The one that got away

The thing with marathons is that, no matter what - how hard you train, how injury-free you remain, and a bunch of other things that end in -ain - you never know what awaits you out there on the course.  This year, my training was solid - and accomplished in record heat.  I remained fairly injury-free.  I added yoga and massage.  I stretched and recovered.  I did it right this time and felt good going into my 5th marathon.  I was going to rock it.

Race day at the Chicago marathon, the weather was warmish, but still 20-30 degrees cooler than anything I had run in this training season.  Here we were at the start

As you can see, I was happily thinking that I could definitely crush 4:30.  And then, my intestines defected (and a word very similar to that, if you add an "a") around mile 10.  And did not stop.  All told, my Garmin registered me as covering 27.1 miles and an additional 15 minutes spent in or waiting for potties.  There were times that I could not bounce, so I fashioned a TOTALLY crazy chicken walk, which was terrible, but kept me within an 11:00 minute pace.  And, throughout it all, my legs were fine, my body was fine, and I was ready to RUN, but could not.  Like I said, you just never know what's out there. 

So, I took some fun pics

and, in the end, I finished.  A personal worst time, but I finished.  (Note:  only 3 minutes longer than my last personal worst and still only 13 minutes later than my PR.)

(yep, so bad I had to change my shorts at the finish - nice) So, now I'm debating training for another week and running the RNR SA as a full marathon in November - even though I dislike the 2nd half of it.  Or, maybe I'll just get over it and run the next 25k, HM, 5k running tour, 8k, and 11k I have scheduled in the next three weeks. 

All of my ugly race pics can be found here

Super thanks to my folks, for coming down to the marathon - and my sisters and their families for hosting my tour de southeast wisconsin after the run.

More thanks to everyone who supported me in fundraising during training for Girls on the Run - SA.  I raised over $600, which will sponsor at least 4 girls during next year's training season. http://www.active.com/donate/SoleMates2012/SSeeker5

And thanks to Joe S, Marathonfoto, my folks, and Ceci for the pics.

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times

Not really.  But my performance at the Milwaukee Lakefront Marathon was the middle of times.  It was my second worst marathon finish - or my third best.  It was a fairly solid 4:45:24 for me.  I ran it with my sister, Gretchen, who smoked it in 4:12, cutting more than 30 minutes off her PR!  It was a twee bit chilly for me, but was actually good running weather.  However, around mile 17.5, something popped in my right foot, so I was running crooked for the rest of the race.  At first, I thought that something broke, but, now that the swelling and discoloration has reduced, I'm going to diagnose myself with an official not-broken foot (signed, Sally, fake MD).  (and then I'm going to run the Texas Med Clinic Half Marathon this weekend - or hobble it).  Here are some of my paparazzi (Dad's) pics:

Before with Gretchen (I'm only looking confident and warm because I'm half-asleep and inside the house)

Yep, crazy running chicken marathon runner.  my right foot had just audibly POPPED and caused serious pain - the chick in the blue diagnosed me with neuroma about 1/2 mile down the road (at mile 18).

 but I did shake a little crazy chicken off and kept going


and going

Meanwhile, Gretchen was making the finish look easy 

but it is hard

but if you keep puting one foot in front of the other, you get to the finish





 and then you freeeeeze. 
and then you eat 
and then you celebrate (with Mom and paparazziDad - across the lake from the finish line)

and all for this...

It really was a nice, albeit cold, run along Milwaukee's lakeshore with my sister and family.  And now, I ice my foot, drink a glass of wine, chow on some WI cheese curds, and start contemplating my next marathon.

Thanks to Dad for the pics!  Thanks to Gretch for another great run!

Dumb baseball

Yet another player with an asterisk attached to all of his records. I got mad at baseball as a whole back in the 80s and continue to be disgusted. So, let's talk football, even though the season is over. As in the 2025 Green Bay Packers. Here's the starting offensive line, with my special teams coach (really all my nephews and my Dad at the ranch last weekend):

Thanks to Jenny and Tim for the picture I swiped from their website. Tim is currently driving from Oregon to Wisconsin with 2 crazy cats and a dog that kind of looks like a cat.

My bodyguard and future linebacker

I got home today and watched this on the news:

http://www.woai.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=81cbd219-7a0f-42df-9e33-f10c9520e566

I'm not sure where exactly on Babcock the man attempted to kidnap the two women, but I do know that I ran up Babcock, past the Shell station, and back on Saturday for my ill-advised run to work. One of the women outran the man, which I hope that I too would be able to do.

So, today I wasn't taking any chances and ran with my bodyguard, Gwen the pitoodle. We set out for 3 miles but it was hot and, apparently, it's even hotter when you are dark grey and furry. I got the look which was previously posted below in the reenactment. So, we trotted about 2 miles and returned to the yard, where Gwen got her new toy - a football.

She really tore into it. Literally - it's pretty flat right now. I'm not sure whether it was her reaction to Brett Favre asking to be released by the Packers or whether she was practicing so that she could join her "cousins" in the 2025 Packers starting offensive line. Here are her future teammates.

Just don't discriminate against her 'cause she's a girl. She can really tuck the ball and run.