Insomnia strikes again...

6 days of sleeping has taken it's toll. Now I can't seem to sleep at all. Well, since I can't sleep, I might as well blog, eh? Soooo... let's see.... I guess I should finish telling about my trip to Alaska. (This is gonna be another super long post, but this is mainly for my own memory, so feel free to skip it if you want.)

So I finished the marathon. I was exhausted! I have never been that tired in all my life. It was funny... I was able to walk & run 26.2 miles, but as soon as I finished & I sat down to take off my shoes & put on my flip flops & jacket, when I tried to stand up again, it was almost impossible. Every single part of my body hurt. Suddenly I could hardly walk. Every single step was painful & took every ounce of energy I had. While I stood in one spot, holding myself up with the help of a guard rail, Ginny went to find out where the busses back to the hotel were parked. I quickly called my parents to tell them I finished the race, but they weren't home!!! I left them a long winded, guilt-filled message. ("How dare you not be home when I finish my 1st marathon!!!") She finally found them & I slowly made my way to the parking lot. Unfortunately, none of the busses were going to our hotel. After some sweet talking, one of the drivers agreed to go off her route & droop us off at our hotel. She even lowered the ramp on the bus so I didn't have to walk up the 3 steps to get on. I told her she was my most favorite person on the planet. (LOL!) She even dropped us off right in front of my tower of the hotel so all I had to do was walk in the door & BOOM... I was at the elevators.

Ginny helped me to my room & left me to shower & recouperate. I was frozen to the core & could not stop shivering. I turned on the hot water in the shower & just sat myself down in the tub & let the steaming hot water fall all over me. I stayed in there for a good 45 minutes before I finally felt somewhat warm. I slowly got dressed in my jammies & collapsed on the bed. I slept for about 45 minutes before I woke up due to a leg cramp. I could have easily turned over & slept for the rest of the night, but I didn't want to miss all of the victory party. I earned that party dammit! So I slowly changed my clothes, put on a little makeup, & headed to the party. Unfortunately, the party was 4 blocks away & the hotel didn't offer a shuttle, so I had to fucking WALK the 4 blocks. How much did that suck? I was walking sooooooo slooooooowwww. Hell, I was even passed by a small pack of elderly couples.

When I finally made it to the party, the guy taking my ticket at the door said "Damn! You look tired!" I just looked at him & said "I am". I walked around trying to find my friends upstairs in the big party area (they room was blasting dance music & had flashing lights & lots of liquor stations) but had no luck at first. The music was WAAAAY too loud for me so I walked to the lobby where I ran into some of my teammates. They informed me that pretty much everyone was downstairs where it was much quieter, so we all headed down there. As soon as we got a table, I made my way to the buffet line where I piled my plate up with food. (when I finished the marathon, there was NO FOOD at the finish line!!!! It was all gone!!! I hadn't eaten anything all fucking day other than a little snack here & there at the aid stations, & I still had to wait until almost 8:00 PM to get some food!! How fucked up is that???) I scarfed down my food & about a gallon of water & talked & laughed with my teammates. We all retold our tales of horror from the marathon. It was great.

After about an hour or so, we decided to head to a bar down the street for some drinks. We stayed there for about another hour, then headed back to the hotel bar for a nightcap. I was starving again, so I ordered a pizza at the bar & ate the whole damn thing. I even topped it with salt!! (I was craving salt like you wouldn't believe!) Around 11, we decided to turn in for the night. Unfortunately, I had to pack first because we were checking out 1st thing in the morning before boarding a bus to Seward for our glacier/whale watching cruise. I didn't get to bed until about 1:00 AM (packing wasn't exactly a fast activity for me). I was in so much pain that I didn't sleep very well at all. I didn't even need the alarm to wake me up. I was up on my own by 5:30 (earlier than I wanted to be up, that's for sure).

When I got up, I could barely stand because my right knee hurt so much. I hobbled around as best as I could, got dressed, put on my make-up, gathered all my stuff & made my way to the lobby to wait for all the other TNT cruise-goers. I had a big baggie full of ice & I sat myself down on a big comfy chair in the lobby, propped my leg up & iced my knee for a good 45 minutes. It made a world of difference! I quickly went to the coffee shop & grabbed a muffin & some hot chocolate (yes... HOT chocolate! It was COLD outside!!) & then we boarded the bus to Seward.

It was about a 3 hour drive & we only stopped twice. Once to take pictures at the scenic overlook, & again for snacks & beverages. The drive was absolutely breath-taking! The closer we got the Seward, the more the clouds disappeared & the sun shined. Everywhere I looked, we were surrounded by the most beautiful mountains & glaciers. We saw moose, dall sheep, & bald eagles the whole way. Our bus driver was a hoot & a half & told us all sorts of great history of the area & stories of her life in Alaska. When we finally got to Seward, I was in awe of the beauty that surrounded me.

We were met by the Kanai Fjords tour guide who gave us our boarding passes for the boat. We quickly boarded the boat & claimed our seats. We had a bit of a wait before we shoved off, so I took advantage of my full cell phone signal & no roaming & called my dad to wish him a Happy Father's Day. I had never heard him sound more happy. He was gushing, telling me how incredibly proud he was of me. He said he thought of me all day & when he got home from dinner that night & heard my voice mail, he said he had tears in his eyes. He then told me "I am more proud of you & what you have done than I have ever been about anything that any of our other children have ever done in their lives!" I couldn't believe my ears. My father has never said anything like that to me. He then went on to say that he felt SO bad that he couldn't contribute more to my fundraising & said that he'd like to give me $150 to spend in any way I wished. I told him he didn't have to do that, but he said he wanted to. I just said "Daaaaaad..." & started to get all teary. He eventually said "OK. Fine. I'll save it for your next race." to which I agreed. (I know how tight things are with him these days & really didn't want him scrounging around for an extra $150 just for me to blow on something frivolous.) I've never heard my dad sound so happy. I could practically see him beaming with pride through the phone. It was a great feeling. We said good-by & "I love you" & hung up. By then it was time to get the cruise started.

My friends & I quickly posed for a few pics on the boat, then we took off. The air quickly got colder & we all broke out our sweatshirts, hats, jackets & gloves. The cruise was 6 hours long & simply amazing. We went all over the area, around the fjords, & towards the glaciers. The water was a bit rough, but I wasn't haven't any problems with sea-sickness (unlike several of my teammates). The weather was absolutely gorgeous, the air was crisp & cold, & the scenery was spectacular. We saw several smaller glaciers before we finally arrived at a dead end in front of a HUGE glacier. The water was full of ice bergs that had broken off the glacier. The captain shut the engines down & let us drift by the glacier. Suddenly we'd hear what sounded like a loud crack of thunder, then we'd see parts of the glacier collapse & crash to the icey water below. It was awesome!! We took tons of pictures & acted SO silly. We were convinced we had the power to make parts of the glacier fall by simply making "whale calls" & signing opera. (no, we weren't drunk!) It was so damn funny! (maybe you just had to be there.)

After about 30 minutes of drifting by the glacier, the captain turned the engines back on & we headed back out to the open sea in search of whales. In the distance we could see the spray from the blow holes of some humpback whales, so we headed in that direction. Since humpbacks are endangered, there's a law that says we had to stay at least 100 yards away from the whales (damn whales had a restraining order against us!) so it was a bit hard to see them at first, but eventually they moved a little closer to us. We came upon a mamma feeding her calf, which was pretty cool. After a few minutes, we headed in a different direction to where there was apparently a pod of Orca's (killer whales). Again, we couldn't go w/in 100 yards of them, but that didn't matter because they were swimming in our direction. There was about 5 or 6 & they were popping up everywhere. We'd 1st see their giant dorsal fin pop out of the water, then they'd blow water out their blow holes. It was hard to get photos of them because they moved so fast. Suddenly we noticed another one with a slumped dorsal fin (apparently due to stress... poor guy) that was swimming right towards us. It got closer to us than any other whale... so close that I could see the white markings on its side. It was SOOOO cool!!!! And then they were gone.

Eventually we started to head back to Seward, but not before stopping to see some sea lions basking in the sun on the side of a small mountain. The 1st thing we noticed was a bloody & beaten sea lion on the far side, still alive & struggling. It was very sad to see. Then we noticed the giant sea lion in the middle making all sorts of noise. Eventually he mounted one of the smaller female (well, I am assuming it was a female) sea lions & had himself a little "afternoon delight". It was hilarious!!! Oh dear GOD, the sounds that came out of this animal!! LOL!

Soon enough, we were back in Seward & ready to dock. We were greeted by some cute little otters floating around on their backs. After we docked, we boarded a shuttle bus to the train station (it was about a 1 minute ride) where we then boarded the train back to Anchorage. We had one of the fancy dome cars all to ourselves. It was fabulous. The lower level had huge, fully reclining seats with footrests & about 8 feet of leg room. This is where many people crashed for the 4 hour ride. The upper level was the glass domed section with tables & benches. This was where many people drank & played cards for the 4 hour ride. The only bad thing about our car was the fact that it was about 8 cars away from the bar/dining car. Thankfully we had 1 or 2 people that were willing to fetch us more beverages. It was great fun.

We arrived back in anchorage around 10:30. We were met by a limo bus (very cool!) that took us back to the hotel where we picked up our luggage from the concierge & then boarded another bus to the airport where we had a 12:50 am flight back to Houston. It wasn't until we got to the airport & I sat down on a solid, non-moving surface (ie: the seats in the terminal) that I started to feel "sea-sick". I felt like I was still on the boat & like we were still going over those 6 foot ocean swells. I hoped it wouldn't last long. Unfortunately, that would not be the case. About 30-45 minutes into the flight, after attempting & failing to get any sleep, I started to feel VERY ill. I was in a t-shirt, 2 sweatshirts, & wrapped in a blanket, yet I was freezing! My entire body was shaking & my teeth were chattering so hard that they hurt. My calves were also starting to cramp up, so I stood up & walked to the back of the plane where I went into the bathroom. I was shaking even harder than before & sweating at the same time & thought I was gonna barf (I didn't). I had to stop myself from having a panic attack right there in that tiny bathroom. It was so hard because I kept thinking to myself "oh GOD! How am I going to make it another 8 hours on this fucking plane???" & I started to cry. I quickly stopped myself & pulled myself together & went back to my seat. To make matters worse, there was a screaming baby across the aisle from me. Lovely!

By the time we landed in Seattle I was completely miserable. My seat mate (& TNT teammate) woke up & said I looked horrible. She got me up & walking around the plane as we waited the hour to take off again. When we finally took off again, they served breakfast. Melissa convinced me to eat some & it did help me feel a little better. The screaming baby was off the plane & I was finally able to get some sleep. I slept for almost the whole flight back to Houston & by the time we landed, I was finally warm enough to take off 1 of my sweatshirts. I was so glad to be home.

My mom met me in baggage claim. As soon as she hugged me I started to cry... both because I was so glad to see her & hear her say how proud she was of me, but also because I felt so sick & I finally had my mommy. (haha) She helped me get my luggage & took me back to her place where I picked up my dog Moe & had a little snack. I got back to my apt around 3:00 (I almost fell asleep at least a dozen times on the drive back to my apt. It was pretty scary!) & crashed on the couch around 3:30. I didn't wake up until about 9:30, then I went to bed around 11 or 12 & slept til about 7 or 8. I was miserably sick & then proceeded to sleep for the next 6 days. I had originally planned on going back to work that Thursday, but I was too sick so I didn't go in at all that week.

I'm still sick, but SO much better than I was last week. I just have a bit of a nagging cough that doesn't seem to want to go away & a bit of a sore throat (mainly from all the coughing). Hopefully I'll be 100% by Friday, when the family starts arriving for the big family reunion this weekend. I definitely don't want to be sick around the little ones, especially since my baby nephew, Derek will be there. I don't want to get anyone else sick & ruin their time here.