{"id":40526,"date":"2022-05-01T16:45:41","date_gmt":"2022-05-01T20:45:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.runkevinrun.com\/?p=40526"},"modified":"2022-05-01T16:45:41","modified_gmt":"2022-05-01T20:45:41","slug":"may-1-2022-the-oc-marathon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/?p=40526","title":{"rendered":"May 1, 2022 – The OC Marathon"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n

I suppose if you say it enough times, it’s bound to be true eventually… that seems to be the red state philosophy of long time Republican bulwark Orange County, CA. [Full disclosure — the OC is much more purple these days, having gone for Hilary Clinton in 2016 and Biden in 2020… but the local “GOP” remains strong].

At the OC Marathon today, there were two big lies being peddled repeatedly along the course:

1) “This is the last hill”
and
2) “You’re almost there”

Perhaps the spectators were just overly enthusiastic and under-informed about the course layout. But I believed them about the hill thing the first time I heard it… doubted them the second time… and by the SEVENTH hill I was pretty sure somebody should have phoned the fire department because all of these folks’ pants were on fire.<\/p>\r\n

But sure enough, we did finally crest a last hill. \u00a0Where that was along the course, who can say? \u00a0I suppose it depends on what your definition of “was” is [Full disclose – equal time diss on political parties].

As for the “you’re almost there” uttered throughout the course… maybe space and time have different rules and properties in the OC. Because when the first spectator to tell me I was almost there was standing beside the mile TEN marker. Uh… I don’t know what makes this fella think SIXTEEN POINT TWO MORE MILES is “almost there.” By far the worst but not the only physics denier. I heard I was almost there from police officers, small children, and even a person holding their puppy. I have to admit, I didn’t want to let a sleeping dog lie so I am making an assumption that the dog would’ve be honest.

Let me be blunt — we’re only almost there when we can see the finish line… and even then, if you cruelly have us PASS the finish line with a sign like this… well, that’s not almost there either.

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

***<\/p>\r\n

The day that was…<\/p>\r\n

An early morning bus ride to the start line. \u00a0This bus had seat belts that dug into my back… and the leg room of a Spirit airplane.<\/p>\r\n

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

***<\/p>\r\n

Awaiting the start at 5:30 AM. \u00a0I had been assigned to Corral 2… but all the pacers near me were rocking 4:05, 4:15, 4:30 placards. \u00a0There wasn’t a strict corral protocol… so I scooched up a bit to be closer to the sub 4 times.<\/p>\r\n

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

***<\/p>\r\n

The highlights of the course were certainly in the opening miles along the coastline and marina.<\/p>\r\n

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

***<\/p>\r\n

From there it was a lot of bike paths and neighborhoods…<\/p>\r\n

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

I did get to high-five a dinosaur though…<\/p>\r\n

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

***<\/p>\r\n

Here’s a photo of me truly being “almost there.”<\/p>\r\n

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

***<\/p>\r\n

And then I was done. \u00a0Not a lot of masks but I tried to be socially responsible and wear my bandana amongst the thronging masses… and while I have yet to open my post-race food, I’m also a little scared to. \u00a0That clown on the wrapper seems to be the stuff of nightmares.<\/p>\r\n

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

***<\/p>\r\n

Good bye to the OC, Kevin! \u00a0On to the next….<\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I suppose if you say it enough times, it’s bound to be true eventually… that seems to be the red state philosophy of long time Republican bulwark Orange County, CA. [Full disclosure — the OC is much more purple these days, having gone for Hilary Clinton in 2016 and Biden in 2020… but the local […]<\/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-40526","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40526","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=40526"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40526\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40559,"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40526\/revisions\/40559"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=40526"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=40526"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=40526"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}