Cheryl Crushes the Quad Cities Half Marathon.

"Crushes" sounds so violent.  Which is a good thing!  Taking in to account after the last blog post AND the 2019 "Disaster Melt Down."   Yes, yes!  "CRUSHES!"   In all Caps!  And "crushes" is a term that runners use all the time to show that their wimpy sport can be strong and violent sometimes.  Usually against the runner's own inner self and spirit.  But I digress....

Cheryl ran the Quad Cities Half Marathon today.  And it went well.  The end.   

Oh...  Some details. ( And here I was hoping it would be a short post today.) 

Early morning 3 AM wake up time.   Travel to Moline.  Bathroom break.   Bathroom break again.... and again. ( for me...  Because  Coffee!)  I was very grateful to the race for having a surplus to port-a-jons.   Honestly, that is pretty much the only thing we did as a pre-race activity.    Having done this before I knew that I had to say goodbye about 15 minutes before the race started so I could cross the river and get to the first spectator spot at mile 5.   

There were a few new additions to the Chalk art we left behind yesterday.  I was happy to see other folks joined in the scribbling.   It looked like either they used the foam brush and charcoal  I left behind or had one of their own.   Very nice.

Last time, I got kicked out of mile 5 because the race officials did not like me.  Or were overly protective for some reason.  But this year,  I not only got to see Cheryl at mile five.  I also saw her at mile 1.5 as she came down from the bridge.

By the way, this is the last year the race will be crossing the old bridge.  The new one next to it will be finished, ( supposedly) and they will finish dismantling the old one.  As a result, I could not cross the bridge as I have done in the past.   Instead, I had to drive all the way down to the end of Davenport to cross the bridge there. It took WAY too long and I was behind the power ball until I finally arrived at mile 5.  I also got to snap some cool pics of the runners on the bridge.

Because I'm her "Buddy"

As Cheryl raced past me,  I hopped into the car and drove down to mile 6.5.  Another spectator spot where I got scolded by race officials in previous years.  This year, however, the race folks were much more forgiving.  And I was able to see Cheryl again before heading to Mile 8. 

 

Mile 8 and then mile 9 were right next to each other and that was the end of seeing Cheryl on the race route.   I should count my blessings there because in 2019 I was only able to see her at a couple spots.   This year, I saw her in more spots and was able to cheer her on and give her her beverage...  However,  I missed her at the finish line. 

I'll shorten the story by simplifying that I had trouble getting back across the river, ( because of road closures and race routes and parking issues) and arrived just in time to MISS her crossing the finish line.  Ah well... Can't see them all...  

Cheryl with Mike ( in gray tee) his wife Pam and son, Wyatt

I should mention that the "Mike" character from the previous post was there as well.   He ran the half marathon  as well and was about 10 seconds in front of Cheryl until mile 9,  where he pulled away and finished 2.5 minutes ahead of her.   We could give Mike some credit here for being fast,  better trained, older and MALE!  But Cheryl would really rather believe that she dropped back because she was out of energy after mile 9.    Her mile times do not support this theory, but you know how runners are:  Always blaming something for their lack of performance.  ( It was hot,I'm too young and inexperienced,   I'm just a girl... I was lost.) 

Mike takes better pictures than Cheryl

Speaking of being lost!  The top two runners for the Marathon were disqualified!  Because they stepped out of the race route and followed the lead bike... who made a wrong turn.   Apparently, the race route was clearly marked... And the number three man saw the Kenyans take the wrong turn and decided to follow the signs and not  follow them.  He won!  And it will mark  the first time in 20 years that an American has won the race.   Bad luck on them.  But the ELITES have a pre-race walk-through of the course to prevent this from happening.  And the top racers had probably run the race previously.  Stories like this are frequent in Ultras and even Marathons as well, so this is unusual, but not rare.  It shows that setting your mind to "autopilot" is not wise when the race is on the line. (And you have a LOT to lose!)   Elites are measured by speed, training, and knowledge of the course.    The last one apparently only comes into play now and then... but can make all the difference. Too bad for them....  And I guess the lead bike was devastated by the error.  Every now and then, we find out the Elites are just as Human as we are after all...

But back to Cheryl!   We eventually found each other and sat down to enjoy the post race goodies.  Beer and brownies, hotdogs and chips.    We also linked back up with Mike and his family, ( They ran the 5K while Mike and Cheryl ran the Half.)

Because beer is her "Bud Light"

So the only lazy bum in this story is ME!    We swapped pictures and talked about meeting again in Des Moines in a few weeks.    Seems like their entire family is getting the "Running Bug" as well.   

Cheryl found out she won an award... again.   This time first place in her age group.   Apparently, even though Mike beat Cheryl by a solid 2.5 minutes ( or so...)  he still placed only 5th in his division.   See!  The standards are HIGHER for dudes! 

Still, I would have been happy had I run Cheryl's time. ( 1:41:19  With an average 7:44 minute per mile pace)  13.1 miles in less than 2 hours! uh,  Yeah!  Perhaps if I was actually in shape..  Like the Army days.   25 years ago...   But I digress.

We celebrated at Tees in Muscatine... again.   It was a repeat of yesterday with Burgers and Ice cream.  And now, we are home, resting with the cat and writing up this epic blog post so we can laugh about things  in the future.  ( Maybe not!  Nothing really funny happened this year.  But, at least it is recorded now. )   

The Start cannon.  I missed it again this year.

Hope everyone had a great Weekend this weekend.   Cheryl's will be a little bit happier since she did not melt down at the Quad Cities this year.  It turns out that the weather WAS a factor... and it was cool and breezy.  Pretty much optimal for running a half marathon.  So if Future Cheryl and Ethan are reading this.  Remember:  55 degrees at the start with a cool breeze and low humidity.  Factor that in before signing up for this race again.  ( which you said you would never do again, Cheryl!)    To everyone else:  Thanks for stopping in.