They all can't be "easy" runs.

5.5 slow hood route miles. Then boy #1 confirmation. Then outback for lunch. Then beach. Then back to church. Good day.

3.5 miles. Hood route. 6 am start.

Raceday weather forecast: 40 degrees and raining.

5.5 miles. Hood route. Weighed in this morning. 185 lbs. That puts me @ 3:29:xx finish Saturday. I feel better than that. My long runs have been really good. My intervals and tempos have been adequate, I think. The st. Paddys day race would indicate that I am in PR shape. Spouse thinks I'm in PR shape, because of what she`s seen this training cycle. We shall see. Last post for a while.

I'm stoked to meet Matt S. Tomorrow!

Mutual of Omaha Corporate Headquarters - Omaha NE.

Lewis and Clark Park and Overlook - Council Bluffs, IA.

Sioux Falls - Sioux Falls, SD. Really, Really beautiful! But, what's that smell? Oh, they're slaughtering pigs next door? Neato!

Devil's Gulch - Garretson, SD. According to Garretson lore, Jesse James evaded capture just outside of town by spurring his horse to leap the ravine -- a feat that everyone agrees is nearly impossible. Most historians believe that it is impossible. The town thinks that its impossibility only makes its reality more wonderful. Once you get past the idea that it is unbelievable garbage that he jumped the ravine, you can appreciate the beauty.

Palisades State Park - Garretson, SD. We climbed a ton of this park and took about 100 pictures. Simply an amazing place!

Brookings, SD. Checked out the place we were staying. When we called the owner of the place to find where we could meet to transfer the key, he said “The door’s open. The key is on top of the fridge.”  Brookings is another world, in terms of security, in a good way. We then had a delicious Mexican- American dinner with the Schreiber’s.

2 miles, 7 am. From our place to the race start/finish and back. 

Raining most of the day – Toured Brookings and SDSU.

We did an architectural tour of homes by car. Had ice cream at the dairy bar on SDSU campus (they invented cookies and cream, so I went with that.) We went to the school store and bought some Jackrabbits stuff for the kids. We heard through the interwebs, that you can get a key to the bell tower on campus, and then climb it. So we went to the police station and asked for the key. They gave it to us for an hour. We climbed the tower and took a bunch of pictures on a rainy day.  We gave the police the key back and they gave us a certificate for climbing the tower. Seriously, Brookings is another world, in terms of security! We were laughing at the “no way is this true” of this situation. Then we checked out some key locations along the race course by car, and we went to packet pickup. The race shirt is totally awesome, the best I have ever received at a race. So nice, in fact, that Spouse picked one up after the race for $10. Do you know what I had to do for MY shirt? Then we had dinner at Mamma Mia’s. They were overwhelmed with runners. We got there early enough that it wasn’t really an issue.

Brookings - Marathon #11, 
Usually, I finish these things by saying thank you to Sasha for putting this blog together. I thought I should start with that this time.  This blog has connected me with some exceptional runners. But what I’ve found is that it also connects me with exceptional people.  So since I would have never heard of Matt S. without this blog, and I would have never heard of Brookings without Matt, thanking Sasha is where  I should start.
Okay, the race stuff. This course is NOT flat. There is a hill at mile 9 that made me laugh.  I was braced for some rough weather at the start. When that did not happen, I went out at 6:50 pace for the first 2 miles. Every mile after that was slower, and slower. 
At mile 6, I took my first gu. It was a while until the water after that. For some reason, the sugar made like a bubble that made breathing difficult. I stopped to cough and spit for a bit. I didn’t take another gu for the rest of the race. Not being able to breathe is a freak out moment.  After that, I was cruising easy until the half. Once the halfers split off from the full runners, I was really alone. It’s hard to describe the difference between the second half of this course from the first. It is like a whole new race. The first half is about as “urban” as Brookings gets. The second half is isolated, and feels like you are running through the plains. It is much hillier. There are more surface changes. The wind really picked up. Mile 13 was through mud. The. Whole. Mile. I ran through a puddle at mile 15, and yelled a few swear words. Right after that, I realized a kid relay runner was right behind me. Oops. A woman started using me as a wind screen late in the race. It kind of ticked me off. So I didn’t hold a straight line. She said “yeah, I’m totally using you.” I said I couldn’t understand how the wind was in our face, no matter which way we turned. Then she started telling me about Boston, and I let her go. I didn’t really feel like hearing about how horrible someone else’s last race was, while I was falling apart in THIS race. It is really a scenic course. The rain started at mile 20, and never stopped. It was scheduled to be sunny at the finish.
 Honestly, I don’t know how much of this time to put on running through mud, grass, rain, bridges,  wind, curb hopping, etc. And how much of this to put on to me mentally breaking down. I fell apart, plain and simple. Miles 20 -26 were a nightmare. I finally saw Matt on course at mile 25.5ish. He was directing traffic in the rain. They put a -ski on the end of my polish last name at the finish. Spouse could see that I was pretty disappointed in my time. I would have hung out at the finish line longer, if it weren’t stupid cold and raining. The food and drink spread was exceptional.
It’s amazing that I saw spouse so many times out there. She got a bit of a work out tracking me!
By 2 pm the weather was excellent. 53 degrees and sunny – the weather I was expecting at the end. 
I have completely changed my preconceptions about South Dakota. This place is beautiful. Maybe not the whole state, but I get why Matt likes it here. Some of those paths I ran on late in the race were fantastic. If I lived here, I would love running here. 
I met some 50 staters on this trip. I don’t really fit their mold. I actually care about my time. And this time isn’t up to snuff. On the other hand, this trip with spouse was amazing. Signing up for races in foreign places, and getting new experiences with people you love -there’s something to be said for that, regardless of race time. There has been more than a few times I didn’t run the race I wanted, but the trip more than compensated. I have been told that racing for any other reason than a faster time is stupid.  I disagree, but would still like to be faster.
Where do I go from here? I don’t know on a couple of levels. First, I don’t know what race is next. It seems I am a crappy weather magnet. Birmingham, Sugarloaf, Savannah, were all just awful. I would like to some day race without rain, wind, or life-threatening heat and humidity. I am also unsure how to adjust my training to get back to 3:15. Did I lack in long runs? Total mileage? What did I miss? I feel like I had a solid 4 month build up. Is it really all about weight? I have to re-think some stuff.