This was a super fun race. I was going to hook up with Sann and Jo to run, but couldn't find them when the gun went off. Decided to just head off on my own and look for them at the first turnaround.

Ran into my old friend Anna, who's a copper and 3 months pregnant to boot. Ran with her for a couple of miles. At this point, I'm really just enjoying the sunshine and the company and the feel of the road. I'm in no hurry at all, and just want to wander thru the course.

At the first turnaround, I guess about 5k in or so, I see Sann and Jo hot on my heels, so I pull up and let them catch me. Nice guy, eh? I ditch the pregnant chick for two hotties!
Anyways, ran with the sisters for a few miles having a lovely time catching up. At about mile 5, I spot Anna just up ahead of us. She was only running the relay (6.5 miles), so I told the sisses I'd meet up with them later, but was going to go run with Anna to her transition point.
Made it there in just over an hour... Anna planted the seed in my head that I could probably hit 2:10 if I kept the pace. I thought no-damned-way, with the training I've done leading up to this (7 mile longest run, thank-you!), but the seed was there!

Walked for a minute after the transition waiting for Sann and Jo to show up, but I couldn't spot them and a cop was yelling at me for wandering too far to the side. Fine then, I'll run, dammit!

Kept up my leisurely pace, but stopped stopping at all the water stations to walk. I didn't really have a game plan coming into this race, but as the gun went off I decided I'd just walk all the water stations and hope my woefully unprepared legs would carry me thru.

After skipping a couple of stations tho, I realized I was going to need a bit more juice to keep the fire in the engine. Gu'ed at mile 6, again at 8 and again at 10, as well as 3 of those power-bean jelly-belly thingees. First time having them, and they were GOOD!

After mile 7, my stupid brain kept chirping at me that I was now officially in the process of my longest run. Sad, how much it hates me! I showed it, though. I continued to feel pretty good right thru to mile 11 or so.
There was a little hill coming thru Woodhaven, and it sapped some of my legs (bring on the power-beans!), but I was still feeling remarkably well for how ruefully out of shape I am.

With about a mile and a half to go I started to struggle a bit... walked out a couple of h2o stations in a row and put on the old earphones, cranking up the tunes. I'd never raced with music before, and I didn't know how I'd like it, since I usually just chat along the way, but it certainly pulled me thru the last couple of miles... especially when (how cheesy am I?) the theme to Chariots of Fire came on at 12.5. So gay, but hey, I got thru.

Ran the last leg up portage and actually passed a few people along the way. At the turnoff to the race chute, my whole fam-damly was there cheering! High fives for Jackson and Morgan, then a pathetic little sprint down the chute.

Hooray! Made my 2:10!

Ummm... let's see... maybe train?

Chatted with my fam, Sann and Jo, Wendy... bought a shirt, ate some pancakes, and hobbled around on sore feet.
The rest of me felt pretty good, but the soles of my stinkers were just killing me.


My wind, my legs, my conditioning... although I don't think I really wanted to go any faster today. It was honestly such an amazingly beautiful day, that I think I would have regretted it if I'd just gone balls-out.


Just an excellent race. They had water/gatorade stations at almost every single mile! That was awesome, and all the volunteers were just great. Got a nice little bag as some finisher's shwag, too! Nice!