1. While I was at mile 12ish, a kid (maybe 18?) hopped on the sidewalk and asked if I had a cell phone.  While he’s dialing, he tells me “This was too much, I’m stopping at the Half.”  Not sad, just matter of fact at finding himself out of his league, then I hear him on the phone, “Hey dad, I’m ok, everything’s fine, but I’m stopping early, can you pick me up?”.   When he hands the phone back he smiles and says before running off, “Now you have a running story.”  So cute!  But kid, do I got running stories…

2. There was a young woman who joined our cheering threesome for a while.  She was really nice, involved in our conversation and it was fun to have another person yelling out encouraging stuff – so it was a big surprise when, after about 25 minutes, she sees a marathoner she apparently had been waiting for.  As he runs by, she gets in step with him and is gone in a flash.  It was kinda cool, like “oh, there are runners all over the place.”

But enough race blab, let’s get to the current meat:

Today was an afternoon 8 w/3 tempo, avg tempo pace 7:42.  I went back and forth today on whether I’d bother with the tempo portion.  My 5K is Saturday and I don’t really need to do one (it’s not like it’s going to make a difference) but then I still have race #2 in December soooo…I went for the tempo after all.

As for the rest of the week, I’m doing a little less mileage (around 40) but no speed session.  Tomorrow’s an easy 7 and I hope it keeps raining so I can try my new Hydrolite jacket.  Funny how you want crappy weather when you get new apparel to fight it, and this jacket’s especially in need of a road test because it’s so weird.  I ran some water over the sleeve and the fabric bubbled up like it had scabies or something.  It was gross/cool.  But I digress…

Wednesday is 8 w/strides (5x200m), easy 7 on Thursday, off on Fri and then, race!

Now there’s something about 5Ks I’m not remembering…the distance? noooo…it’s on the tip of my…oh yeah! They make me want to die.

This should be interesting.

Dear Mattsky and his wife were around for the 8K, his first race since a long drawn out injury, but even though we were on the phone trying to locate each other “I’m by the tent” “which tent? I don’t see you”, I eventually gave up and wished him a great race, though I’m sure he was only a few feet away from me.

Went home for 1/2 hour then walked over to the river around miles 11-12 where I saw Sub3 zooming in with the speedy animals and soon after, Joe went flying by. It’s much easier to see super fast people because there are fewer runners around them. I did spot Kat a little later and probably would have missed her but she had her name taped to the front of her shirt.  I also saw Craig who I met at the Expo yesterday and he gave me a high-five, but that was it for that area of the course. I missed my other two BQ gals and a few more I was looking for, especially sad that I missed Progman since that’s why I was at mile 12 in the first place, he of the Half Marathon persuasion.

Standing around by myself, I felt silly yelling at strangers until I eventually got the crazies, pulled out my kazoo (the only noisy thing I had in the house) and started playing the Rocky Theme. Lots of laughs and “woohoos” so it was fun and I got all giggly happy at that point, eventually yelling out lots of encouraging stuff. It’s cool how people respond, I loved it.

Then I walked around to the 24.75 mark and found ShoreTurtle who was the Cowbell Man and such fun to hang with. My friend Craig (different Craig) joined up with us, too, so we had a solid cheering section, taking great delight in yelling people’s names or whatever they had on their shirts. I’ll definitely put my name on my shirt for the next marathon.

From that vantage point, I saw Joe again and then Kat (who I later learned fell splat on the pavement complete with road burns at mile 19 but got a BQ anyway, woohoo!) but missed Nina for the second time so I never saw her though I did see Judy who was looking great. I saw the back of Flyers26 (pointed out to me by ShoreTurtle) and missed seeing quite a few on my list entirely with all the whizzing by and not so familiar faces, so I was a little sad on that score.  Still, what a great way to spend a cold November morning.