Race #22

Life is all about the lessons learned. I learned two important ones in Ohio: (1) if your bladder gives you any signal that it needs to be emptied one last time, don't ignore it, and (2) if you ignore lesson #1, always run in black nylon shorts! This was the second race in my triple crown. The Preakness will need to be renamed The Peeness. I was heading out at a good pace, 9:10 at mile one and felt good. I had a sip of water at the water stop and immediately started to pee in my pants! I got it stopped, thought I could keep going but after mile two with a time of 19:05, I just couldn't keep going. Luckily there were some tractor trailers parked behind one of the buildings so I veered off course, dropped drawers, grabbed the front bumper, leaned back and let if flow! It sure felt better but I lost at least 30 seconds.

Mentally at this point I was ready to throw in the towel. I knew breaking 30 minutes was going to be nearly impossible. Coming up the last incline I contemplated walking when I heard a guy yelling, "come on 50 by 50 get moving!"

(Look at that Forest Gump stride!)

Getting me moving in this clip is Bill A.'s friend Mark who I met before the race. Mark is a pretty serious runner and was looking to break 20 minutes. Neither of us got the PR we we looking for, but I definitely wouldn't have posted a 30:56 if Mark hadn't circled back after he completed his race to all but carry me across the finish line. He also made me realized that I have more in the tank at the end than I give myself credit for and need to dig a lot deeper. Thanks, Mark!

Waiting for the fun to start

Still all smiles - must be the first 10 feet of the race!

While in Cincinnati I stayed at Jane and Bill A.'s house on our old street. We lived in the house next door when I was little so it was fun to come back and see the old street and literally take a walk down memory lane. Unfortunately, our old house was the only one on the block that wasn't getting much tender loving care. I'd originally hoped to get inside, but once I saw the condition the outside was in, I decided I really didn't want to see the inside as it's probably pretty depressing.

Former neighbors, Jane and Bill and my host and hostess for the race.The old homestead - a little worse for wear and not nearly as large as I remember!