Rock 'n' Roll

One year ago I ran my best marathon time ever. This was very surprising to me because I had been sick for the 2 weeks prior to going down to Phoenix, thanks mom. On Friday before the race during dinner I decided to change my plan and just have fun instead of aiming for my Boston time.

Then race day came and once again I brought on the strange weather, record cold hit Phoenix (20s). For those of you who don't know of my race luck, I have run in record cold, record heat, 40+ mph wind gusts, down pours, sleet. You name it, bad running weather is there if I am involved. It was so cold that day that I the roads were icy from sprinkler systems that remained on and I actually saw people wearing snow suits.

I packed the wrong pants, which I didn't realize until race morning, so I ended up running in shorts. I remember wanting to quit because I was so cold at the 10K mark, thinking I couldn't do this for another 20 miles. Then a water stop lady spilled pink Accelerade (aka vomit) on my gloves, now I had wet, smelly, frozen hands. I discarded my gloves thinking no gloves were better than wet gloves and picked up a pair off the road a few minutes later, only a runner would do that.

I finished in 3:43, 3 minutes short of Boston time, but still my best marathon. I was so cold I had to find someone to zip my jacket.

My RnR 2007 finish photo.

Finally warm again!

The TNT Phoenix team ran yesterday in perfect conditions 40s at the start, getting up to the upper 50s. They were turning in some great times, some of them did much better than they had expected. Way to go! This is one of the best organized marathons I have run and fastest courses, I recommend it to anyone.