text: Disclaimer The following review will be rather detailed and rather extensive nnThe Short It was decentnnThe Long nnPart nn amnAlarm blaring at am Normally this would be a sick joke to me but because it was the day of the Marathonit was my current reality You see about months prior I had this crazy idea I figured ish miles was funhow bad could twice that amount be I was about to find outnnSo there I am in the dark rolling out of bed slowly This was going to be a long day I figured not to mention this was something I had been training for for quite some timerace jitters were there aplenty only to be stifled briefly by the amount of water I was guzzling nnMorning stretches were a must as to hopefully help my now war torn body cope with the beating it was about to take one step on the pavement at a time nn amnIt was a bit before am now time to begin walking down Luckily for me I live close to downtown so I would not have to brave the horrid traffic that the out of town race enthusiasts had creatednn amnI arrive at the scene A giant mob of people are around me I make my way into my corral Originally it had been my idea to try and sneak into a better corral closer to the start line but this year they checked your race bib at each corral entrance Nice job Pittsburgh Marathon Volunteers you kept my sneakiness at baythis timethis time I make my way to the front of my corral because you figure the less energy used to run around s of people the more energy you will have later nn amnPost anthem and announcement the roar of the gun goes off and the race beginsfor the st corrals that is The anxiety is building up at this point Hopping in place does not seem to be helping the matter The line of volunteers dividing the corrals begins to direct us to move forward I honestly can say I had never felt more like cattle in all my life Anyways we moove to the start linennish amnAnd were are off I press the play button on my shuffle for musicthis is going to be a long trip I being me try and stay ahead of the mob behind me feeling pumped from the song by the band Blur blaring through my headphones I unknowingly am running at a sub pacethis is not goodnot good at all I figure at this point I better actually use my pace watch and not just use it as a paper weight on my wrist so I do nnMile nSo many people still in awe at the turnout and the fact that I am about to run my body into the ground like an idiotnnMile nI finally have my pace going steady which is great I had a nice chat with a friend of mine along the way He luckily was running the relay I should have taken notesbut I did not and instead am running the full Running through my stomping ground is quite motivational Normally I run not to get mugged on the North Side this time it is a bit differentI do not have my wallet nnMile nI am able to cross into West End Village and start heading down East Carson St I chug water like it is my job at every station just to make sure I do not regret not doing later I see friends yelling my name along the way it is rather nice As I run down East Carson St something occurs to meI have been drinking a lot of water In a typical situation one would just use the restroom but seeing that I had made a couple bets on my finishing time any delays would have me paying people in cases of beerand this was not acceptable Did I mention that I am idiot So as to your guess I do what one would not want I pee down my leg nnMile nHoly Mother of MaryOakland apparently has a hilland it is a big one not to mention the Sun decides that today is the day it will scorch the earth with it is unrelenting rays as if it had just had it is car keyed That is when it hits me Why the crap do not I have a better hobby Maybe collecting stamps would be betternnMile nPeed myself againnnMile nI am somewhere in Shadyside I think Personally I do not care anymore Location is not important I have been running for miles up a damn hill and I cannot still quite justify why this was a good idea The sun has been make me it is female dog for quite some time now I flash back in my head to a statement my girlfriend had made saying that this would be over before I knew it and it would go oh so quick This is also the point where I realized she apparently enjoys sitting in a throne of liesthis sucks nnMile nAt this point I am thinking oh wowthis is awful the only motivation keeping me going is the bad music along the way I need to get away from themthat is all I know I only stop running briefly to then have someone yell to me IT IS ALL DOWNHILL AT MILE I remember thinkingI do not care if mile is a cliff we all drop offI do not want to keep going but alassomehow I donnTo be continued