I guess the fat lady is singing

Marathon Highlights:

* Watching drunk people run.
* Potato chips as energy food. This might be my sport after all.
* Seeing a dozen plus men, dressed up as Minnie Mouse, peeing in the vineyard. I don't want to tell you which one - I won't be held responsible for a subsequent decline in their wine sales this year!
* Doing likewise at a chateau (too much information?)!
* More men dressed in drag than at a Gay Pride Parade.
* Al the crazy costumes in general. The theme was comic book characters so there were Smurfs, Tintin, Asterix, Waldo, Disney, Simpsons, Star Wars...the list goes on.
* Passing people. I know this wasn't a competitive race but I confess that kept me motivated at kilometer 40.
' All kinds of music entertaining us at various stops.
* Eating grapes off the vine.
* Astounding chateaux and their landscaping.
* Several men's costumes featured bare chests - and bottoms.
* Village kids shouting "Allez, allez, allez!" and giving high fives to the runners.
* Other village kids holding up garden hoses to give us respite from the heat.
* Hundreds of people picnic-ing by the side of the route. This marathon is a regional spectacle.
* Running on everything from pavement to sand to rocks to gravel to dirt. No wonder my feet hurt!
* Fields of wildflowers interspersed between the vines.
* My snazzy SWAG: medal, backpack, t-shirt, and wine.
* No bugs!!
* Pouring water down my front and back to cool off.
* Being able to counteract my knee pain - which hit at kilometre 2 - with all the things that I learned from my therapists and it working the rest of the way.
* Getting an actual tan and about 30,000 more freckles.
* The recovery walk the next day past vines and sunflowers.
* Getting a little bit tipsy from all the wine tastings at the recovery walk.
* A fellow runner handing out tiny shrimp as a snack during the walk the next day.
* Watching Julie bandage up Bruce's feet the next day: four blisters on one foot. Yowch.
* The fantastic lunch the next day: charcuterie, lamb, chocolate cake, espresso, and wine.
* The Caribbean dance party the next day and my random German dance partner.
* Knowing I had so many people supporting me.
* Knowing with absolute certainty that I would finish.
* Finishing.

More thoughts to follow. Still processing.....