Summer 2017 Road Rules: Toddler Edition

When my sister first proposed an RV trip out west with all of our kids, I was a bit skeptical.  Neither of us had ever set foot in an RV.  Could either of us even drive one?  Would my son, at just shy of three years old, be too young for it?  Would it be at all enjoyable with five kids all under the age of eight?

Luckily we threw caution to the wind and decided to go for it.  Thankfully, after handling the logistics of a ten day trip to Germany for 16 people just a few weeks earlier, I didn't have to do any of the planning for this trip as my sister took care of all the details.  All I had to do was show up and help drive/wrangle the kids on occasion.

Quick stats:

• 29 foot, class C Ford RV (no special license required to operate)
• Two weeks
• Five kids (Neale and his four cousins)
• Three adults (me, my sister, my sister's German au pair Nina)
• Leaving from and returning to St. Paul, Minnesota
• States: Minnesota → Iowa → Missouri → Nebraska → Kansas → Colorado → Utah → Wyoming → South Dakota → Minnesota
• National Parks: Great Sand Dunes, Arches, Canyonland, Bryce, Zion, Capitol Reef, Badlands

On July 17th, Neale and I flew west to Minnesota where my sister picked us up at the airport.  We spent a few days at her place in St. Paul, then we all boarded the RV in the afternoon and started driving south to Iowa.  We parked and slept in the parking lot of a random Walmart somewhere in Iowa that night, then headed out the next day for Kansas.

My sister and I quickly became adept at driving such a large vehicle.  All we had to do was allow for extra room when making turns, and extra time when stopping or accelerating, and we were fine.  Though my sister never did take a liking to driving through the mountain passes with steep cliffs, which she let me handle.

After spending the night in Iowa, we drove through the northwestern corner of Missouri (my first time in the Show Me State), where we briefly got lost amidst the cornfields, then into the southeastern portion of Nebraska, then finally to our destination of the day: Kansas (my first time in the Sunflower State).

We spent an hour at the Buffalo Bill Cultural Center in Oakley, Kansas where the kids finally got to run free for a bit:

We then parked at our "RV campground" on the edge of a farmer's property in the middle of nowhere in Kansas.  The campground consisted of a small grassy lot with a few water and electrical hookups spaced throughout, a locked metal box to deposit money on the honor system, and that was it. 

I went running that night under the stars and almost got attacked by a dog who came barreling out of a nearby front yard, all teeth and hackles and a ferocious bark.  The owner stuck her head out of her front door and yelled at me not to run.  A steely calm came over me as I faced the dog, backing away slowly, ready to fight if needed, but once I retreated enough, the dog went back to his yard.  I was pleased to note I could keep my calm under pressure and not lose my shit, both figuratively and literally.

The next day we were all packed up and ready to trundle onward through the heartland when we ran into RV trouble.  The back "bedroom" of the RV, which slides out at night to create more space, would not retract.  We spent hours in the blazing Kansas sun trying to figure out what to do.  We eventually got ahold of a nearby RV technician who could not fix the problem either, so we eventually just used brute strength to push the part of the RV back into place, where it stayed the rest of the trip.

Onward across Kansas and into Eastern Colorado, which is just more Kansas.

In Eastern Colorado we met a man on the side of the highway who had survived brain cancer and was walking across the country just because he could.

In Southern Colorado we stopped at Bent's Old Fort which used to be on the border of Mexico.  I bought a book there - Blood and Thunder: The Epic Story of Kit Carson and the Conquest of the American West by Hampton Sides - and spent the rest of the trip engrossed in the bloody history of this region of America.

We soon hit our first national park of the trip - Great Sand Dunes National Park - where we spent time playing in the sand dunes before retiring to an RV campground outside of the park.

The next few days were a whirlwhind of national parks in Southern Utah.  We hit the big five in the Beehive State: Arches, Canyonlands, Bryce Canyon, Zion, and Capitol Reef.  At each one, we lathered the kids in sunblock, loaded the backpacks with snacks, and set off on short hikes near the visitor center or anywhere we could park a 29 foot RV (including one trailhead that was so crowded I had to parallel park the RV - clearly the defining accomplishment of my life).

Neale handled the trails about as well as I would expect from an almost-three-year-old.  He walked intermittently but mostly wanted to be carried.  I was pleased and proud to see that he seemed to take a liking to rock climbing.  Like father, like son.

From a young age I've always loved climbing anything and everything - trees, buildings, cliffs, etc. - and was in heaven with the rough red sandstone of southern Utah and its numerous natural hand holds.  There were many times when I scared the wits out of myself when I realized I had climbed higher than I intended and realized I wasn't sure how to get down.  No caffein for me, thanks, my adrenaline has already spiked enough.

I was enamored of the landscape of southern Utah.  I'd been there before, with my mother when I was 17, but I'd forgotten how simply breathtaking the landscape is.  The best view from the RV was in the driver's seat, so I found myself volunteering to drive as much as possible just so I could take it all in (and maybe also to get away from the chaos in the back for a bit).

Life inside the RV was difficult at times.  We were on the road for long stretches, and keeping five young children occupied was challenging.  Too often, when they became bored of the limited supply of books/coloring materials/toys they had brought, they resorted to annoying each other for fun.  Screams of "he's touching me!" or "she stole my Legos!" or variations thereof clanged around in the small space and tested all of our patience.  There were a lot of tears and breakdowns on this trip.

As we settled into a driving routine, so we settled into a campground routine.  My sister took care of the laundry, while I took care of monitoring our fresh/gray/black water tanks and draining/filling as needed.  Nina helped with wrangling the kids and food meal prep/clean up.

I think all but three meals during the entire trip were prepared in the RV.  We did a lot of grocery shopping, and on the few occasions when we went to a restaurant, we usually got pizza.

After hitting the national parks of southern Utah, we slowly started making our way north through the state, then veered east for the first time of the trip into Wyoming.  We barreled across the state until entering South Dakota, where we stopped at our final national park: Badlands National Park.

After spending the night there, we continued on to the Corn Palace of Mitchell, South Dakota.  Surprisingly, this was my third time in the Mt. Rushmore State, and my third time visiting the Corn Palace.  My first time was in 1997 on a service trip to an Indian Reservation, my second time was in 2007 during a cross country road trip, and now my third time in 2017.  I figure I'll head back for a fourth time in 2027.

And finally, two weeks after setting out from Minnesota, we crossed the border back into the North Star State, and shortly thereafter arrived back in St. Paul.  Neale and I stayed on for another two days, then flew back to the east coast.

Huge thanks go out to my sister for coming up with the idea for this trip and then planning every last detail.  I have no doubt this is something we'll be talking about for years to come.  Though it was tiring and stressful at times, it was a wonderful trip, and one I won't soon forget.  Neale had such a good time playing with his cousins, and loved playing with Kiera especially.

At each national park I bought a poster, and I plan to frame those posters and eventually hang them in Neale's room.  I also hope to make a Shutterfly book for Neale with all of the pictures of the trip.  I don't know how much of this trip he will remember, if any at all, but I do hope I have succeeded in planting the seeds of wanderlust deep in his soul.

Summer 2017 Update

There were so many things I had planned to blog about in their own separate entries over the past few months that I just never got around to, so let's put up a few pictures and move on. Here are a few life updates in chronological order:

In May I had my year-end evaluation with my principal.  This is based on Student Growth Objectives (a series of graded assessments given to two of my six classes), a Reflective Practice Portfolio (digital documents uploaded to seven different categories with accompanying written reflections) and two formal in-class observations.  This year I scored a 3.65 out of 4, my highest score yet, placing me firmly in the highly effective range.  I was pretty proud of this given all of the problems I've faced in my personal life this year.

At the end of May it was my turn to bring the beer for Who's Up?, and I once again went with the South Jersey beer theme like I did two years ago.  It's amazing how many new breweries have opened in that short time.  Pictured above:

• Lower Forge from Medford
• Forgotten Boardwalk from Cherry Hill
• Devils Creek from Collingswood
• Eclipse from Merchantville
• Double Nickel from Pennsauken
• Tonewood from Oaklyn

The variety and quality went over very well with the beer nerds I run with.  South Jersey really has an amazing variety of breweries and it truly is an incredible time to be a beer enthusiast.

Global Running Day, as always, was on the first Wednesday of June, and as always, Dave Welsh of the Haddonfield Running Company outdid himself.  He put on a mini expo right on the sidewalk outside of his store, and raffled off 12 pairs of running shoes (runners were eligible for the pair they wore to the run).  Because I wore my Nikes to the run, I put a ticket in the Nike box and won myself a free pair.  I can't tell you how many times I've entered a raffle for a free pair of shoes over the years, and this is the first time I've ever won.  I was ecstatic.

Just a few days after school ended, I left for Germany with 14 students and one other chaperone.  As usual, we spent ten days in both Berlin and Munich, staying in hostels while visiting museums, churches, parks and plenty of beer gardens and beer halls.  Unlike many high school language teachers that plan trips abroad, I don't travel with a tour company, but instead plan the entire thing myself.  Planning the trip this year was like having a part time job, and the trip itself was no less exhausting.  But I'm proud to say we hit every single thing on the itinerary I built with no major snafus of any kind.  I'm pretty sure my kids had a blast while learning a little about German history, culture and language along the way, and for that I would do the trip again in a heartbeat.

While in Berlin, I got to meet up with Christina, an old high school friend whom I haven't seen in ten years.  She now lives in Berlin with her husband and dachshund, and we spent a night at a beer garden catching up.  Also my t-shirt says "it's lit" which was a present that day from my students, because teenagers are hilarious.

While in Munich I got to meet Henrik, who first started reading and commenting on this blog many years ago.  We spent a few hours drinking beer in downtown Munich while talking in German about running, politics, and life in general.  It's the first time I've ever met a blog reader in person, and he was an absolute pleasure to spend time with.  Henrik, if you're ever in Philly, let me know!

Just one day after returning from Germany, I joined some friends for the annual July beer mile.  Because this year's beer mile fell on Canada Day, I decided to go with Molson Canadian beer.  Last year I drank luke warm Budweiser because I had read it was easier to chug, which ended up being a terrible decision because it was so disgusting and was so hard to stomach, and I ended up finishing DFL in well over twenty minutes.  Ice cold Canadian beer was the perfect choice this year, and I finished just 22 seconds off my PR in 11:07.

Last week I took advantage of free passes for teachers and weekdays off in the summer and took my son to the Adventure Aquarium in Camden.  We had the place almost to ourselves for the first twenty minutes until the day camps took over, and it resulted in one of my new favorite pictures of Neale, trying to give a two ton hippopotamus a kiss on the nose.

Erik told me that the website Athlinks now lists your friends on the site as your "rivals," and lists any races together as wins and losses.  The one "loss" I have against him is the 2007 Distance Run which I ran in 1:49.

And there you have some updates from the last few months.  I hope to write more regularly in the future, but who knows if that will happen.  Until the next time, run hard, friends.

Flying High

Confession time: I haven't been doing a lot of running this summer.  But I'm sure you guessed that considering how little I've written.  I've only raced twice all summer, and not in over a month.  I'm horribly out of shape.  If I were to race a 5k tomorrow, I doubt I could break twenty minutes (the twenty minute mark in the 5k and my occasional passing to the slower side of it is my usual barometer of changing fitness).

But the good news is Stevie and I finally took a trip down the shore for the first time all year on Monday, and ended up doing an impromptu photo shoot with a professional photographer we'd just met on the beach.

Photographer: Want to do a few shots of dad throwing Neale in the air?
Me: Sure, why not.

The Great Nealini flying high above the sands of Ocean City, NJ without a safety net!

Photographer: I've seriously never seen a father throw his kid that high.

This is now my favorite picture of Neale ever.

Haddon Heights Firecracker 5k Race Report

Happy 4th of July, people!

The 4th of July is one of the most popular days of the year to run a race in America (Thanksgiving being the most popular), so I had plenty of races to choose from this morning. Naturally I went with the closest one to me, the Haddon Heights Firecracker 5k, and roped Stevie and Neale into joining me.

We'd actually tried to do this race last year, but had assumed it started at 9.  Thankfully we hadn't preregistered then, either.

We got to Haddon Heights around 7:30 this morning, parked on a side street, and walked to the start to register.  Day-of registration costs only $25 for this race.  You get a tech race shirt, bananas and bottles of water after finishing, medals for age group winners and cash prizes for overall winners, lots of country music at the finish area, and that's about it.

This is a very competitive race, with the top ten runners all finishing under 18 minutes.  The winner finished in 15:36.  I haven't broken 19 minutes in the 5k in over five years now, but maybe with a little training I can get there.

When we started, there was a man pushing a double stroller who dropped his iPhone.  He stopped for a brief second to look back, but decided to keep going instead of picking it up, so I swooped down to grab it for him when I passed it.  I had every intention of catching up to him and handing it to him, but I simply couldn't catch up with him, so I ran the entire race with his phone in my hand and gave it back to him at the finish.

The course was a standard suburban neighborhood 5k - lots of shaded streets, lots of turns, some minor hills.  There were no clocks on the course, or even mile markers, so I had to run by feel as much as I could.

I passed running friend Liz around mile two (her race recap is here) and took out two more runners in the homestretch to finish in 19:43 (though for some reason I'm listed in the official results as finishing in 19:26).  21st overall (out of 269) and 6th in my age group (out of 20).

Here's an incredibly flattering screenshot of me finishing:

If you click here you can go to the video and watch every person finish.

Then I went back out onto the course to look for Stevie and Neale and run in with them. Stevie finished in 33:16.

After the race we let Neale play on the playground at the finish area, then walked back to our car only to discover we were blocked in by the Haddon Heights parade route.  So we sat on the curb for twenty minutes watching the floats go by before things cleared out and we could go home.

The afternoon barbecue we'd been invited to had been cancelled due to inclement weather, so I fired up our own grill in our backyard and grilled hamburgers and hotdogs and drank Budweiser beer.

All in all, not a bad Independence Day.  Happy birthday, America!

Strider Indepence 10k Race Recap

There are many running clubs in South Jersey, both new and old.  Of the vanguards of South Jersey running, the Pineland Striders are among the oldest, which my dad used to be a part of (there's an old man joke in here somewhere, but I'll resist, Dad).

Every year for the past thirty plus years, they have put on the Strider Independence Races (10k and 5k) near July 4th.  The races start and finish at Shawnee High School in Medford, and run right past Camp Ockanickon where I used to live and work in my twenties.

I ran the 10k race two years ago and did reasonably well - won my age group and placed 9th overall.  This year I recruited Neale and Stevie as my cheering section, and we all made the drive out to Medford on a chilly summer Saturday morning.

Despite this event's long history, each race has less than 100 runners.  This means, though, that race morning is not chaotic.  Registration is always organized and easy, and there is access to flush toilets in the high school which don't get too crowded.

At 8:30am we took off from the high school parking lot into the surrounding neighborhoods with million dollar homes, some owned by Philadelphia professional athletes.  The course is completely flat and mostly shaded, perfect for a summer race.  In the final half mile, racers leave the pavement and run a quarter mile across the grass, then finish the final quarter mile on the school's track.

I remember the last time I did this race, I fought hard to pick off runners in the second half of the race and maintain my top ten standing.  This time, though, there was no one close to me, either behind or ahead, and it was all I could do to keep up the pace.  I did manage to beat my time from the last race by almost a minute.

Final stats:

While I was racing, Neale had a great time playing with dogs and other small kids, not to mention roaming the hallways of the high school.

I received a medal for winning my age group again, but unfortunately there was no accompanying gift certificate to the Haddonfield Running Company like last time.

There was a nice post-race spread of bottled water, bananas, bagels and oranges for all runners, but I didn't partake too much, because we went to get pizza afterwards.

Thanks to Stevie and Neale for cheering me on, and thanks to the Pineland Striders for a great morning of races!

2016 Olympic Trials Marathon

It was a great afternoon to be a runner in South Jersey.

Local running celebrities Jen Miller (prolific author and running columnist), Dave Welsh (owner of Haddonfield Running Company) and Erin Donahue (2008 U.S. Olympian) put together a spectacular event today in honor of the first ever live televised coverage of the Olympic Trials Marathon.

About 15 of us met at the bar at 12pm and took off into a blustery snowstorm for 2.62 miles. Aside from my usual Wednesday night 7 miles, this was the longest run I've done in a month, and probably the coldest this season.

When we returned from the run, the first round was on the house, and an epic buffet had been set up for us.

The bar quickly filled up with people - runners on the left side, and random day drinkers on the right.  It was definitely a novelty to see so many people at a bar in the middle of the day to watch a marathon.

I was ecstatic to see Meb and Galen place in the top three, and as for the women, I was sad that Kara didn't make the cut but happy Shalane gutted it out to finish third.

Stevie eventually joined us and brought Neale, and the highlight of the afternoon came when Jen raffled off a copy of her book and I won.

Bonus photobomb from Stevie and Neale.

I've been following Jen's progress on the book for months now and have been looking forward to its release, so it was a pleasant surprise to receive a free copy today over a month ahead of its scheduled release.

I'll be sure to read it and write a review here soon.

All told, it was a great afternoon of running and beer.  Big thanks to The Irish Mile for hosting the event and for the beer and food.  Can't wait to watch the Olympic Marathon this summer!

Snow Day 2016

Yesterday was one of the most perfect days I've had in awhile, so I thought I would record it for posterity.

The snow started on Friday night and was still going strong yesterday morning.  We woke up around 6:30am which is pretty standard for us and sat leisurely on the couch for an hour or so with coffee and chai.  My only lament was the timing of the storm - had it happened on a school night, I most definitely would have had a day off of work today.  Let's face it - teachers love snow days even more than the students.

Soon one of our neighbors pulled out his ATV with attached plow and began plowing everyone's sidewalks, and everyone else came out to begin shoveling their driveways and clearing off their cars.  The snow was still coming down strong, but it was a great sense of community bonding to see everyone out there in the shared struggle.

After clearing out our driveway and cars, I came back in and made myself an epic breakfast of scrambled eggs, toast (from homemade bread), and bacon.

In the afternoon Stevie, Neale and I all bundled up and went outside to play in the snow.  We played with him in the snow drifts out front, then brought him to the pristine snow in the backyard and pulled him around on a sled.

He seemed rather nonplussed by the whole episode.

Following the romping in the snow, we came inside and relaxed more on the couch, this time with hot chocolate.  Neale got to try hot chocolate for the first time in his life, and Stevie and I added a shot of Bailey's to ours.

After we put Neale to bed, we got dressed again and ran around out in the backyard some more and enjoyed the winter twilight sky only a snowstorm can produce.  When we came back in, we poured ourselves some Harpoon Winter Warmers and moved down to the basement where we set up a tent on the floor and talked for awhile.

It truly was a perfect winter day, enjoyed all the more for not having to finish a ten mile training run like so many days in the past.  Days like yesterday, filled with winter activities and over a foot of snow, are so good for my soul, and I already can't wait for the next snowstorm.

Keeping things in perspective

Counting marathoning as a hobby is a bit of a double-edged sword.  On the one hand, it keeps me healthy, gives me a great sense of accomplishment, helps me meet new people, and takes my mind off of the stresses of life.  It accomplishes what every hobby should.

But.

It takes a lot to run marathons.  Sacrifice.  Patience.  Time.  It's one thing to dream big and set big goals, but it's difficult to not feel like the world is crashing down when those goals aren't met.  It starts to feel like more than a hobby when it just shouldn't.  Hobbies shouldn't consume an entire life at the expense of other areas, nor should so much self-worth be based on an arbitrary time goal.

Keeping perspective during a marathon training cycle is difficult but something I need to consistently work on.

Yesterday Stevie, Neale and I went to Wildwood, NJ.  We spent some time on the beach and then spent the night with a friend before heading out this morning.  I had saved my 8 mile run to do on the beach, reasoning that the change of scenery and running on the beach would be preferable to running my same old boring running routes at home.

Well.

It didn't quite go according to plan.  It was much hotter than I anticipated in the afternoon, and when you run at the beach you pretty much run in direct sunlight the entire time.  The humidity soaked through my shoes within 3 miles so that they squelched with every step thereafter.  I barreled into a headwind for much of the run.  It was slow and monotonous and not at all the kind of run I had envisioned.

But afterwards we all went to the beach where Neale went into the water for the first time of his life (he'd been to the beach before, but only ever stood at the water's edge).  We took turns holding his hands while the waves approached him, and the look of sheer joy on his face is one I hope I never forget.  The shrieks, the laughter, the giant grin, the splashing and the pulling of his mother's arms as he struggled to go farther... It made my heart swell to see him take to the ocean the way he did.

Greater men than I have tried and failed to put words to their feelings of love, so I will leave it at this: Good runs or bad, I will always love my son more.

Race to Neverland 5k Race Report

First off, happy Mother's Day to all of the mothers out there.  Today is a special one for us because it's Stevie's first Mother's Day as a mom.

Stevie decided a few months ago that she wanted to celebrate the occasion at a local 5k she'd found online.  Looks like I picked the right one, folks.  She's been doing the 21 Day Fix Program through Beach Body and loving it, so she wanted to get back into running, which she hasn't really done since before getting pregnant.  So we brought Neale and the jogging stroller over to Cherry Hill this morning for the First Annual Race to Neverland 5k.

Unfortunately it was the most poorly organized race I've ever done.

Look, I hate to bash a local 5k, given that they are usually charity events (this one benefitted two young girls who had lost their mother a few years ago), so let's just call this constructive criticism and hope next year's event goes a little better.

There were only about 50 people in the race, mostly moms and their kids of varying ages, along with a few ringers from local running clubs (some of whom I recognized from the South Jersey running circuit).

Stevie had already registered in advance, but I registered when we got there.  I was surprised that race-day registration was $35.  There was no music or fanfare of any kind, there were no aid stations on the course, and the only post race refreshments were bottles of water.  I don't mind a no frills race, but not when the price is that high.

9am came and we were told the police had not arrived and they needed 10 more minutes to finish getting ready.  The only bathroom available was a single portapotty a quarter mile away next to a baseball field, so 5 of us walked out there.  On our way back across the field, we heard a siren go off and saw they had started the race without us.  We swore it hadn't yet been 10 minutes, but even if it had, it hadn't occured to them to look across the field to see if anyone was using the bathroom and to wait for us.

So we trotted over to the starting mat so we could register our chips, but they were already dismantling it.  We tried to cross over it but were told rather brusquely, "you need to start now."  There was no explanation as to whether or not we would be timed.  So we just started running.

I pushed Neale in the stroller, Stevie ran beside me, and Stevie's friend Heather pushed her daughter in a stroller.  The police officer had showed up and was stopping traffic for us to cross the street.  The majority of the course was in a beautiful residential neighborhood, and I had fun with the novelty of running with a stroller and taking selfies, neither of which I ever do while racing.

We eventually came back to the same intersection with the police officer and a course marshall and were waved across the street back to the high school where we started.  As we approached the finish line, Heather's iPhone only read 2 miles.  At the finish line we explained that the course wasn't marked and the course marshall had sent us this way, but the same man from the starting line told us in the same tone as before, "no one else had a problem."  Ok, so we're either lying or you're calling us stupid.  Great.

We headed back onto the course so we could run the proper length and finished around 34 minutes, a PR for Stevie.

The disorganization and the rude tone of the man in charge left me with a bad taste in my mouth, but when all was said and done we still did a proper 5k distance, which was Neale's first race in the stroller and Stevie's and my first race running together the whole way.

I'd brought along a cooler with champagne, orange juice and glasses, and after running we all relaxed on the grass drinking mimosas.

Once again, happy Mother's Day!

2015 Haddonfield Adrenaline 5k Race Report

Ran the 10th anniversary Haddonfield Adrenaline 5k this morning.  Not sure how many times I've run it, but here are the race recaps since I started this blog:

2011
2012
2014

I didn't run it in 2013 because Stevie and I went to New York City that weekend.

This is one of the premiere 5k's in the state of New Jersey and typically sells out its 1,000 runner field well in advance of race day.  It starts and finishes at my alma mater and spends a good portion of the race on the town's main strip.  With few turns and a mostly flat course, so much talent shows up that you pretty much have to be an Olympian just to crack the top 100.

Check out the promotional video they made for this year's race:



There was concern about whether the race would even go on given yesterday's snow, but race officials assured everyone last night it was still a go.  Sidewalks were still covered with slush this morning, but the main roads were clear, if still wet.  I've been training in this stuff all season so it was of little concern to me.

I brought Neale to the race with me and handed him off to my dad at the high school before placing myself in the crowd at the starting line.  I was feeling good.  I'd gotten a decent amount of sleep, ate well last night, hydrated properly this morning and was wearing just the right amount of clothes.

As soon as the race started, however, I immediately felt fatigued.  Of course I've been training for a marathon, not a 5k, and my legs have a lot more miles on them as a result.  The 10 I did yesterday in the snow probably didn't help either.  I thought I was slowing down a bit but couldn't tell because I wasn't wearing my Garmin.  The clock at the first mile marker wasn't working, either.

I found a little left once I passed the 2 mile marker and tried to pick up the pace again.  Once I hit the main street again, it was just a mad dash to the finish trying to pick off as many runners as I could.  I was happy to see the clock still at 19 as I approached the finish line.  My official time was 19:28, good enough to beat 2011 me, but not quite enough for 2012 me.

The finish line was pretty much a pile up of people from my Wednesday night running/beer club (a who's who of Who's Up regulars, if you will).  We joked that if the team competition was simply to finish as close together as possible, we would have won hands down.  We all finished in the 19:30 - 20:30 range.  But not good enough to take the team title.

I found my dad and Neale and introduced them to some of my running friends, then took a picture with Neale in front of the South Jersey Athletic Club tent:

It was the first race of mine that Neale ever attended, and I hope the first of many.  I hope that someday we can run races together, and he'll eventually fulfill his legacy of taking down my own PR's, just like I took down my own dad's over the years.

Today's 3.1 miles also put me at exactly 600.1 miles for the year, so when I got home I took another picture to commemorate the moment.

And every year, the owner gives out wrist bands at the store after the race.  The wrist bands are good for an open bar at The Irish Mile down the road from the race.  He picks up the tab for every runner who shows up as a way of celebrating the store's anniversary and just to say thank you to his customers.

You had me at open bar.  See ya at the Mile...