Marathon #74, #8 Year to date, in Olathe, Kansas. I missed my sub-4 attempt by 24 seconds. 4:00:23.92 is a perfectly respectable time, but it is a failure to achieve the goal I set for myself. The important thing about goals is that they should be achievable, and challenge you. Did I give my best? Yes, but being that close makes you think I could shave 1 second off… Maybe if I’d gotten some sleep, maybe if my hotel had so much as a packet of oatmeal, maybe if I’d gotten in the portapottie line instead of chitchatting, maybe, maybe, maybe… End result: I need to work harder. Fun fact: Kansas earned the nickname “bleeding Kansas” from New York newspaperman Horace Greeley, after violence between pro-slavery and anti-slavery settlers in the pre-Civil War era resulted in numerous deaths, including an incident in which John Brown (noted radical abolitionist who would later plan the famous raid on Harpers Ferry) and his followers brutally hacked five men to death with broadswords. So next time you complain about how indecent our politics is getting, think about this.
Fellow frontrunners
Look out, Dorothy, flying monkeys! As a child I was terrified of the flying monkeys, not so much because they were scary but because monkeys could apparently fly and I didn’t know that.
Mike Pfannenstiel, and his wife Kelly Blunt Pfannenstiel (not pictured because I didn’t have enough sense to take it), Kansas locals, were pacers for today’s race. Their positive attitude and energy is always appreciated.
Here’s another one: This is Juli, she manages a parks department in Iowa, promoting fitness, inspiring other female leaders, and by all appearances is a pretty awesome mom and wife.
Sometimes people ask why I like to do these races, when I tell people I don’t especially like to run. I like to set goals and achieve them, but also I meet great people. So here is one of them: This is my buddy Richard, who I met at the Miami marathon. He’s an attorney from Wisconsin, and when he isn’t doing his day job, he runs marathons and raises money for a charity to help fund no-kill animal shelters. if you have a couple extra bucks, or feel strongly about this, here is the link: http://www.marathonanimalrescue.com/
Period costumes, by which I mean the Myrtle Beach shirt. Dude that race was so last month.
Water
Juli Seydell Johnson and I locked in a picture duel.
They need to paint this trail yellow. Just sayin’
It’s the one, the only, Henry Rueden. 1000+ marathons and counting.
Mahaffie stagecoach and Santa Fe Trail stop
Fortunately I am the tin man; I have no heart. So it can’t be broken. I guess I’m coming back to Kansas.
