Notes on Number Six

I finished. After essentially not training for my sixth marathon, I crossed the line roughly six minutes slower than I did in my fifth full marathon, fifteen weeks earlier, in June.

This race featured a few firsts for me:

• Running a full marathon that I had run previously (last time: 2009, click here for recap).
• Eating a Krispy Kreme doughnut during a race. While I had previously eaten a Krispy Kreme doughnut a couple days before a race, this was the first time I downed a doughnut mid-race – or while running, in general, for that matter. In 2009, when I ran the Air Force Marathon, Mile 17 traversed a runway. At first, I thought, “Cool, I’m running on a runway!” Then, with the sun beating down on the hot, asphalt surface of the runway, it quickly became less cool. This year, the course did not include the runway, but included volunteers offering Krispy Kreme doughnuts, instead. Much improved, race organizers!
• Quite possibly too much information, but...this was the first race, of any distance, during which I availed myself of those little green booths along the course.

A few notes on what I wore:

• The shirt and shorts have now completed fourteen half marathons and six full marathons with me. They kind of feel like friends.
• I wore the socks through a Peruvian mudslide in April.
• The shoes still have African dirt on them from August.

Two more notes:

• My favorite spectator sign, which I saw in downtown Fairborn during Mile Ten, read: “WWHHD: What would Hal Higdon do?” Made me smile.
• As I crossed the finish line, the announcer said, “We’re at five hours and twenty-eight minutes, so David just crushed the five-thirty!” Take off a few more minutes for my chip time, and yes...I suppose I did.