I couldn’t sleep. Part of it is this head cold but even taking some serious drugs to help me breathe, I couldn’t fall asleep. This after a cramped red eye flight to Nashville with not a lot of sleep either. It had been probably three days since I slept. I had lost my voice, the side effects of drugs and drainage in my throat. And overall I felt lousy.
So that’s how the day started. I parked early a ways out of the road closures thinking that would make for an easier exit… and though it was a long walk back after the race, I do think I got out of the city relatively quickly.
As for the race itself, I didn’t snap many photos as I was too focused on just trying to put one foot in front of the other. A hilly, weirdly weathered course that started a bit blustery and humid, would occasionally warm up to a toastier than ideal 70s only to have clouds roll in, drop a few spritzes of drizzle and then start all over again. I was amazed that the headwinds were strongest on downhills.
As for the event itself, some weird choices on diverging paths. The half and full ran the same opening 10 miles… and then recombined at our mile 17 and their mile 11, before splitting again at mile 12.5 wherein we could see the finish line and have to run away from it to get up to our distances. It’s always hard to pass the finish in the middle of your race; even harder when for a good half mile you’re not sure if you were supposed to be rejoining the half marathoners or not. Three or four of us kept trying to suss out if we missed a turn off or if we were supposed to be dodging and weaving through the half crowds.
All of this is to say that I muddled through this event, hoping to self-induce a fever breaking and sweat out as many bad germs as possible. Not sure if that’s scientific or even remotely smart. That might be on my coat of arms.
How the day started:
And then how it went (truncated):
And then how it ended…
A few stray comments on the finish:
This guy understood the assignment from his boss to micro-target new business:
Technically true but also underwhelming as I was hoping for food (plural).
To get back to my car which was a mile away I had to climb these stairs. Cruel.
On the plus side, I am no worse for having run the marathon. So perhaps we will put today in the “win” column, yeah?