Monday, May 09, 2011

Personal Record in Cheesiness

It had been over two years since my last half marathon. Prior to the race, I wondered how fast I would manage to run. Turns out, I set a personal record. In cheesiness.

Cheesy RunnersThe back-story is here. Photos are here. Ben’s recap is here. A video recap of the event is here.

While this was not my fastest outing, I’m pleased to announce that no runners pushing strollers passed me this time. I’m less pleased to announce that, according to the official results, a five-year-old finished nearly seventeen minutes ahead of me. Really? Can this be true? I’m still waiting for a correction or a retraction.

Action Shot I’m also sad to report that Ben and I finished a combined eighteen minutes and thirty-six seconds slower than our target combined time of six hours (his marathon time plus my half marathon time).

I fell off the target pace roughly two and a half miles into my run. Ben ran a great race and finished faster than his target time. All things considered, I ran a solid race, even though I’d envisioned running with Ben for several more miles. The marathon and half marathon courses diverged after twelve miles, just over a mile before my race headed toward the finish.

Ben would have had to run a personal record (cheesiness aside) to make up for my time. Alternatively, I would have had to run a couple minutes faster than the alleged five-year-old.

We raised hundreds of dollars in pledges to assist relief efforts in Japan and Egypt, and we had a great time doing it.

Any way you slice it, this was one of cheesiest, funnest and most memorable events in recent memory!

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