The Final Result 2010-05-22

I've got this thing on my mind. It seemed the best thing to do was to express it. And since no one really reads this blog anyway, I'm just gonna use this thing. I am exercising this summer. Actually, there's a diet/exercise thing going on. So, this is me working through that...

Blog, blog, blog...
Distance: 6.2 miles
Time: Somewhere between 60:45 and 63:40
Weight: Don't know. Don't care right now.
MP3 Highlights: None. Didn't think it was allowed, then didn't want to worry about it after I found out. There was sporadic music along the route. Three live bands. The highlight of them was the bag-pipers in full-on outfits on Broadway.

I went the distance. I did it in the time I wanted. I accomplished the goal. I don't care who you are or what the goal, accomplishing a significant goal feels great!

It was a little stressful. I had all the "bib" numbers for the whole team, their gift-bags, all of that stuff-- because that is how they do the registration process: one packet for the whole team. And that is fine, except all four of us were coming separately and somehow I had to get everyone ready to run before I took off on leg number one. In the end, everything worked out. I even found out later that our leg 2 guy missed the bus and had to catch a ride to make the exchange. At the time I lined up to run, I had handed out only 1 bib and left the other two with the husband of our #3 runner. At least the one I handed out was the 2nd leg and I knew I could run around and make phone calls after that first exchange. The only real bummer about that was that I spent the whole time waiting and watching for my team (which was almost futile) instead of mingling and meeting all these great people (including friends I knew who would be running.)

My knee did hurt, but I was not crippled. I was really not held back, according to the results. I also was not completely exhausted. Did I mention that we started in cold, windy, rain? Yeah. Never trained in anything like that. The wind was not really an issue as wind. It did make the wetness cold, though. I ran with a warmup jacket and cap and never felt compelled to take it off. I did take it off right before the exchange to make it easier for my teammate to find me. Runners dodged puddles from time to time. That was interesting.

Marathon runners are a friendly and outgoing people. They chat as they run. They come from all over and talk like people that know each other, but just have never met yet. That's pretty cool.