Marijuana and beer waft in the air, as I stepped over a passed out woman obviously drunk from a night of too much..well too much.
Oh sorry, wrong flashback... That was Van Halen 1982.
To say the morning was cold does not describe how it felt to this Florida boy. You could tell the contenders from the pretenders by their dress.
The runners wore shorts and tank tops. I was dressed in long running tights, a thermal winter gear shirt, gloves, and a knit cap to cover my "little ears". I think you know who the pretender was... I'm sure I saw a penguin walking south... The weather was not my friend, so I thought.... But after Saturday I'm going to "think a new" on that, but first let me back up to Friday night.
I went to pick-up my bib (#910) with my brother runrandall. We walked through the expo looking at the latest running gear and taking free samples of everything from collard greens to chocolate milk.
When a voice came over the loud speaker. Running legend Bill Rodgers will be at both 315 in 5 min.
Bill Rodgers is a 4 time winner of the Boston and New York City Marathon. To us ham & egger's Bill is the Babe Ruth of running. I mentioned to runrandell how I would like to have my picture taken with the greatest American runner of all time, but I didn't have a camera.
"No problem, my phone has a camera" runrandall said.
Perfect now I can have a photo to put on my blog.( Running legend Bill with runron).
Waiting in line for all the groupies to get out of the way, so I could spend my time with Bill. I noticed how friendly Mr. Rodgers was to complete strangers. He's not just signing and going to the next person... No, he is having deep and long conversations... And I do mean l-o-n-g conversations. You could tell his passion for the sport by the way he listen to what ever nonsense the wannabee runner was telling him.... Bill Rodgers is a class guy.
The time is here, it's me, runrandall, and Bill Rodgers. I pull out my bib for him to sign and ask if I could have a picture taken with him. "Sure" Bill said......
I looked at runrandall.... He looked at me..... I'm still looking at runrandall...
"My batteries are dead" runrandall said.
After a moment of awkward pause.... I said something to Bill about the cold weather and ask him if he was going to run in the race tomorrow? I really don't remember what all Mr. Rodgers said to me. I was too busy giving runrandall a cold icy stare as I fumbled my way through a conversation with a running superstar.
Bill said he was sorry about the picture, then he said... "Tomorrow, see me tomorrow we'll take it then." I shook his hand and walked away, telling runrandall "Ya right, like we'll see him tomorrow".
Back to Saturday, it's 7:00 am and I can't find runrandall. We are suppose to meet on the same corner as last year. After 15 min. of waiting around I decide to warm-up a little bit... then the famous nervous bladder hits.... So I go to the port-a-potty and wait.... Why is it that I always get behind the guy that takes all day to go?... What could he possibly be doing in there? Runners to my left and right are going in and out of the blue bathrooms while I wait for Elvis to exit his throne.
Finally I'm in and out with 15 min. before race time. I don't see runrandall, but I do see his wife. She said he was in the bathroom... Great, if he's behind one of those guys he'll never make the race.
Just when I was thinking that, here come runrandall.
"Guess who I just saw?" runrandall said. "Bill Rodgers"
ARGHHH! and he didn't have a camera....I did. Then his wife Kathy took a quick picture of me and runrandall with no Bill in sight.... Kathy kept the camera while we waited for the race to start.
On with the race.
The start reminded my of the Disney Marathon. We were in the back of the pack, this year the woman and men started at the same place. The same feeling of not being able to move made the first mile a obstacle course, a constant zig-zag wasting energy mile. Split time of first mile was 8:09 (not good, It felt more like two miles of running).
Something weird happened on my way... I started picking up pace.... I don't know if it was the weather or I'm getting better at this, but the next 8 miles I ran about an 7:35 pace.
I don't want to say it was a runners high.... But it felt like my feet did not touch the ground for 8 miles..... I kept looking at my watch thinking I'm out too fast.... I just could not slow down, it felt too good..... So I went with how ever long the feeling would last.
Throwing away all thoughts of crashing, I just ran.... You hear of runners being in the zone... I could not believe the ease of this race.... without getting too deep, it was like I was not there, my mind was running and I was just along for the ride.
If I could capture that feeling.... What a run... I'm finding words hard to describe what I felt.
The funny thing is after I crossed the finish line, I came down.... I had just ran the race of my life, beat my predicted time by almost 4 min. and I felt empty. Maybe that's the way drug addicts feel when they run out of their fix, I don't know?
The best thing about running is it's free and legal... and my drug of choice.
Now I'll bore you with my stats.
Out of 3590 runners I finished 541
Out of 345 men 40-44 I finished 81
With a time of 1:11:39 (I can live with that)
By the way running legend Bill Rodgers ran a 1:11:56 which means I passed him somewhere along the way.... If I'd only had a camera...
Splits
Mile 1- 8:09
Mile 2- 15.44 (7:35)
Mile 3- 23:23 (7:38)
Mile 4- 31:03 (7:40)
Mile 5- 38:46 (7:42)
Mile 6- 46:25 (7:42)
Mile 7- 54:08 (7:42)
Mile 8- 1:01:44 (7:36)
Mile 9- 1:09:20 (7:36)
.3- 1:11:39 (2:15)
Ipod tunes I heard on my way
City Of Blinding Lights-- U2
Hip Hop Hooray--- Naughty By Nature
You Get What You Give--- New Radicals
Starry Eyed Surprised--- Paul Oakenfold
Let's Go---- Trick Daddy
More Human then Human-- Rob Zombie
Explosive--- Bond
Little Less Conversation---- Elvis
Where The Streets Have No Names- U2 (best song ever written)
Badlands (live)--- Bruce Springsteen
Lose Yourself--- Eminem
Express Yourself-- NWA
Mission Impossible-- Moby
Round Up---- N.F.L. Films
Kung Foo Fighting--- Fatboy Slim
Battle Without Honer-- Kill Bill Soundtrack
Good Vibrations--- Marky Mark
See ya on the road, runron
2 comments:
I'll post for everyone to see.
I'M SORRY
runrandall
Pinguins would be walking north. Aparently you did not see "The March of the Pinguins" not sure If I'm spelling it right. Any way pinguins are indigeusness to the south pole so if they are in FL and are seeking warmth then they would stay there. If they are walking south then they would be returning home. If they are seeking cool weather then they would walk north from Tampa or take a flight to the south pole since by walking they would have to pass the equater, and would probably expire. You probably saw a polar bear dressed in a tux. But realy polar bears do not seek warmer weather and are never seen in tropical climate. Unless you are Lost on an uncharted island then you would probably run into one.
that's how I see it.
ps congratulation on beating the 70 y old guy this year.
Unrun
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