Bringing the Drama

I started growing my beard out again the week of the HALF MARATHON. It started out innocently enough, I was just going to do a No Shave November, but then I remembered how I wanted to grow it out for the final two months or so of 2007 and couldn’t. So I was going to grow it out through the end of the year and then shave it. Then I started getting compliments about it. “that beard is epic” “your beard looks good” “it’s so thick!” People liked it, I kept getting unsolicited comments. So then I thought “okay, I can let it go a little while longer.”

I was talking to my friend Brandon at work last week, and told him I was leaning towards shaving it off. He told me I should wait, and I told him that now it’s gotten to the point where if I shave it off, it’s a little over two months’ work gone. Gladly, the beard is not tied to anything sports related, so I didn’t feel compelled to shave because of the Saints or Hornets. I had the beard in Nashville while watching the Cowboys game. [photo credit: Brandi]

Thursday I went to the gym to run since it has been too cold to run outside. I passed CGG as I was leaving, but looked away plus I had my beard and glasses on, and avoided eye contact. Friday I went back to work out, and he noticed me and called me by name. The beard lost it’s disguise factor. Also, I found out CGG is part of the cleaning crew, which makes me think he’s not really related to the owner. That’s another story.

Saturday night my friend Jacob and I were finally going to hang out after two postponements. I shaved my beard down to a mustache. I had just gotten tired of the beard, plus with the disguise factor going away and other factors, it had to go. I had gotten the mustache idea from when Jacob had done it a couple of years ago….to go out with a mustache. I ended up being late because the beard took so long to shave off. I thought the mustache came out pretty well.

Sunday before meeting up with family to go down to the WWII Museum, I shaved the mustache off. I’m clean shaven for the first time since late October. It’s a brave new world.

I woke up this morning excited to watch the Clemson-south carolina game. Even though Clemson has looked great the past 6 games, I told someone last week, I keep waiting for the fall. I’ve been accustomed to some kind of bad game just when you think everything is going well. Last week they won the division, but this week was the rivalry game. I HATE south carolina. My freshman year they won at Clemson and I vividly remember standing on the hill watching the team jump up and down on the Tiger Paw. How dare they! Clemson doesn’t lose that often to south carolina, so to most people it’s not that big of a rivalry, but I know better.

Today I wasn’t that nervous about the game, but I wasn’t as confident as I was last week. CJ Spiller returned the opening kickoff for a TD, and it was great! However, all that joy faded quickly as I watched the offense sputter and the defense not capitalize on fumbles by south carolina. I didn’t give up hope until the onside kick when it was 27-17 ended up giving the ball to south carolina at the 6 or something. ARGH!

I tried explaining the rivalry last night. When south carolina wins, it’s like a punch in the gut. Sure, they don’t win that often, but it still sucks when they do. I guess in the big picture it shouldn’t be that big of a deal since Clemson’s playing in the ACC title game next week, but I was still bummed this afternoon. I went for a run and felt a little better. They still finished 8-4, all is not lost.

I immediately started looking ahead to the Saints/Pats game on MNF. They must have had 1000 promos for the game during the Clemson game today, one time with the wrong team logos. Since I’m on the Saints season ticket waiting list, I get emails from them every so often about the upcoming game. For the MNF game this week, the email talked about how they want fans to arrive as early as possible and be in their seats with plenty of time. To encourage this, they are opening a few of the parking lots at 6 am. SIX IN THE MORNING! I’m not sure how much I’ll be able to concentrate at work on Monday. It’s going to be like those commercials, I’ll have to deal with characters like BO Guy and KCOG, but I’ll keep telling myself “Don’t worry about all these guys. Tonight’s just for me!”

This morning I woke up early and met my dad to go run the Turkey Day Race in NOLA. We got there in plenty of time to get our shirts. Personally, I hate having to get shirts ahead of time, because I have to walk back to my car to drop it off. I much rather races where we get the shirts and stuff after the race. Anyway, I was hoping to beat my time from last year, which was 48:16, with an unofficial goal of 45 minutes. I didn’t think I’d be able to keep a sub 9 min pace up for 5 miles, but I would try to get something close. The cool thing was it wasn’t as cold as I thought it would be, so I was able to forgo wearing a hat to run with.

The race started and I hit the first mile at 8:30 on the race clock, and I knew I had started about 15 or 20 seconds after that clock started. I felt pretty good, but knew it was only the first mile and to keep it up over the next 4 miles was going to be tough. I’ve been running pretty fast times during the week lately, but with my iPod sensor not really accurate, I had no idea how fast. It was off today too, which was frustrating, so basically my iPod was good for keeping time. I made it to the start of the 5th mile, and some guy was calling out times, and I heard him call out 35 or 36 minutes. I was flabbergasted. I might actually get 45 minutes! I almost tripped in a pothole, but saved it and kept going. The little bridges in City Park are a blessing and a curse. I hate running up them because they always seemed to be positioned at the end of races, but they are great to run down because you get a burst. I had a burst over one bridge during the last mile and it kind of propelled me the rest of the way. I saw some kid slow down to walk about half a mile from the finish and wanted to tell him “dude, it’s only half a mile, don’t give up!”, but then I thought maybe he was hurting or something. We finished inside the stadium, so when we broke out onto the track, I saw the clock counting just over 44 minutes. I found energy and bolted for the finish line, which was about 200m from where we entered. I passed a few people and stopped the iPod. 43:55. New personal best for 5 miles, crushed last year’s time, averaged 8:47 a mile! CRAZY! Of course, after the race things bottle-necked because they only had one person handing out timing slips. They really need to work on doing that better.

I walked over and grabbed some free beer and waited for my dad. While waiting I saw Megan finish! Yay running friend! BTW, the beer was Abita Amber. Way better than the Mic Ultra they had after the HALF MARATHON. My dad eventually finished, and we walked around and got a couple of the bananas being handed out. I don’t usually like post race bananas, because they are almost always not ripe enough, but this morning they were handing out fancy organic bananas. They looked like they’d taste really raw, but they actually tasted really good. I’ll have to scope those out next time I’m in the store.

After I got home, I sat in ice again. It worked again, so that was good. I took a shower and then set about making the salad to bring to Thanksgiving. With the coffee cake done, the salad was a snap to throw together. It was so nice to have the hard part already out of the way. I had bought two heads of Romaine, and I only needed one, so now I have an extra. I’ll have to eat more salad this week or something.

I got to my aunt’s just in time to see the turkey carved and then we sat around and talked and ate and watched football and traded stories. One of my aunt’s decided not to come this year, which was weird. I’m not sure anyone knew why. It sounds like she was sad about something, which caused her to not want to come, I don’t know. She’s a big Saints fan, so I said “The Saints are 10-0, no matter what else is going on in life, she can cling to that, and everything will be okay.” It was strange not seeing her, but I should be seeing her at Christmas. I stayed to talk to my aunts and uncles after most people left and learned some casino tips. I came home with a little less than a 1/4 of the cake left and one serving of salad. For the small gathering we had this year, I say it was a good day.

On my way home I saw 10-15 people sitting outside Best Buy at 7 pm. Apparently they wanted to stake out their spot for tomorrow and the super crazy deals. It’s going to get down to 31 here tonight, so I hope that cheap laptop or whatever they’re going for is worth the hassle and frostbite.

Things I’m thankful for this year: God, Jesus, family, friends, running, Yoplait yogurt, granny smith apples, being able to see the important things and not worry about the rest.

Running was able to cheer me up tonight after a frustrating drive home. He is a great friend. On my run tonight I ran behind two HS kids, one on a razor scooter and one on a bike. They were going so slow that I was actually keeping pace with them. They never got farther than like half a block in front of me. I was behind them for about 3/4 of a mile before the scooter kid got tired, then I ran right past them. I was booking it tonight. It felt great. I am ready for Thursday morning and the Turkey Day run. Hopefully I’ll be able to beat last year’s time (48:16), after all, I did run a HALF MARATHON. Five miles should be easy.

I hope they give us better shirts than last year’s. I hate the design on last year’s shirt. It had both of the presidential candidates running with a turkey, but the joke was stale since it came out 3 weeks after the election. At least the running turkey looked happy. I think this year’s shirt is really bright gold with a profile of a turkey on it. At least that’s the design on the race webpage. It can’t be worse than last year’s, it just can’t.

The past couple of months I’ve been anticipating seeing Switchfoot again. They came out with their new record earlier this month, and had scheduled some dates for November. When I saw the dates initially I did a double take. They were scheduled to play the Parish Room at the HOB in NOLA. The Parish is pretty tiny, and is usually reserved for lesser known bands. Switchfoot sold out the big room at the HOB in 2007 when I saw them. Then I read that they were purposely scheduling small venues because they were planning on playing their entire new record at each show. This concept is good if the record’s good, but if it sucks, then it’s not good. I was willing to take the chance because when I saw them in 2007 I came away a lot more impressed than I thought I would be. They were GREAT live. Because of this fact I was able to recruit my sister to come along.

Neko Case had scheduled a show in NOLA the same night, but unlike the Dead Weather/Andrew Bird double I was able to pull off, the two shows were going to be overlapping each other. I had to choose between the two, and my friend Brandi was able to validate my desire to see Switchfoot in a small venue, as opposed to seeing Neko Case, someone who I like, but doesn’t trump an alternative like this one. I bought the tickets for Switchfoot the night I went down to the HOB to see Dead Weather and stuck them in the cabinet door where I usually keep my concert tickets. The anticipation built as I heard songs from the new album. This show was going to be good. I was more excited to see Switchfoot than Swell Season or Pete Yorn.

We went downtown on Saturday and parked the car. The doors opened at 8 pm, and the show was sold out, so we got there about 7:35 or so. It was kind of a mistake because it seemed the entire crowd had showed up by then. There was some confusion as to what line was for Switchfoot and what line was for Stephen Marley, but things were figured out quickly. There was also a 40 something year old guy behind us who was by himself and REALLY excited about the show. I thought that was odd. The doors finally opened about 8:10 and we walked upstairs. The place we stood actually wasn’t as far back as I thought we could get, but man, Switchfoot has a lot of tall fans. It was like a line of tall people across the entire room. After getting our spot, I walked over to the merch table to ask about a vinyl copy of the new album. They didn’t have any. NO VINYL! I don’t understand how bands can show up unprepared like that. People want to give you money for vinyl copies of your album. If you’re going to sell it on your site, you should bring it to the show too! I walked back to our spot and we waited.

Switchfoot came out about 9:05 or so. Where we were standing, we could only really see the heads and shoulders of the band. I tried to make sure I could always see the lead singer, Jon Foreman, because really the lead singer is the most important part of a band. They played the new album in order, and it was awesome. I had only heard Mess of Me and The Sound before the show, so every other song was new to me. I loved the opening song’s lyrics “it’s no accident we’re here tonight, we are once in a lifetime.” there was plenty of guitar to go with the lyrics. YES! I know that lyric maybe isn’t that great, but I can explain later this week why now I like those lyrics for rock songs now. And Mess of Me was ridiculous. I liked hearing the stories before the songs, like how Your Love Is A Song is the third song in a trilogy, and how John M Perkins’ daughter was in attendance before The Sound. Early on some kid up front had a sign that said “Do you love me enough to let me play bass on Bullet?” The band saw it and acknowledged that they did love him enough and he had 6 songs to get ready. Now this kid was getting his wish, I hope he doesn’t suck.

Anyway, each song was great. I loved every minute of it. Then it came time for the bass playing fan to get up on stage for Bullet Soul. His name was Brandon, and the band was going to let him come in after the guitar solo. The solo comes and then Tim Foreman (the bass player) hands him the bass, then the band goes back to the solo. The dude was pretty good, the bass was deep and plodding. Not to say Tim was bad, but the kid had skills. I’m sure that was cool for him to do, and I felt happy for him.

This next part is too awesome for me to remember which song this was. So we’re all packed in there wall to wall, and during the song Jon Foreman takes the mic and starts walking back through the middle of the crowd. He was coming right by us! So I bumped my sister for her to touch him. She declines, and he walked past us. People are snapping pictures and patting him on the back, so on his way back I reached out and patted him on the back. I touched him! I touched a rock star! It was really cool. I mean, I know it’s not that cool in the grand scheme of things, but it was part of a great night, and I’m glad I did it. No regrets.

Once they finished playing Hello Hurricane, they went right into the older songs. I was really hoping for Awakening, but they decided not to grace us with it on Saturday night. Awakening is on my running mix, and during the HALF MARATHON it came on 2nd or something, right when I was having to get over the fact that I had 12.5 miles to run and I was really frustrated at all the slow people. It is one of my favorite songs. Anyway, they didn’t play it, but they did play Dare You To Move, among others, so I was okay with no Awakening. NEXT TIME THOUGH SWITCHFOOT! They played about 2 hours, and it was awesome. Seeing them in such a small place (they said NOLA was the smallest venue on the tour, and it almost didn’t happen because it was too small, but they pushed through) was amazing. Word.

Ah, the streak was close to coming to an end today, but I will not let this happen. Here’s the story of Maggie the iPod and her terribly sad passing. About two weeks ago, I mentioned that my iPod had died. Her name was Maggie, because Apple makes you name your iPod, and it was the first name that came to mind. This guy on my hall sophomore year of college and I were discussing girls’ names for some reason, and I remember he said he liked the name Maggie. I did too, so that name has stuck in my mind for YEARS.

Anyway, I’ve been running like crazy, and have been having to borrow my sister’s Nano in the mean time until I get closure for Maggie. Last night I brought her to the Genius Bar at the Apple store in Metairie, where it took all of 5 seconds for the Genius to say “yes, it’s completely dead. I can order you a brand new 2nd gen Nano for $99, or you can get 10% off a new one.” (it was way out of warranty) Knowing my current car charger will not work with a new Nano, getting a new 2nd gen seemed pretty good. So I told her I would take it. I asked “it’s a brand new 2nd gen? How….?” She told me that Apple stockpiles previous versions until they become vintage. I have no idea what that means, but she assured me it would be brand new from Shang-hai. Well alright. I already have determined since the new Nano will be the same color, it’s name will be Maggie II.

Also as an update, I finally got an email from my professor about my midterm. I got a 97, in addition to 2 bonus points. I’m guessing that means I got a 99. How about that? Awesome.

I had signed up for the Jazz Half Marathon a couple of days before the deadline for registration. I’ve mentioned how it’s been a goal of mine since April, and even in spite of that, I was hesitant to run it. Three guys died running a half marathon in Detroit a few weeks ago, so since then I couldn’t help be worried what would happen to me. I mean, I’d been training for the race, I had run TEN MILES with no problems, surely I could run a HALF MARATHON with no issues. I thought about sending a FB message pretty much saying “if something happens to me, tell my story” (REALLY!), but didn’t. I thought about leaving a note in my garage with instructions for divvying up my stuff, but didn’t. Part of me wanted to believe everything would be fine and I would run the HALF MARATHON and come out alive.

I got dropped off before the race about 6:35 am, and the race was supposed to start at 7 am. It was still kind of dark, and a little cold, which was fine because I got to wear my long sleeve Nike compression shirt. I LOVE that shirt. Other than that I wore the same ensemble I wore for the TEN MILE race. I borrowed a pen to fill out the back of my number of my medical history. With that done, I walked over to the start area and waited. I met up with my friend Megan and we shared a fist bump before the race. We were going to do this.

The course was going to go from the Warehouse District, out to Audubon Park, then back. Starting off I wanted to keep a slow pace, and even that was too fast for some people, so I had to do some weaving and passing of people. Once we got onto Poydras, things loosened up. Not that I was trying to run faster, but it was easier to run without a lot of people around me.

Running along St Charles was interesting. They told us not to run on the median, which I remembered, but it was weird to see streetcars passing with the passengers looking out at us. It made me feel good that I was RUNNING down the street while these people were lazily taking public transportation. (BTW that’s a joke) We passed a bunch of restaurants I’ve been to, Loyola, Tulane, then came the big loop through Audubon Park. I had told my parents that I’d like them to come out to see me, and initially my mom told me “it might rain so we might just stay home”. After a couple of days, I finally told them “it would mean a lot to me if y’all would come.” So right before the race turned into the park, there were my folks on the right side of the street. My dad fished his cell phone out and approached closer to get a picture. The result is below:

The loop in the park was along the running/bike path, which was fine, up until we started seeing people out jogging who were not in the race. They didn’t even try to get over. One set of like three guys was jogging against the flow of the race and we had to avoid them. WHAT? Anyway, once we got back out to St Charles, all I had to do was get back to where the race started. There were little kids along the route who were trying to high five people as they passed, so since I was running close to the neutral ground the whole time, I was able to high five almost everyone. I even high fived a kid that was probably 3 or 4 years old, even if I did have to bend down while running.

We got back to the Warehouse district and ran past the D-Day Museum and then finally to South Peters, the final straight away. There was the finish line. I clicked on my powersong (which is The Veil by DCB) and somehow found the strength to finish strong after 13 miles. Once I started speeding up, I kept it up. I passed 4 or 5 people in the final block. It was great! I got my finishers’ medal and found the water. It was over, and for now, I was alive.

I drank water, then found the beer, pizza, jambalaya, fudge bars, smoothies, I ate it all! I realized after I was dropped off that I was going to have to figure out a way to meet up with my sister after the race. I telepathically sent her a message, hoping it would work, and it did! I was walking around in the post race area and there she was! I was still alive!

On the way home we stopped off so I could get three bags of ice so I could sit in my bathtub in my shorts in really cold water. I had gotten the tip from Megan, and had tried it after the TEN MILE run and a 7.5 mile run last weekend. I have gradually gone from one bag to two bags, to yesterday THREE bags. My legs were sore after the run, but after sitting in the ice and then a hot shower, they were fine. They were tired, but they were not sore.

I ran it faster than I thought too. I had run the TEN MILE race in 1:37, so I figured probably 2:15 would be good. Yesterday, according to the racing chip, I ran 2:04. Awesome. They had people at each mile marker with stopwatches who were supposed to be calling out times, but not all of them were. The times I did hear that I remembered, I realized I was running less than 10 minutes per mile, but I didn’t think I’d be able to keep that pace the entire time. I did though. Awesome.

This past weekend was so great, that in order to tell you about it, I’m going to break it up into two parts. Blog friend Mandy will appreciate this also as she is wont for something to read while she gets back into being at work, and not on vacation anymore. SaturDAY I went over to my sister’s to borrow her iPod so I could go run. I went for 7 miles in preparation for the HALF MARATHON next week. Everything went fine, and the weather was perfect. It’ll be great if the weather is like that for next Saturday.

After the run, I went and returned my sister’s iPod, and then went to the gas station closest to my house for a couple of bags of ice. My friend Megan has told me ice baths are awesome after a long run. I did try one after the TEN MILE run a couple of weeks ago but had only gotten one bag of ice. One bag didn’t really feel that cold, so Saturday I was getting two. I got out of my car and was checking the big cooler out front to make sure they had bags of ice. I hear “Hey neighbor!” and turn and see this guy who I didn’t recognize. I looked around at his car and it was the white truck that lives at the house around the corner from me. The guy always has Saints stuff out front on Sundays, and he keeps his yard really nice. I always pass and think the house is cool. I shook his hand with vigor going “oh yeah, you live in the house with all the Saints stuff!” He laughed and said “yeah man. You know, you never can tell how tall someone is if all you ever see them in is their car.” He was a little taller than me, but not much. We laughed, and he went inside. I went inside and bought my two bags of ice, and went back outside to grab them out of the cooler. My new neighbor friend was also getting ice, so after I put the bags in my car, I went back and introduced myself. He said his name was Marlon, and I mentioned the Saints stuff again, and he explained how he’s part of a group of 7 houses that rotate Saints parties every Sunday. This weekend it was at his house. So I told him that was cool, and we went our separate ways.

I got home and did the ice bath thing, and I’m not sure even two bags was cold enough. I keep reading about how it’s supposed to hurt by being so cold, so I think maybe I’m not getting the water cold enough. I might try 3 on Saturday after the HALF MARATHON. Anyway, I started watching the Clemson/Miami game and it was great, at first. I was watching and saw Miami score to make it 10-7 with less than a minute to play in the first half. When that happens, you’re always kind of going “you know, it’d be really cool if they returned the kickoff for a TD.” That’s exactly what happened! CJ Spiller returned the kick for a TD and Clemson had the lead with 40 something seconds left. Crazy.

The second half started, and then I started making dinner. I was watching the game in my bedroom, and walking back and forth to the kitchen. I started noticing when I’d be watching the game, something bad would happen. When I’d come back from being out of the room, they’d be showing a replay of a good play for Clemson. This happened 2 or 3 times, so after Kyle Parker threw the INT in the end zone when Clemson was almost assured a FG to tie the game in the 4th quarter, I had had enough. Obviously by me watching the game live, something was happening to the team. I had to stop watching, I couldn’t take it anymore. I left the room and went back to the kitchen, then got on the computer and didn’t keep track of the game. After a while I figured it might be over, so I went to check and saw the game was going into OT. I left the room again and hoped they’d find a way to win in OT. About 5 or 10 minutes later my dad called and says “How about that game???” I told him I had quit watching it, the whole story about me thinking I was bad luck. He told me they won in OT with a TD pass. Awesome. I felt a little validated.

I was able to watch the end of the game more than a few times on ESPN360 before I started watching the LSU/Auburn game. I couldn’t believe it. I had thought Clemson had a shot at winning the game before, but they were so inconsistent I had no idea what would happen. I knew Clemson had the players to matchup with Miami, but had no idea if they’d actually make the plays. I realized also after the game that I’d get to email my friend Nick (from work, who now lives in FL) who went to the U, who had trash talked after Clemson lost to GT. I told him just wait until October 24th and we’ll see. We did see. I emailed him this morning.

I talked to my friend Bill after the game too, and told him about the superstitious activity of the 2nd half. I also told him that I’m glad I ended up not going to the game, because obviously being in the stadium would have been the ultimate jinx and Clemson would have lost 52-7 or something. Being down in Miami for the Clemson game and then the Saints game the next day would have been awesome, but not having anyone to go with and it being expensive made the decision not to go rather easy (and a little sad in retrospect). C’est la vie!

Saturday morning I woke up for the Middendorf’s 10 mile race in I had signed up for last week. My family used to go to Middendorf’s when I was a kid and meet up with friends they knew from Baton Rouge. I don’t remember much except the restaurant being in the middle of nowhere and they had really good seafood. I thought it’d be cool to go back to a place I hadn’t been in a while to do something I had never done. I had looked at the course (it was down and back on old US 51) and noticed it included the bridge over Pass Manchac. No problem, I’ve run over bridges before.

I got there with plenty of time and was glad it was not raining. The forecast didn’t look good all week, and on the way there I passed through rain, but once I got about 10 miles north of Manchac, things cleared up. I got my number and met up with my friend Megan. The race started a few feet from the foot of the bridge, and I looked at it and thought “on the way back, i’m going to smoke that thing.”

The race started off like most races, having to be patient and pass people. I don’t know why slow people always try to start at the front. It didn’t take long to get into a groove within the crowd though, and once we got over the bridge I wasn’t really slowed at all. They had a 5K race also, so all those people turned around at the 5K turnaround, while the rest of us kept going for the 10 mile. I felt good pretty much the whole race, but my knee was bothering me a little. No hamstring or foot issues though, which was good. It started sprinkling about mile 2 or 3, and I thought the rain would get heavier, but it never did. The leaders passed me going back when I was around mile 4, so they were going pretty fast. I noticed my iPod was off around mile 3, and said I had not reached mile 3 when I ran past the mile 3 sign. I realized this must mean I’ve been running longer than it’s been giving me credit for, which meant I ran longer than 8 last week. Maybe this 10 mile thing is going to be okay.

I hit the 5 mile mark with a pace under 10 minutes a mile. On the way back it felt like forever between miles 6 and 8, because there was no sign for 7. A few people passed me on the way back, but I kept thinking “I need to save my energy for the bridge”. That and I didn’t really have a lot of extra energy to keep ahead of someone, I just wanted to finish. Finally I made the turn to see the bridge in the distance. I still thought I was going to be able to race up and then down. I hit my iPod for my power song and started up the bridge. It was the hardest physical thing I think I’ve ever done in my life. It wasn’t hard at the beginning of the race, but after 9.75 miles it was excruciating. My thoughts went from ‘i’m going to sprint up this bridge’ to ‘this is harder than i thought’ to ‘OMG, i don’t want to do this anymore’ to finally ‘the top is right there, it’s almost over’. I hit the top of the bridge and was thankful for the downhill portion and finish line. My iPod only gave me credit for 9.5 miles instead of 10, but it didn’t matter. I ran TEN MILES and in less than 100 minutes, so less than 10 minutes per, 1:37:44. I was happy with my time and mostly happy to be finished.

Post race I noticed my shoes were SOAKED so before I ate anything, I went to my car to put on my soccer slides. I had read something during the week that when your shoes are really wet, to put newspaper in them while they dry so the newspaper soaks up the water. It took 5 full pages of newspaper between my two shoes to soak up the water. The shirt we got was kind of lame. Our numbers had crawfish and oysters on them, which was cool, but the shirt just has a running silhouette and the name of the run. I noticed with the picture, the numbers were dated for last year’s race, so I figure that’s a result of last year’s race being canceled.

They had the thin fried catfish Middendorf’s is famous for, along with the usual post race stuff like water and Gatorade. The food was AMAZING, and I might have been quoted saying “this is the best cole slaw I’ve ever had!”, and while I’m sure it was really good, it was probably made better because I had just finished a race. It was cool hanging out with Megan and Corey, eating good food, on a cloudy day in Manchac. Next race is the half marathon, which at least won’t have a bridge at the end.

I MADE IT!

So my plan to run 8 this morning went fine. My foot’s a little sore, but nothing really hurts. My legs felt like jello after I was done. Ten miles seems realistic now.

I have a long day the rest of the day. In addition to watching football, working on my grad school project, I am going to attempt something I’ve never done before. Tonight I’m going to see both The Dead Weather and Andrew Bird. They are playing at different venues that are relatively close to one another (within 10 min) and the AB show starts 2 hours later with an opener. To be fair, AB scheduled first, and I bought tickets, then DW scheduled, but when I realized what times the shows would be starting, I figured I’d give the double a shot. We’ll see. After being able to do something I’ve never done this morning, I figure tonight is possible too.