Not a race report per se - I sat this one out. More realistically, I biked and jogged this one out as a spectator. And what a race to miss! The course, while not as easy as in years past, wasn’t bad - and the weather was ideal starting out in the high 30s and raising to the low 50s by the end, with clear skies and a slight breeze. That’s about as good as it gets, I’ve learned.

My wife was doing the half marathon (her first!) so I dropped her off near City Hall with about an hour to go. That gave me just enough time to drive back home, grab my camera, toss my bike in the back of the Element, pick up a cowbell, and drive to a central location. I ditched the car and jumped on my bike and still made it over to the 1/4 mile mark to watch the start. Living centrally does have its advantages.

There were fireworks from the Congress Avenue bridge, a nice touch, and then a horde of people started pouring out. It had to have taken 15 minutes for the thousands of runners to go past but I waited, cheering, until the last walkers had gone by. Before they had all passed I felt myself tearing up a little. Most of these people had trained so hard, to do something that many consider next to impossible, and for the first time since I started running I wasn’t one of them. Not this year.

I won’t go into all the details of the day - I saw many good friends, even ran with a couple (although I had intentionally not worn running garb specifically to stop me from doing this). I cheered, I clapped, and I got very tired of hearing, “More Cowbell!” Time for a different noisemaker, I think. Stephanie beat her goal by 10 seconds per mile, and Hava ran a solid first half as well. Erine set 10K and 10mile PRs on his way to a solid 1:31:37 on a much harder course than his current 1:30:26 PR, and Rich ran his first sub-three at 2:58 and change. Congratulations everyone!

I’ll see you out there again, next year.

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