I briefly visited Daniel and his family:
And I got to visit my buddy Jeff and his family:
Going to the inaugural Rock & Roll Marathon in San Antonio had me kinda miffed at first. We ran the half-marathon, not the whole. I woke up at 4:10 and made my way down there...major street closings everywhere. I rode my bike to the Alamodome a few miles away, locked it there (finish line), then saw the line of people waiting for shuttle buses. VERY long line and only ONE bus in sight! So I opted to run 2-3 miles to the starting line, fully clothed, many layers of clothing. Now the whole thing IS a major clusterf**k! Very much running out of time, I had to get to the clothing drop off (corral #30) from my corral (#2) and get back with very little time until the race. And to think I started at 4:10, hours earlier!
I called Sonya who said she was in line somewhere and couldn't get with me to run. I refused to accept that! I haven't seen or run with this girl in almost a year. At the last possible moment, she showed up. Seconds before the gun, I got a runner to snap our pic:
I REALLY couldn't believe that a year had passed, it REALLY only seemed like a few weeks! She also said, "it's been a year?" While driving to the race, I was sure that I had run with my group a few times this year, but knew it wasn't the case. Strange sorta time-warp, guaranteed. If this year went by that quickly, the rest of my life oughtta happen like anytime, now!
We were definitely running a conservative pace. And due to the fact that we had a year's worth of chit-chat to catch up on, it was good (we do actually talk on the tele every now and then, though). As is TYPICAL of Evan, I was already talking about "bolting" at 2.4 miles. Sonya just rolls her eyes, "what's new?". I said I thought it would be good to stomp on the pedal at mile 6. She said 8. I quietly responded, "7.5?". At about mile 7, I called my mom! I called her as we were screaming through downtown. Mom later said it was fun to get such a call! Mission accomplished!
As I always do, I just get so fired up at the races that I couldn't stand it and had to bolt. I dropped her at mile 8 and took off! All was good and I really enjoyed the venue after the maddening start. Good time! At mile 11, my toe exploded. Really sharp pain in ONE instant! I thought that either my toe had snapped into 2 pieces, or I popped a blood blister. Gazing down at my shoe revealed a white shoe, not a red one. The pain slowly subsided a bit so I reasoned it was a blister that was draining.
After the race I surveyed the damage. A tale of what was to follow?:
There was certainly one casualty:
Sonya wheeling in with a nice 1:53:
I was able to score a 1:49 which is really good considering I had ZERO training! I'm really not pleased with my lack of training. It's been a strange couple of months with no shortage of 'show stoppers'.
OK, you heard it first, right here. I'm going to TRAIN for the Houston half-marathon in January and WILL be running under 1:40! Yep. Then one year from yesterday, I'll be ready to run another full marathon, my first since 2002. San Antonio 2009 with a run under 3:30! Hey, man's gotta have goals, eh?
My buddy Joel (see a couple of topics below this one) had hoped for a 2:35-2:45, but only mustered a 3:08. He had a bad knee deal pop up....poor guy.
My friend Carolyn enjoyed a tasty PR (personal record, for those who aren't runners)of 3:55!! She thought the event sucked and had a bunch of hills! Hmmm, I thought it was really great and enjoyed the lack of hills! EXCEPT for that long-ass uphill ramp at the very end, leading UP to the Alamodome...WTF?? What genius came up with that? People see things differently, I suppose. GREAT JOB Carolyn!
THEN I had to load up several thousand pounds of stuff, drive it back to Houston, unload and return the trailer by 7am Monday morning. I had a great nap after lunch.
