4/15/2008

Ahh, back from the land o' rain, hail, and cold fronts...otherwise known as the UK (London to be specific). Weather changes there more frequently than even here, which is hard to do! Trip was lots of fun, MyKaren had a personal best marathon, even though she was not running hard since it was only a long, slow training run. Plus, she even stopped to take pictures along her run by all the famous places in London. It only rained 2 times during her race, of course both were preceded by a precipitous drop in temperature, along with gusty winds, and in one case, serious hail. I missed the second rain, but did get drenched in the first (which occurred around mile 9). Lots of crazy people ran, including, but not limited to: many Supermen and Superwomen, lots of Spidermen, otehr strange superhero types whose purpose I could not guess, several gorillas and bananas, a Paddington Bear or two, some Gladiators, more fruit (hard to tell by the end what fruit they meant to be) and a few mostly naked runners. Amongst the celebreties: Hell's Kitchen's own Gordon Ramsey (3:45), and, of course the entire elite field of tiny men and women. There were a bunch of famous people, but only to Britons, I did not know any of them but Ramsey. There were also 6 tribesmen (can't remember from where, sorry) who ran (well they bounced and sang) the course all decked out with their spears, sheilds and home-made shoes of tire tread. They were interesting. the whole route had bunches of people, so sherpaing was difficult, plus I was a solo sherpa, which was kind of hard. I talked to people around me, but it wasn't the same as having some sherpa buds to hang with. The tube was CRAZY, but better than the NYC subway during that marathon. People were packed in like sardines, but more polite than NYC. All in all, it was a fun race to watch.

I did manage to get in a 14 or so mile run on Friday, running around Hyde Park, Buckingham Palace, Green Park, and St James Park. I haven't done anything since, and I feel like a big fat lug. Uugggghh. Oh well, tonight the reset button gets pushed and off I go on the next phase of training!