3M half marathon

On the heels of returning from Big Bend, I ran the 3M half marathon in Austin this Sunday.  (Note:  I normally put about 7,500 miles or less on my car per year - and drove almost 1,900 solo miles in the past two weeks!)  In the interest of full disclosure, I mainly ran this run for the swag bag of 3M products:

Also, the course is net downhill, so it should be "Fast. Easy. Fun."  No such hope.

Well, the night before, I attended my running buddy, Julia's, 80th birthday.  I actually have to create a new 80 and up age group now for the Women's Run this year.  She's truly a remarkable friend and an icon of the running community (every time she enters a new age group, most race directors add the new 'and up' 5-year age group).  I can merely hope to be running and rescuing animals like she does - at even approaching the age of 80.

Then, the race started at 0645 the next morning in North Austin, so it was an EARLY start for me.  And, after about 9 miles of downhill-ish-ness, I realized my calves still hated me after the Big Bend 25k and driving and driving, and they rebelled.  But I finished - not my best, not my worst, but still a painful drive home.

Here's the view from the finish line

And my shiny medal

While I was in Austin, I was called by compadres I served with in Bosnia - Mark and Laurie - who are now RET and passing through town.  We met up for dinners the past couple of nights, along with Jessica, another CJSOTF-Sarjevo compadre now stationed in San Antonio - and regaled each other with some old war stories.  Here's Laurie 'playing' with a monkey at Bass Pro Shop

It's hard to believe that it was over 10 years ago that we were 'playing' in the Balkan mountains over there.  Next thing you know, I WILL be 80 years old!  Until then, next up is 'just' a local 10k trail run which may hurt.

thanks to Brightroom and 3M for the pics