia so it wasn't weird or anything.) When I finished (in 6 hours 10 minutes) I could barely walk to the car, much less hold anything above my head.

7) Does anyone else think they should give more than 3 medals in the marathon? How is it fair that these athletes who are running 26.2 MILES get the same number of medals as the athletes running 100 meters. Yeah, they run those 100 meters super fast, but come on, even the slowest person was still done in under a minute.

The Olympic athletes are continuing to amaze me. The runners, the gymnasts, the swimmers- all of them. The Mister is less than amazed. Equestrian was on earlier, he watched it for a few minutes and then announced "This British rodeo is boring." (I kind of agreed. But the show jumping is fun to watch.)


Are you still watching the Olympics or has it lost it's luster? Would you run a marathon?

3 comments:

Lauren said...

I've never thought much about the running side of the Olympics until this year, but I agree with you-they are working their booties off and deserve the credit for it!!

PS-Equestrian and diving are on our no watch list. Everything else I can't get enough of!

Unknown said...

I thought I wouldn't watch any of it but have been completly sucked in. We spent about 3 hours on saturday night watching the athletics - rock n roll!!

Running a marathon sounds like my idea of hell - well done!! xox

Alison said...

Wow, I can't even imagine myself doing a marathon. You go girl! I would like to a half-marathon someday, but probably not a full marathon. Marathon runners are some crazy in shape people. They all deserve a medal!