I was looking forward to that?

I have no idea why I was looking forward to subjecting myself to such torture. I don't know if I'll ever conquer 26 miles and 385 yards. They were predicting cold and wet all week. When I got up at 5:30 on Saturday it was 74 and raining hard. The rain lightened up a little before the race started, but it was only temporary. I was late getting to the starting area so I wasn't with any of the pace groups so I just went out at a comfortable pace. First 10k at 8:21 pace - not bad. First 10m at 8:21 pace. A little bit after 11m the rain turned into a downpour. Somewhere around 16m the wind started. Quick visit to the port-a-potty somewhere around 17 or 18. 20m at 8:33 pace. Still running most of the time with an occasional short walk on some of the hills. Around 22 1/2 my right thigh cramped up and I stopped and stretched a little and walked a little. I alternated between running and walk breaks until I realized that if I stopped again I probably wouldn't start running again. Ran the rest of the way to the finish line. Finished at 3:58:02 (3:57:18 chip) - 9:04 pace in 350th place. It was about 2 1/2 minutes slower than last year, but I finished 155 places higher than last year, so I guess it wasn't that bad.

Donna did her first 5k at the same time. She finished in 49:45 which was considerably faster than what she had been doing during her training. Awesome job honey!