A few years back, I took my Mom to Madagascar. As part of our trip prep, we watched the Dreamworks Quadrilogy of Madagascar movies… ya know, the ones starring those irreverent Penguins?
By far the funniest joke in the first Madagascar movie involves our escaped Penguins commandeering a boat and making their way to Antarctica. Upon their arrival, the Skipper sums it up nicely:
I kept thinking about that moment as I ran the 6th Annual Celebration Marathon this morning. Yesterday at packet pickup, it was blue skies, sunshine, and perfect temperatures.
This morning was rain. Followed by rain. Followed by more rain.
It sucked.
Plus, having run this event in the past (a return race here was one of the first races I ever blogged about at runkevinrun.com), I was kinda bored with the course. It’s a two loop course to boot and, well, I just kinda shuffled along the first loop and then REALLY dragged along the second. During the first 9 miles I was able to run with a Half Marathoner who had stepped in for his ailing wife; I had run with him in Jacksonville and it was nice to catch up for a few miles anyway. The second loop was a far lonelier experience… albeit any time somebody passed me I did have a brief moment of human contact. That’s not to say there weren’t ample water stops, each featuring a brave bunch of water logged souls looking to cheer us on and hand us sippy cups. But I just wasn’t feeling it today. I wound up running slower than I did in Carlsbad and though I still have a slightly lingering sniffle from the mild flu I had (thanks, flu shot!), I can’t explain why a pancake flat course would prove slower than an ocean side, up and down course in California.
It was just one of those days. And since I finished, it’s continued to rain, if not cats and dogs, then a few flightless birds.
Well, this sucks.
But to my credit, as a proper Floridian, I donned my sunglasses to run against the “liquid sunshine” of the day.
Hopefully next week at Surf City it’ll be just regular sunshine.
