I really felt good during most of the race - my only problem was the evil phlem genie and the bitch's friend chest conjestion woke with me. I had with a veritable faucet dripping from my nose. My chest was heavy and breathing was a little limited (say by about 10%). My breathing was rather loud, according to Aaron... I also had a rather severe case of chaifing on my upper thigh that had been killing me recently, but I didn't feel it during the race.... Thank Welshy for small favors... Or maybe it was the Aquaphor - All damn weekend, I had to listen to Haley "chaifing, use aquaphor. Headache? use aquaphore! Forgot your birth control? ...aquaphore!!!!!!! Christ woman... I bet you f- uh, never mind....

Comet, Jeepfleeb and myself started out at a nice easy pace and just tooled arourn for a while waiting for the runners to thin out. Crap it was cold. I hate running in the fucking cold. I hate sweating in the cold and I REALLY hate sweatig through clothes and wearing them in the cold. The weather was my only real complaint. Still, it warmed up a bit and wasnt to bad after about 4 miles after we got out of downtown. At mile 4 or so, Haley had to DF becuase of her knee. I really felt bad for her, but she needed to stop.... Poor thing. And besides, with her quiting, I had someone to take my jacket, keys, gloves... Yes, she did the right thing...
After a couple of miles, My nost was running faster than I was and my upper lip and nostrils were already raw - I would blow a snot rocket from both nostrils about every half mile of so - Arron was the flag guy, I was that disgusting guy who kept blowing his nasty snot all over everyone guy. In fact, at mile 11 or so, I had a paticularly meanifuyl snot rocket experiance - it was the perfect storm of snot. I was trying not to blow for as long as I could. It was annoying, And typically only a mist would be expelled, my nose hurt and it affected my slightly limited breathing as well (I know, not being able to breathe out of my nose did too, but as soon as my nose was emptied, an army of snot was waiting to fill the void. A cocking of the gun and loading the chamber sort of thing). I reached a point where I couldn't hold it any more and blew out of my left nostril - all over the fourth place womans marathon woman, a paticularly attractive woman at that. Horrified, I shouted "SORRY!" but she didn't look back or acknowledge me at all. Maybe she was so in the zone that she didn't notice? Fat chance... So I watched her... form for a minute until she was out of site then, Jeepfleeb laughing his ass off all the while. Brings me to a different topic. Aaron (jeepfleeb). Aaron is a stud, truly. He ran a 50K run in 5 hours of so on saturday, and on sunday was doing the half for a recovery run. Still, he could have run much faster than I was, but had offered to pace me through the run. Many a time I heard "Hey, flag guy" of "Arent you the guy with the feathers..." And even a couple odd looks at his pace... I felt a little bad about that, but really enjoyed him pacing me - On the aid stations I walked through, I usuall walked about 30-1 minute. If Arron wasn't there, I would have probably walked 2-3 minuted in the later miles. I'd get a drink and he would keep walking for a few seconds, then turn around and walk backwards (he late told me he was streatching his exhausted legs, but I thought he was letting me know I didn't need to spend more time than I was.... Anyway, since Haley had to dnf, I'm glad he was there - I wouldn't have done better thatn 2:30 otherwise... Thanks Arron, and Haley for a very nice race experience!!!!

Train? Stop at the house with the Krispy Kreme boxes all over the yard and a sigh that read, free donuts to all who quit?

Couple beers, some snacks, at the expo, freebirds..


Copious amounts of jiggle fun....


Had a nice time of it - nice wake up call for the Mary in February. I could have easily gone another several miles, but I don't know about another 13... I need to start mixing in some long runs... the vermouth to my martini, so to speak...