Posted by Monetta Roberts on December 05, 2007 at 05:57:03:
Gang:
Trying to pull myself together for another day of 9-5 toil and trouble and just heard an oldie goldie from the Ramones on the radio. It brought back ALL the (natural only) chemically-induced feelings of glee and euphoria I experienced in my last NYC Marathon, back in whatever year it was..... I'd had Achillies tendonitis for the entire training period (not that I would have REALLY trained anyway) and could not train more than a step here, a step there, but come race day, as often happens in the movies, I was perfectly good to go, and figured, "oh, what the hey." It was warmish and humid, like a fair training day here, and I slogged it out to the best of my ability. There were two especially high points: (1) While listening to a local radio station, they honored the marathoners by playing twenty (20!) Led Zepplin songs in a row, sans commercials-----when I hear any one of those songs today, I can (and do) STILL say, "THAT was one of the 20." Just as good, at mile 20, which, if memory serves, is in Harlem, there was a punk band set up on a corner, and as I came around, they happened to be playing a marathonized rendition of The Ramones "I Wanna Be Sedated." As best I can remember their lyrics, it went something like the below, and for those moments that I could hear them, I was filled with nothing short of child-like 100% glee that finally a band was playing exactly the right beat AND singing words that, at the time, could not have been more perfect:
Twenty-twenty-twenty-twenty miles just done; I wanna be sedated
Six More to do Six More to go; I wanna be sedated
Just put me in a wheelchair And get me to the show
Hurry hurry hurry before I go loco I can't control my fingers
I can't control my toes Oh no oh ho
I wanna be sedated
I love the old saying, "Marathoning: All it takes is all you've got." But stuff like the above sure doesn't hurt. At least not when it comes to me.
Ok,
Mo Roberts