There I am, at about the 7 or 8 mile mark of the half marathon in today’s Seattle Marathon. The conditions of the race were pretty bad. If this was a horse race, the track would have been labelled sloppy. But I ran my race, finishing in an unofficial chip time of 1h51m13s, a tad faster than my projection. Considering the wind, the sideways rain, and a large blister I developed on the bottom of my right foot because my feet were soaked, and I’m very pleased.

Checking the results, of the nearly 2800 men who participated in the half, I finished in 751st place, meaning I outran over 2000 men! I was 60th out of 293 in my age bracket, something for which I’ll take some pride, especially since this was my first half marathon.

A couple more things to note. First, kudos to Melinda for finding me to take this picture. The blurriness is kind of fun. No doubt, it has to do with my speed. I heard her call my name and looked up and tried to smile just as she snapped it. Second, what a crazy mess the start of the race was, thousands of people trying to get started in a tight spot. Because of that, the first mile was my slowest. 9 minutes! Lastly, you can learn more about the weather and the race by reading this article.

As I ran I was thinking of Laurent, especially the comment he made to me after he had finished the Nantes Marathon in April. As we celebrated his run with a festive meal that afternoon, he explained how a beer was good for your legs after a marathon.

That’s right. I’m about to have half a beer right now.