God Bless the U.S.A.

"And I’m proud to be an American where at least I know I’m free.
And I won’t forget the men who died, who gave that right to me.
And I’d gladly stand up next to you and defend her still today.
‘Cause there ain’t no doubt I love this land God bless the U.S.A."
--God Bless the U.S.A. (chorus), Lee Greenwood

Thank you doesn't even begin to do justice to the men and women who have given the ultimate sacrifice to defend our county, and to help to try to bring the freedoms we enjoy to other countries around the world. God bless you, your families and your service to our country.

As I'm posting this, I can't bring up the Post-Bulletin site to get any specific links, but Greg Sellnow had a very nice column thanking those who helped him to his marathon finish yesterday. Very well said.

So, another Med-City marathon has come and gone. Congrats to everyone who ran. It turned out to be yet another blip on the weather radar, didn't it? Nice cool temps and little humidity both right before and after, but Sunday brought us quite warm temps (82 was the high), very high humidity and what felt like a head wind pretty much all the way in from Byron. But ... I heard on the radio this morning that 7 people were killed by a tornado in NE Iowa and that was accompanied by softball-sized (4") hail. Coon Rapids and especially Hugo, outside St. Paul, also had a tornado. So, it could have been a lot worse here, right in between those two storm systems. Had we had a tornado or 4" hail, we'd have had a real mess. Thank you to all the volunteers who made the even possible yesterday!! We really appreciate you.

I ran the half, and ran and finished just how I'd wanted to. My time was 1:48:11 and since I wanted to finish in 2:00, that was just fine with me. I ran very comfortably and tried to maintain a consistent effort, which doesn't necessarily translate into consistent pace given the hills, both up and down. And I wanted to feel good at the finish as I wanted to go back out on the course and cheer for my friends as I knew so many people that would be running. Fun, fun. My splits: 8:17 8:27 (uphill) 8:38 (uphill) 7:58 (downhill) 8:19 7:41 (downhill) 8:26 (uphill) 7:38 (big downhill) 8:27 8:20 8:52 8:30 8:06. Here's elevation (green) vs. pace (blue). I stopped at all the water stops. I think the little spikes in my pace are when I stopped to either drink or take photos.

After I finished the half, Dave Phillips and I walked over to the RTC water stop to see how things were going over there. Just fine! They (Jean Murray, Julie Murray, John Shonyo, Kit Hawkins, Laura Lenz, Amy Anshus, Priscilla Smith, and I'm probably forgetting someone(s), ...) Thank you for volunteering and representing the RTC so well.

So looking at the graph above, you can see I went more than 13.1 miles. I didn't think it was quite that far, but whatever! It was my longest run in a quite a while. Anyway, I waited around the NE corner of the golf course until the winner came by and in the mean time, took photos and cheered on the runners. I was thinking that maybe Ron Giles had a chance to win this thing. Finally, I saw the lead cyclists coming, but it wasn't Ron following behind them. (Winner pictured below.)

Hmmm. Just a couple of minutes later, I saw someone coming toward me, but walking not running. It looked kind of like Ron. What was happening? So I ran down to him an he was indeed walking, holding his abdomen. He had a really bad cramp. He said when he tried to run, then he couldn't breathe. He'd been passed at about mile 25 after having led for the previous 8 or so miles. I was just crushed, as he was also. But he was determined to get to the finish, and was walking fast, determined not to let anyone else pass him. I felt so bad for him. But he certainly gave it his all. So close ... so very close.

I'm very happy to report that Ron recovered very nicely. That's him finishing off Sara Pruett's rhubarb pie later in the day. ;-)

After seeing Ron, I decided to head back out toward Mayowood to see who I might meet. I decided I'd run a couple of miles, find someone I knew and them run back with them if they agreed. First one I asked was Gary Larson. He said he didn't need me to run in with him so I continued on. Met Lin Gentling and asked if she wanted a running buddy. She said sure, but she wouldn't talk much. I could sure understand this. She was very, very focused.

I chit-chatted a bit not expecting her to reply. We met up with Trevor Distad and I asked him if he wanted to run with us. He said sure, so he joined us.

Shortly after that we saw Tish Torchia. It was her birthday on marathon day! She was on the lookout for son Ian I believe, who I'd seen earlier.

We got back to the stoplight near HyVee. Trevor had dropped back a bit and I noticed he'd started walking, so I went back to walk with him. I suggested that maybe we walk for 50 seconds, to the next minute on my watch, and then start running agin. He agreed. We started running again. He probably wanted to hit me for continuing to talk, but I told him he was doing great (he was), told him soon we'd "see the barn", to enjoy the little downhill going north toward Snappy Stop, etc. He was moving pretty well by this time, just under 8 minute pace. We then saw his family and I told them Trevor was doing great (which he was--we could see the Y now). He continued his great pace and I left Trevor and Lin, who we'd caught up with, on the south side of the Y where I dropped off. That was the very best part of my day, running in with Trevor and Lin. I like to think that I helped a bit, but that's probably me just trying to feed my ego. ;-)

A little aside ... Mary Chestolowski registered for the 20-miler as a tune-up for Grandma's. Well, she ended up running the whole thing, keeping the 2nd place female finisher company (I think it was the other gal's first marathon). Go figure. Mary, you're amazing. Peg was kind enough to get her a finisher's medal. She doesn't have a recorded time as she didn't have a chip (20 milers weren't timed.)

I went back to the finish area and talked to Roger, Joyce, and K.C. (daughter-in-law) Heil, who were waiting for Jon. Went back out and soon met up with Jon. Ran back on the sidewalk next to Jon and told the spectators that were just all watching silently (what's up with THAT?) to "cheer for Jon", which they did enthusiastically. Thank you, spectators. Managed to get back and get a picture of Jon finishing, then I needed to get home and (finally) get in the shower. But first, I wanted to stop at Great Harvest and get a loaf of bread as they were having a fundraiser for the gentlemen awaiting a transplant at the clinic. It was almost noon, when they were ready to close up. On the way out, I ran into Barb Giles and son Logan. I asked them if they wanted to be blogged. They said sure.

So ... then it was time to head home, get cleaned up, and head out to a couple of post-marathon celebrations ... a ninth annual and a first annual. Photos on a post above. By 9:00 pm when I got home, I was beat! But it was a very fun day.

There was talk later in the day about a marathon in Stillwater on May 25, 2009 which would be in direct conflict with Med-City. Here's a link (search for 'marathon') to what I found on Google.

Today I tilled my garden and planted my tomatoes, peppers and green beans. I still need to do winter squash, but Ted and I had had enough for the day. We could really use some rain.

It's a beauty of a day. Enjoy yours.

Later.