Lincolnite

Some of you may get tired of hearing it, but thank you to everybody who participated in one way or another in yesterday's Lincoln Marathon and Half-Marathon. That goes for runners, walkers, the lone wheelchair guy, volunteers, cops, National Guard members, and spectators. The Lincoln Marathon is a truly wonderful event for our community and, traffic-snarling effects aside, we should all be extremely grateful for its growth and success. I finished the half-marathon yesterday in a PR of 1:45 on the nose. That happened to be my exact goal for the day. Talk about precise training! Well ... that gives my training regimen far too much credit. I got lucky. The day went both better and worse than it could have. The two sides apparently cancelled each other out. On the "better" side was the weather. You're not going to find much more perfect distance running weather than what we had yesterday. Cool, cloudy, and just a light breeze. That was PR weather if I ever saw it. Spectators apparently didn't think so, though. It seemed like there weren't nearly as many folks lining the course as there were last year. I'm probably exaggerating, but I'd almost put the numbers at 50% fewer. As for the "worse", my feet weren't in the mood to endure 13.1 miles of pavement. I could feel them giving out around 15K. By the time we turned onto 10th Street I was in a world of hurt. I walked from about 10th & Lake to South Street. Once I started running again I thought for sure I was going to have to walk at least one more time. Fortunately a young man by the name of Lucas Arredondo -- or as a spectator called him, "The Barefoot Bandit" -- came to the rescue. As he passed me around D Street I struck up a conversation, admiring his ability to run barefoot. We chatted off and on until he split off to continue the full marathon. Without that conversation I probably would have finished in the 1:50 range. Thanks, Lucas! I'm not sure how many of you readers ran yesterday, but please do let us know how it went. I know Fletch ran the half and finished near the top end of his expectations. Good work, Fletch! And I know that Nikkidemas hosts a marathon watch party every year at her house on Normal Boulevard. Thanks for supporting the runners, Nikki!