Rough. That’s the only way to describe how I’m feeling, how I ran this morning in Albany, GA, and how the day as a whole has gone.
In other parts of the world, the Snickers course would be considered pancake flat; as a Central Floridian, I am conditioned to parrot the statement that there were a couple of tough “hills” that can take a toll. In reality, I should have done much better time wise and physically. Though it was nippy at the start, clocking in at 39 degrees with a light wind, it was actually ideal running weather. There were a few headwinds along the way, and as is typical of such things, seemingly NO tailwinds, but all in all, it was a great day to be running… I just couldn’t seem to put together much of a consistent effort.
Indeed, my pace systematically slowed as the day went on. I felt particularly nauseous in the final 6 miles, though I hadn’t been feeling shipshape for miles before that. Runners would catch and pass me with regular abandon… but none more so than a pace group that kicked it up a notch in the final mile and streaked past me like a particle accelerator enhanced forensic scientist endowed with speedster super powers.
It was a humbling and frustrating experience as I just had nothing to draw on and endeavor to stage my own comeback kick. To be honest, even under the best of conditions, I have little kick for the final push. I’ve written about this before — my brother has this Titan super kick, the stuff of legends, when we sees the finish line. I don’t know where the burst of speed comes from but no matter what race we’re doing and no matter what pace we’ve maintained prior (even if it’s slower than my usual race pace) he will ALWAYS kick my “tokus” in the final moments. Rock star, that guy,.. or perhaps I should say demigod.
There aren’t a lot of photos from along the way, especially in the opening miles as my hands were too cold to register on the touchscreen of my iPhone. But here are a few from hither and yon.
In the end, I didn’t hit the BQ time, and posted a 3:17:01:19, a minute slower than Tokyo … and I didn’t even stop to try and stage background plates for a Godzilla special effect shot this time… albeit I did take a selfie with a Bear dressed as a Ref, complete with Bear Whistle.
I placed 72nd overall, 63rd in the males, and 15th in my age group.
