Had a fun time running this with Kim. The plan was just to run for fun and not do anything to mess up Kim's BQ attempt at SGM in 3 weeks. I do believe we succeeded in doing that! This race also had some special significance to us as we are celebrating our 26th wedding anniversary this week. So what better way to celebrate 26 years together than running 26(.2) miles down a canyon on a beautiful fall morning! The very observant Kim also noticed there are 26 letters in the alphabet, so she came up with this idea to take a picture for each letter of the alphabet having something to do with the 26 years and 26.2 miles. The plan is to eventually put together a little booklet with the 26 pictures along with some thoughts and give a copy to all our kids and (future) grandkids. Maybe we'll post some pics later. It was nice to just run for fun with no pressures for a change. Not that don't enjoy the racing and competition side of things but it's also nice to just stop and smell a few roses sometimes. And there were certainly plenty of roses to stop and smell on this morning. Just a gorgeous fall morning. A bit nippy at the start (30's?) but nearly ideal for running. Also had a nice tail wind for many of the downhill miles so I'm sure the racers appreciated that. Kim had also prepared some bib thingies to pin on the back of our singlets with a heart with "Tom" and "Kim" inside the heart. Above the heart it said "26 years 26.2 miles". Below the heart it said "Lovin' the journey". We gotta a lot of kudos and congrats from other runners and seemed to spur a few discussions related to how running a marathon is a great metaphor for going through the up & downs of marriage and life. We got thinking we should plan a 50-miler when we've been married 50 years... or maybe a 50K,..... or maybe just 50-feet :) All-in-all we had a great time in Logan. Got to spend some time with some old college friends Friday, with our son and daughter-in-law on Saturday, and with old and newfound running buddies before, during and after the race. I was especially thrilled to see my old high-school buddy Bob crush his goal for his 1st BQ (3:25) and run a solid 3:13 time for his first TOU marathon. Also looks like FRB folks did very well as usual, congrats to everyone who finished the race! |