![\"image\"](\"http:\/\/www.runkevinrun.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/image.jpeg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nSteve\u00a0and I don’t see each other nearly enough and I love him like, well, a brother. But I also like him, which can’t always be said of family, ya know? I’m incredibly lucky to like both my mom and my bro — we are a small family, but we are mighty!<\/p>\n
So when my alarm went off at 3:40 this morning, I kinda just wanted to curl back up under the covers. \u00a0But I rallied and made the hour drive to Fair Hill Stables and the park area that I only had GPS coordinates for from Mainly Marathons. \u00a0It’s a little known fact that you can cut and paste GPS cords into GoogleMaps and get directions that way. \u00a0(I’m trying to make progress toward Cliff Clavin status; how am I doing?). \u00a0I was a little worried as I pulled into the gravel drive by\u00a0the spitting drizzle that had most definitively NOT been in the 0% chance of precipitation forecast. \u00a0Thankfully it quickly subsided but as the day wore on the gloomy grey clouds never seemed to part or depart.<\/p>\n
Today was an 18 loop course. \u00a0They apparently made a late night audible decision to adjust the course to keep us out of the muddiest sections and this may help account for the distance being a bit long; unlike the London Standard 26.2 miles derived from the 1908 Olympics, it was longet even the Antwerp Olympics of 1920\u00a0which ran 26.75 miles (Is my Clavin showing?). \u00a0My Garmin said I ran 27.4 miles but some of that may have been Millennium Falcon-ing back and forth, zig zagging from wheel rut to grass on the course as I tried to find my footing.<\/p>\n
In\u00a0the end I put up something like a 3:51 and change time, which apparently put me as third overall. \u00a0I’ll have to double check the official results later but that’s what I think happened.<\/p>\n
Post race I took a detour south to the Decoy Museum. \u00a0I took a snarky attitude to it, making jokes to myself about the place being a fake but I suspect A LOT of people have made the joke. \u00a0While it wasn’t my thing, I appreciated the care and curation of their exhibits\u00a0and felt like it was a fascinating insight into a subculture I know little about save perhaps playing Duck Hunt in the late 80s on the Nintendo Entertainment System in my buddy Rob’s basement. \u00a0I felt sheepish about my attitude… Until I tried to leave Maryland. \u00a0In order to get out of Havre De Grace, MD, I had to take a bridge that had an $8 toll. \u00a0Eight dollars! \u00a0It wasn’t a long bridge; it wasn’t even an impressive bridge. \u00a0It certainly wasn’t a bespoke bridge. \u00a0It was more of a pret-a-bridger, ready to bridge plans taken off the rack and built. \u00a0Hell, for all I \u00a0know it was a used bridge they picked up on the cheap from a neighboring town! \u00a0Eight dollars? \u00a0You want to take about a decoy drawing in prey only to have a hunter kill that prey? \u00a0Maybe the Decoy Museum did EXACTLY what it was supposed to do!<\/p>\n