We’re back from KC and the Half Marathon Team Challenge. Women 4th, Men 5th. This was an absolute dreadful day for everyone, if anyone told you they were having fun they were either delirious or lying or both. Start time was 7:00 am and it was already bumping 80 with humidity to match. And the hills. Temps soared to near 90 by the time the mates started rolling in. Matt Heesch was out at 3 miles with atrial fib, his first bout with that in over 2 years, he’s fine now so cool. Pohren was 14th (1:14:47), Schneider 23rd (1:17:45), and Andrew Jacob 35th (1:21:39). For the ladies it was Jen Viehrig 13th (1:30:03), Laura Neel 31st (1:41:18) and Linda Barnhart 48th (1:45:05). If you’ve never run Hospital Hill before, and especially in this type of heat, you might be scoffing at the race times. If you have endured HH on a bad day, then you know who has the Juevos Mas Grande de Todos!
I simply could not be prouder of the mates for laying it on the line under these conditions.
I finished 6th in my AG in the 5K, even with walking twice up a couple of major “undulations.” Not in the cards for me today. These were my thoughts while on the course:
“I’ve got to give it my best even if I have to walk, but this sucks, I feel like crap and this really, really sucks”.
“I’ll be damned if I’ll insult everyone that finishes behind me by claiming oh, I’m only having fun. They too are suffering mightily and deserve My Respect for accepting the challenge of the day.”
“I’ll be damned if I’ll insult everyone that finishes ahead of me by claiming oh, I’m only having fun. They too are suffering mightily and deserve My Respect for accepting the challenge of the day.”
“I’m suffering mightily but have my Self Respect for accepting the challenge of the day.”
“This sucks.”
How’s that for a race recap?
Shannon Stenger took the win at this morning’s Havelock 3K (8:57) in Lincoln. Transitioning from the oval, look for Shannon to make some Big Noise through this year’s road race calendar.
Me and my old/new buddy Mark Curp. Mark was one of my biggest inspirations during the 1980’s. In 1986 he took 2nd to Kenyans in 8 Majors (Peachtree, Falmouth, Bloomsday, Bix, etc.) and delivered some of the most gut wrenching, teeth clenching, hair pulling efforts I’ve ever witnessed. He also set the WR/AR for the Half Marathon at the Philadelphia Distance Classic in 1984. It was cool telling Mark how I was on the press truck calling the race in Houston when Ryan Hall finally broke the AR in 2009. Mark is from and still resides in Lees Summit, MO. He ran an incredible 1:03:48 on the same Hospital Hill course the mates toured today. Big Balls indeed!
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