Part Deux

Sorry for the delay, I was a little sick towards the end of last week.  Some extra sleep, a day off from work, and I'm right as rain.

When we last tuned in, our fearless hero was preparing himself for battle, readying his mind and body for what lay ahead.  For a runner, this of course means one thing:  last minute bathroom break.  Every runner ends up making one (or ideally, 2) stops at the porta-potties before a race begins - an early stop, and one as close to race time as possible.  11,000 runners, how long do you think the lines were, even with around 100 porta-potties?  So I got in line to wait, with about 10 minutes left to go and my warm up finished. 

Meanwhile on the boardwalk, my own personal cheering section was watching the sunrise, picking out their viewing positions.  They settled in at about the 2 1/2 mile mark and waited.

Facing The Dawn, Check out Those Shirts...

The Ladies on The Boardwalk

Dolphins! Even The Wildlife Came to Cheer for The Race!

My wife made everyone with us shirts to wear while they cheered for me!  Kim is a good artist.  She likes to do these doodle-pictures, where she incorporates all sorts of pictures and words and such.  They make great decorations, and in this case, the perfect iron-on for the race shirts:

The Best Closeup I Could Get

(For the right price, you too could own a picture or shirt like this, customized just for you!  Inquire in the comments section below...)

So my projected finish time put me in corral 2 - sounds pretty prestigious, huh?  By the time I reached the front of the line and had my turn, however, corral 2 was long gone.  I started the race with corral 11, considerably slower.  It actually turned out to be a good thing, though.  I spent the first 7 or 8 miles passing people, and weaving through traffic kept me from going out too fast.  Plus it is a big confidence boost racing for 8 miles without being passed by anyone.

The Anticipation Is Killing Them, Can You Tell?

It Was Unanimously Decided That My Wife and In-laws Were The Best Cheering Section in The First Half of The Race

Who's That, Off in The Distance?  In The Red Shirt, Passing Everyone...

I Swerved Way over to Ham It Up for The Camera

A Little Blurry, But The Sex Appeal Is Still Undeniable

The Camera Was on Burst, My Wife Didn't See This Until She Looked at The Pictures after I'd Passed

Around Mile 6 we saw the professionals coming back the other direction (they were around Mile 11), 2 east Africans about 200m out ahead of the main pack (which included Ryan Hall).  I felt good, a bit warmer than I'd like when the wind wasn't blowing, but I was on pace and my legs felt great.  In the last few miles, I started to develop a side stitch that I couldn't shake.  I walked through a couple of water stops, more to try and calm the stitch than anything (my legs were still fine, plenty of gas left in the tank).

I rallied in the final mile to finish strong, and hopefully I wasn't making any stupid or uncomfortable faces in the pictures as I crossed the finish line.  The only pictures we got were of my back as I went by.  The recovery area was great, anything and everything a runner could want after a long effort - sports drinks, fruit, energy bars, towels soaked in ice water, you name it.

My Finely Sculpted Derriere Still Going Past People

After a brief recovery and a trip back to the campground for a shower, we spent the rest of the day checking out the boardwalk, relaxing in the pool, and cooking out on the grill.

My official time was 1:47:36.  That's about 8:13 per mile, which is a little slow compared to my 8:00 goal, but with the warm weather and difficulties in the late miles, I'm very happy with my performance.  Had I not lost a month of training mid-summer, I'm confident that I could have gone under 8:00.  I've rarely had a race go so well, I was really pleased with the whole weekend.  The half marathon was the final frontier for me - I've now raced every typical distance, from 100m to a full marathon.

I took all of last week off, so no news there.  I'm back to running this week, reloading for a 5 mile race on Thanksgiving day back in my hometown.  I may or may not be able to run as much as I want in preparation for this one.  We've got a ton going on at work - a deadline this week, I'll be out for inspections next week, I'm studying to take the PE exam on October 28th to get my engineering license, and sometime in November I'll be doing a 2 week tour of duty in Mississippi on inspection.

I hate being busy in the fall.  I'd rather be watching football...