Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Hitting the Wall!

As the marathon is only a scant month away my mind has turned to all things terrifyingly painful. So it was with abject horror I watched the following ( yes I know, hardly comparable, but still, it scared the pants off me).

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23 Comments:

Blogger tina said...

Ouch. That looks painful! Makes me realise I'm such a lightweight, I could never push myself anywhere near that much. Not even half.

5:04 p.m.  
Blogger Megan McGurk said...

Holy shit.
That's a horror show, FMC.
Crawling over the finish line looked like fucking torture.

5:05 p.m.  
Blogger fatmammycat said...

It's unreal ain't it ladies, I've watched it three times now and each time I feel slightly sick. If that was me I'd be hitching a ride home.

5:07 p.m.  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I can't see the video because somebody in the office was sent a link to something on Google videos and, thinking it was a 2 minute clip of a polar bear break dancing and not a 90 minute 9/11 conspiracy theory,let it load in the background. Ever since then - all video sites have been blocked. Boo hoo!

I'm assuming from the comments that it is an iron person event?

5:11 p.m.  
Blogger fatmammycat said...

Bingo BA, it's two ladies in the 1997 Iron man who literally fallumped and wobbled until they fell down and then CRAWLED over the line, with organ shutting downa dn everything failing. It's rather terrifying.

5:14 p.m.  
Blogger fatmammycat said...

Actually BA, did you see today that something like 67% of bosses check BeBo and facebook to see if their staff are playing hookey when they claim to be sick? Who knew!

5:16 p.m.  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Ahh I think I saw this before - the woman leading collapsed in a heap and tried, a number if times, to stand up in order to complete the course.

The lady who was second, and a good way back it must be said, started towards the line on all fours almost as soon as she falls the first time. It is only when she crawls past the lady in first that she too begins to crawl?

While I found it horrific to watch 2 obviously super-fit athletes reduced to crawling, there was something inspiring about their unbelievable commitment, courage, determination and maybe their foolhardiness.

5:21 p.m.  
Blogger fatmammycat said...

That's the one, it's an amazing piece of footage.

5:29 p.m.  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

And that was the race for FOURTH place, jeezuss

5:44 p.m.  
Blogger Twenty Major said...

Obscene.

5:48 p.m.  
Blogger fatmammycat said...

Brave and plucky and a little bit crazy, the way I imagine most good athletes must be.

5:52 p.m.  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Good grief, that's driven.

6:25 p.m.  
Blogger fatmammycat said...

Bet it make you feel like going out for a run, right?

6:28 p.m.  
Blogger Andraste said...

I'm with 20, that was obscene. Yuck!

12:05 a.m.  
Blogger Jo said...

I couldn't watch more than half of that. Vomit. It looked like her legs were just going to end in half.

I think I'd as soon watch someone eat themselves to death on a sofa than watch that.

Brave? Or insanely obsessive and self desructive, maybe.

9:52 a.m.  
Blogger fatmammycat said...

Little of both maybe?

10:10 a.m.  
Blogger Pat said...

Will they think it was worth it when they reach old age and are crippled with arthritis? Even the modest rock climbing I did in my twenties and thirties gives me painful tweaks now and then. I'm perfectly sure that you will be sensible. Won't you?

10:19 a.m.  
Blogger James McInerney said...

I felt exhausted just sitting in me chair.

10:19 a.m.  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Horrific. But why did they do that? Do you think they get a feeling of satisfaction/achievement from half killing themselves? It seems pointless to me when they could be watching telly with a nice glass of wine.

10:25 a.m.  
Blogger fatmammycat said...

I'll be pretty sensible Pat. As sensible as anyone who thinks running 26.2 miles is a good idea can be.

Docky! How goes the injury? Better now?

Shebah, it's a challenge, a test of one's endurance, mental strength and stamina. I get the why, even if the result makes me want to join you on the couch.

That said, this is so excessive. Bonkers.

10:34 a.m.  
Blogger Jo said...

I think I don't find it brave because I dont relate to the idea of such a rigid definition of success.

For that woman, crossing the line clearly became everything. Worth damaging herself for. That tunnel vision scares me a bit. I don't really understand what she gets out of it - doing something because she set out to, and she doesn't care how much she debases or hurts herself, she's got to reach the finish line.

I'd be prouder of her if she protected herself and worked towards doing it better next time.

BUT! I'm a) a fat-ass lazy slob
and b) have a tendency to want to avoid pain, physical or emotional.

So my judgy-judging is extremely subjectively motivated, I do recognise this.

9:22 p.m.  
Blogger fatmammycat said...

Whenever I hear or read Judgy-judgement I immediately think of Stanford from Sex in the City. How odd.

9:55 p.m.  
Blogger aquaasho said...

I can't see it cos I haven't downloaded the plug in(!!I'm useless) but I'm well familiar with the footage. I found it obscene at first and can't watch but there is this thing with ironman that you finish at all costs, ALL costs. I didn't understand it till I saw super elite athletes finishing way down the field and realised that even they "got" it. You get over that line any way you can. Marathon doesn't seem to have the same thing at all...

3:54 p.m.  

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