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<\/a><\/p>\nThe course?\u00a0 Twenty loops around a lake… and each one longer than the last.\u00a0 I have to assume the distance remained constant so the only conclusion is that I got slower and slower as the loops dragged on.<\/p>\n
I used to arrogantly think I was “pretty ok” as a marathoner.\u00a0 I was never going to win but I could on occasion put up a respectable showing in the standings… particularly in the smaller races.<\/p>\n
But with just a few weeks off for an injury, my speed work and stamina have regressed to “meh \u00af\\_(\u30c4)_\/\u00af <\/span>” categorizations of running.\u00a0 That’s… disheartening to say the least.<\/p>\n Despite setbacks and disappointments, I keep lacing up.\u00a0 I’m slowly trying to rebuild.\u00a0 There’s still some lingering injury nonsense but with each race it seems to get duller and less obtrusive.\u00a0 I gather from comments from other runners on the courses that I’m still limping in my stride… and I can tell there’s some minor plantar fasciitis in the balls of my feet that I keep self-treating with Dr Scholls insoles.<\/p>\n It’s funny to think that three months ago I was on the hunt for a first ever Sub-3 hour time.\u00a0 Now I’m struggling to put up a 4 hour effort.<\/p>\n Today I thought I felt better than Seoul or LA when the closing miles were a feat of my feet’s threshold for pain.\u00a0 But the clock time for today was only slightly better than those staggering finishes.<\/p>\n Nonetheless, it was a goofball race.\u00a0 For the low, low price of $40, we netted a ton of swag – beer glasses, a beanie, custom scissor medals with all our names on the ribbon, and I think free race photos.\u00a0 Plus a massive amount of food at the aid station… which, did I mention I passed 20 times?<\/p>\n Oh, and to save money, they recycle old race bibs.\u00a0 Here’s mine from a middle school cross country meet:<\/p>\n Part of the $40 fee also helps support a school for developmentally challenged children which is a great cause… but I have to wonder how this guy breaks even on the race.\u00a0 I suspect he does it because he loves it… and loves the school.\u00a0 And if that’s the case, the profit margin he needs is simply that he can support that school.\u00a0 A feel-good emotional marathon that didn’t always feel good physically.\u00a0 Sounds about right.<\/p>\n Anyway, a few shots from the circuit…<\/p>\n …and a few shots at the finish.<\/p>\n That’s the race director and me above.\u00a0 I think the race photographer got me in an action pose pretending to run with those giant scissors.\u00a0 I’m just glad they weren’t given to all the runners — can you imagine me trying to get those shears through TSA?\u00a0 Even with PreCheck?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A bit of backstory, from the race website: The course?\u00a0 Twenty loops around a lake… and each one longer than the last.\u00a0 I have to assume the distance remained constant so the only conclusion is that I got slower and slower as the loops dragged on. I used to arrogantly think I was “pretty ok” […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31436","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31436","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=31436"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31436\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=31436"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=31436"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=31436"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a> <\/a> <\/a> <\/a> <\/a> <\/a> <\/a> <\/a> <\/a><\/p>\n<\/a> <\/a> <\/a><\/p>\n