So, I�should totally write more often, because I�never do, and thatapos;s lame...
First of all, hereapos;s my review of The Queen of Attolia, which I�finished last night:
12.�
The Queen of Attolia--
Megan Whalen Turner (10-13-08)
This is the second book in the series, after The Thief, and it outdoes itself, making you remember why you loved reading the first one.� Eugenides is the Queenapos;s thief, part of the royal family of Eddis, a mountanous country along the coast and one of three in the coastal region.� On one of his trips to nearby Attolia, a neighboring, and often rival, country, he is unexpectedly caught and tortured in a way that leaves him slightly bitter and disheartened.� However, there are events occurring that make it clear he must step out of his pain, and work again as a thief.� He must steal two people, the magus of Sounis and the queen of Attolia herself, while trying to secure peace against their nations and against the threatening Medes, who have come to conquer all three countries.� The writing is beautiful and at times, heartbreaking.� You will find yourself loving Gen, Eddis, and Attolia (yes, even her) before you realize that youapos;ve gotten the soft spot for them.� The story effortlessly pulls you along until the final pages.� Some people believe that the events in the story (I wonapos;t give it away) are unrealistic and unsatisfying, but I�believe that if you try to see beyond the outer elements of the characters, you will realize how these characters find it in themselves to have the feelings that they do.� Read it (but read the Thief first, it gives a good background) because you definitely wonapos;t regret doing soIt is truly awesome.� I�mean...thatapos;s all I�can say.
So yesterday I�sat all day because on Sunday was our half marathon. �Oh. My. GOD. My everything hurt after that.� Let me start from the beginning...
We stayed over in LB on Saturday, woke up at 5:30 to get ready, were out of the hotel by 6:30 am, and down to the beach by 6:45.� Then I�had to pee, so I waited in the freaking insanely long lines for the porto potties.� Seriously, there were literally like 100 of them, and the lines were STILL 50 people each. �Wow.� Anyway, the race started at 7:30, but by the time we reached the start, it was 7:45.� Mom, Jason, Kathleen (our WW leader), and I�all started walking together but then I�felt like I was walking SO�slowly...so I�started going ahead of them. �I�kept getting further and further ahead until finally I looked back and they were like at least a quarter mile behind.� I�reached mile marker 1 at 8:00. �Woot, 15 minute mile �GO�ME
It was beautiful, really beautiful. �We began by walking on the freeway (they closed them off so we could :p) which was nice because it went by all the tall buildings. �By the time I�was about a half mile away from mile 2, Jason ran to catch up with me.� That was nice, because I�was kind of lonely walking by myself.� And we stayed together the rest of the race. �Well, mile two was the first water station.� The runners had already been through there like half an hour before, lol...I�drank two waters and thanked myself for going to the bathroom in the beginning because there was one porto potty and like ten people waiting at it and it would have taken FOREVER to get through. �So Jason and I�passed it by and then the first bridge came.� Not too bad because we werenapos;t even three miles in yet, so I wasnapos;t hurting.
At a little after mile three, we saw Mom and Kathleen (or really, Jason saw them) crossing over the end of the bridge, so we figured they were about a mile behind us at that point.� Around mile four, I�started hurting a lot.� My right foot was losing circulation and I�felt like it was made of lead. �We ate some potato chips (the lays classic are supposed to help keep your water in your body better) and stopped at the side for about five minutes while I�wiggled my toes painfully to get the life back into them. �After that they felt so much better.� And when I�used the bathroom after mile four, it was great.� They didnapos;t lose circulation again for the rest of the race, but that initial one was probably why I�got two blisters on that foot, because I�couldnapos;t feel them forming.
Mile five and six were near the warf. �We saw a sea lion swimming around there and I got a picture of this black line in the water :p� Someone took our picture at mile six, which was really nice because thatapos;s almost the half-way point.� At the park, we passed over the split, which is the real half-way point. �I canapos;t remember what time it was, but it was somewhere around 9 am or so.� We were still going strong.� Passed by the start-line area again but not directly next to it, and saw all the people cheering for the real runners.� The winner had just gone through about ten or fifteen minutes before we got there. �He finished, we found out later, the entire marathon in 2:21:00....WOW. �Seriously, I�think we were at like mile 5, and heapos;d already run 26 miles O.O wow.
At mile 7, I was starting to get grumbly...It seemed like it was taking forever...and the stretch by the beach, although you would think it would be the best part, because itapos;s so pretty, was truly awful. �It was in the sun, on this long flat bike path, so that it felt like you were walking through the dessert, and it never seemed to end.� By the time we got to the mile 8 water station, they were beginning to have less and less water so that I�was like, "Uh, hello...werapos;e not the last ones."� The girl there asked how many were behind us, and Jason said, "Probably about 75 or so."�And the girl, all shocked, said, "75? That many?"� Excuse me stupid bitch but you didnapos;t just walk 8 miles so donapos;t you judge us for walking slowly...ugh I�was so irritated.� It was the way she said it, like, "Why do I�have to be here, ew..." *rolls eyes* anyway, suffice it to say I�was getting really annoyed.
By mile 10, the police began opening the streets again and making us walk on the sidewalk, which irritated me even more. �They said that we were allowed at least 5 hours to complete it...it wasnapos;t even at 3 1/2 yet� It was seriously insulting and really just made you feel like they didnapos;t care that you were doing a half marathon...By the time Mom and Kathleen got there, the streets were completely open, so they had to wait for traffic to stop to cross the street.� Ugh, that is just so stupid.� But anyway, the last three miles were SO long.� I�kept thinking that they must be placing the mile markers farther and farther, lol.� I wasnapos;t really in too much pain, although by mile 11 I�knew there was a blister on my pinky toe, and it made me walk kind of weird while I was trying to avoid it. �Also, I�think I pulled the muscle in the back of my right knee, because ouch, that hurt a whole lot.�
We had met up with the real marathoners by that time, so it was a little embarrassing to be hurting when they had just run (RUN�not walked) 23 miles, and we were complaining about 11 :p� They split us off into marathon/half-marathon at about mile 12 and for the final mile everyone cheered for the marathoners, and about two people cheered for us. �It was a little depressing, honestly.� But we kept going.� Right before mile 13 (the half-marathon is 13.1) the road started going down the hill so that when you got to the top, you could see the finish line a half mile away. �It was fantastic.� We walked past the finish line at about 4:17:20 (I think) which means that when you subtract the 15 minutes that it took us to get to the start line, we completed it in almost 4 hours.
Then when we crossed the finish, we realized that there werenapos;t any medals left...yeah, they RAN�OUT of half-marathon medals �Oh my gosh I was so dissappointed. �But they gave us a piece of paper with a number on it that you could call to requiest one.� Well, thanks a lot. �We registered for this stupid thing in like March or April...donapos;t tell me you didnapos;t know how many people were going to be there.� You know what, there were a bunch of people signing up for it yesterday, so basically, whoever crossed over first, no matter if they were registered for months or for barely 12 hours, they got medals. �That is seriously unfair. �The people who registered yesterday should have had big numbers that said, "I�registered yesterday��Give my medal to those who actually planned for this"� Honestly, it was really dissapointing.
Mom crossed at about 4:40 or so. �She had left Kathleen behind finally because she was going way too slow. �Kathleen finished one minute after 5 hours, which annoyed her because she said she would have hurried more if she had known how close it was to 5. �While we were waiting for her, we were watching the marathoners cross.� If youapos;ve never been to a marathon, you need to go. �It is so inspiring to watch them come over the finish line.� Some of them are crying, hobbling over it, running full speed.� One guy met his wife at mile 26 (the full is 26.2) and was handed his baby daughter and carried her to the finish line and put her down so she could toddle over it with him.� THE�most adorable thing Iapos;ve ever seen �And a blind woman, yes, a blind woman finished the marathon in less than 5 hours.� I�was just...I�mean...wow.� How did she know where to go?� I mean, there wasnapos;t anyone helping her, just her� It was truly awesome.� Oh, and there was a 12 year old who completed the 1/2 about ten minutes after Jason and I.� Wow.� Too cool.
Anyway, I�was so glad to have done it. �Got a little teary eyed when I�crossed because I�honestly didnapos;t think I was going to make it when I started.� But doing the half makes me think that I�could never, ever ever do a full one. �Man....I�canapos;t imagine having to walk another half...ouch. �I�mean, we didnapos;t train like we should have, but even if we did...ow....What they do to cross that 26 miles is just so totally cool.� You have to respect them because itapos;s insane.
Oh, one more thing� Lol...there was a woman on the side right before we got to mile 12 (marathoners at mile 25) who held up this sign that said, "You signed 4 this" on one side, and "Now Smile"�on the other.� So cute...and I�did smile.
So now you know why yesterday I�missed my Spanish class again...I�could never ever have made it up the stairs to King Hall. �I would have collapsed.� My legs shook when I was walking around here.� I�canapos;t imagine having to carry all my stuff in my backpack and walk to class. �But today Iapos;m feeling a little better. �I�think that by tomorrow, it will just be a little sore. �I can take some advil and struggle through it today.
Thereapos;s my story. �Hope you liked it. �I�do plan on doing another one (and training for it this time). �Iapos;d like to jog one some time, but Iapos;m not ready for that yet :p
~Katrina
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