March roared in like a lion today in Tampa.The weather was so bad that I'm sure Jim Cantore must have been broadcasting live for the Weather Channel at the finish line.
It would have rained cats and dogs, but the cats and dogs were smart enough to stay inside.
But enough of the funny lines. I'll explain the day this way, at the start it was windy, 66 degrees, with 94% humidity, and it was dark since the start was before sunrise (picture above on the left). It started to rain at mile 11. From mile 21 to the finish, it rained hard with the wind blowing the rain (and sometimes me) sideways, while the temperature dropped. At the finish, it was 52 degrees (other picture above on the right).
It's now an hour after I finished and I'm having trouble typing because my hands are still numb from the combination of wind and cold.
My time was 4 hours and 30 minutes. The day started out "great" with my Garmin GPS watch not having charged over night. So I ran with no idea of the time or mileage, since the wind had caused many of the mile markers to be removed.
Along the way, in additon to the challenging weather, I saw a lady playing a flute (she was not running), a mime (not running either), a guy on stilts juggling (not a runner), a guy running the marathon while dribbling a basketball, and another guy running the marathon while juggling. I also saw a guy in a "Fear God" shirt preaching through a megaphone, while another guy kept chasing him while ringing a cow bell. This went on a for a few minutes, the guy with the megaphone would move and the guy with the cowbell would go stand by him and start ringing the cowbell again. I'm not sure how long this went on, but it was one of those things you see while running 26.2 miles.
Completing this marathon means I have run in 13 states. Since my fingers are still numb, I'll type the list of states on some other day.
an amazing feat! you are teaching us about your tenacity and how crazy you really are! Can't wait to see the next report.
ReplyDelete