My heart bleeded, girl

Ash and I are back in Oxford. The Flying Pig was a great success. Start time was at 6:30 am, and at that point there was a lot of thunder and lightning, looking kind of awesome over the Ohio river. But the worst of it was south of us, so the race was on. When we were gathering at the start line, all the electricity on the street went out for a few minutes, although Paul Brown Stadium behind us had lights.

As soon as we started, the lightning and thunder stopped. It poured rain the whole three hours I was out there, although there was a bit of a lull for a while. Ash ran the race in under 2 hours, and Erin in under 3. I was just over three. I didn't use my inhaler, but there's a fucking huge-ass hill from mile 6 to 7, and I had a bit of trouble recovering from that. I didn't get wheezy, but my chest was a little tight and I had some trouble catching my breath. I ran until the hill, then both ran and walked the rest of the way after the hill. At mile 12 some guy was standing on the side of the road handing out little cups of beer, and that sure beat the hell out of that nasty-ass green Gatorade they were handing out at every water stop. I had no idea who he was, but he was wearing a finisher's medal, so I trusted he wasn't going to poison me.

There was less entertainment on the course than there usually is, no doubt due to the weather. There's always a glee club at the top of Mt. Adams in Eden Park, and they were there, under a tent. They're made up of very, very old men, and it's always fun to see them there, along with the Elvis impersonator.

The best (or worst) part was the walk to and from the hotel. We stayed across the river in Covington, KY, right next to a bridge that crosses right over to the start line at the stadium. They're working on the bridge, so we walked across in the rain and thunder and lightning and dark at 5:30am, through construction walkways, high above the Ohio river. Did I mention the dark, and the lightning? Walking back, the weather was better, but it seemed damn long at that point.

We had a great time, even though Erin's boyfriend Nick was sick. I kept asking him why he wasn't whining, if he was sick. He was so cheerful! I'm certainly not used to that. He was very confused that we expected him to be grumpy just because he was running a fever and had a cough and a headache.

Which seques into the fact that Larry was wielding his chain saw Friday, cleaning up the tree, and he hurt his back. He's never hurt his back before, and I had to hear all about it on the phone today before I could even tell him about the race. I'm so looking forward to going home tomorrow. *rolls eyes* It was a good weekend to be away.

It's also good to be dry.

Happy Birthday, pensnest!