{"id":25097,"date":"2018-05-06T18:12:31","date_gmt":"2018-05-06T22:12:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.runkevinrun.com\/?p=25097"},"modified":"2018-05-06T18:12:31","modified_gmt":"2018-05-06T22:12:31","slug":"the-lincoln-marathon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/?p=25097","title":{"rendered":"The Lincoln Marathon"},"content":{"rendered":"

The short, short version?\u00a0 It was … ugly.<\/p>\n

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By mile 11 I had mentally checked out and was going through the motions – right foot, left foot. \u00a0Right foot, left foot.<\/p>\n

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By mile 15, my body checked out and my stride became shorter and shorter… then the walking started. \u00a0My legs felt like live turkeys thrown from the WKRP helicopter. \u00a0Wet bags of cement, splatting the pavement, the horror… the horror. \u00a0Oh, the humanity!<\/p>\n

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I didn\u2019t take many photos. \u00a0I don\u2019t even really remember much when of what happened. \u00a0Was it lingering illness? \u00a0Lack of running the past week? \u00a0Poor nutritional decisions that left me trying to pull energy from the over abundance of fat cells rather than carbs? \u00a0A combination? \u00a0A series of excuses? \u00a0Perhaps it was just one of those days.<\/p>\n

But it was rough out there, man. \u00a0Supposedly there were 12,000 runners doing the various distances. \u00a0The split at mile 13 when half marathoners headed to the finish and we headed out for an out and back felt very lonely. \u00a0I\u2019d be interested in how many full marathoners were registered. \u00a0A lot of them passed me by as my pace collapsed from a pretty good 7:15 per mile to 9, 10, 11 minutes as the day wore on.<\/p>\n

The reviews had warned that it could get hot and there wasn\u2019t a lot of shade on the course. \u00a0They weren\u2019t kidding… although I\u2019ve been hotter and I\u2019ve had tougher conditions, this one really broke me. \u00a0And though a pretty flat course, if not pancake then just bubbling Bisquick while cooking. \u00a0 But those small little bumps might as well have required mountaineering gear as I just struggled with a capital \u201cstrug.\u201d<\/p>\n

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I felt nauseous and had trouble breathing here and there… I want to see it was the still-not-defeated congestion but it just as easily could have been the faltering endurance from my week long couch surfing. \u00a0 Nay, surfing implies some sort of exercise, \u00a0my week long couch moleman existence.<\/p>\n

My mind and body kept telling me, “You’re on your own, kid.”\u00a0 At some stage they individually and collective said to me, “Ya know… we got pretty good at NOT-running.”<\/p>\n

More than a few bikers and aid stations asked me as I variously shuffled along, limped along, and ambled along to see if I was ok. \u00a0I was fine-(ish). \u00a0I was just tired. \u00a0I particularly was taken aback though when a guy asked me at mile 24 if I could make it. \u00a0Dude – I could crawl in two more miles. \u00a0I wasn\u2019t about to quit that close to the finish… although I did consider it as the right foot passed once more in front of the left.<\/p>\n

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In the end, with walking and stumbling, I clocked an ok time on the big board… but the time on my feet was nigh on terrible.<\/p>\n

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This isn\u2019t an indictment of the race – the volunteers were great, especially the sponsoring Lincoln National Guard. \u00a0The course was a bit meh but, no, my problems were my own and not indicative of issues external to me. \u00a0This was all on me. \u00a0I finished and just felt… deflated. \u00a0Defeated. \u00a0De-not-so-lovely.<\/p>\n

It was kinda cool to finish on the 50 yard line, even feeling as I did.<\/p>\n

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And desperate times call for desperate measures:<\/p>\n

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My body reacted… poorly to this swill.<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

Postcards from the Midwest:<\/p>\n

I hoped Google was wrong; it was not.<\/p>\n

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\u2014<\/p>\n

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I concur, Roadside America. \u00a0As \u201clarge fiberglass chickens\u201d go, it\u2019s impressive; as for \u201cgiant chickens,\u201d it\u2019s underwhelming. \u00a0Words matter; expectations must be managed.<\/p>\n

\u2014<\/p>\n

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In my shared universe, I hope McGruff uses Inspector McGrime as a street informant.<\/p>\n

\u2014<\/p>\n

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Look, I\u2019m not a rocket scientist. \u00a0What size lid am I supposed to use here, people?!<\/p>\n

\u2014<\/p>\n

As a kid when visiting relatives in Omaha, Broncos was a hometown fave… so I try and stop in when I blow through town.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\u00a0\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

This is a \u201csmall fry.\u201d \u00a0What must a large be like?<\/p>\n

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\u2014<\/p>\n

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Arriving at the airport to fly out, I felt the oh-so-slow Kevin speed was spot on.<\/p>\n

\u2014<\/p>\n

One score and 6.2 miles ago….<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The short, short version?\u00a0 It was … ugly. By mile 11 I had mentally checked out and was going through the motions – right foot, left foot. \u00a0Right foot, left foot. By mile 15, my body checked out and my stride became shorter and shorter… then the walking started. \u00a0My legs felt like live turkeys […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25097","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25097","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=25097"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25097\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=25097"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=25097"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=25097"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}