Cheryl's Quad Cities' Half Marathon....Swim... Complete.

Eager for more misery. 

 Today, it has been raining ever since we woke up at 3 A.M.  And that made for a very interesting and dramatic Event today.  In case you did not read the previous post,  Cheryl voluntarily paid money to practice pain and suffering in the form of a half marathon today.   As a BONUS...  She got to enjoy that suffering in the heat AND rain.  Lots and lots of rain.   ( It's STILL raining outside as I write this!)

She is shocked by the story.

I'm shocked by the story. 

But novelist, story tellers and bloggers LOVE drama.   It makes the story more interesting than : "Cheryl ran a half marathon...  The End."  And I would like to think that, next to Stephen King,   I fancy myself as having a gift for spinning a mountain out of an ant hill. 

Now we just don't believe the story...

Start/finish line.

But lately,  My blog stories about Cheryl's little runs are sounding more like Danielle Steel novels!   Formulaic,  predictable, and kinda, maybe, a little boring.    First,   Cheryl is eager to run.  Then,  Conditions are not as predicted...  Will she make it?   Then   She runs... but has trouble!   Will this be the end?  Will the conditions be too much for her??? (Trigger dramatic Organ Music: )Da Dummm.....!


But she recovers... somehow.   Digging deep and finding her inner Rocky Balboa.   She goes the distance only to not achieve her goal.  But she still is a winner to some extent.    Sound familiar?   Only if you read this blog frequently.

Well,  It is a familiar story repeated many times here, but this one will be different... ( maybe)   So let me begin with the tale.   Once upon a time.. in a galaxy far, far away. 






At a very early hour,  Cheryl and I woke up to travel to Moline...  The scene of the Crime.  It was raining the entire time.   And it was very dark!   So dark, most of those pictures did not turn out.  And the ones that did still ended up being blurry. 

But after a quick bathroom break,  we rallied our senses and got our bearings.  We found the finish/start line and I pushed Cheryl through the gate before heading to mile 5...  same place as last year.

But...  things had changed.   The area I had scoped out last year were blocked off this year.   I had to think on the fly and move my spectator spot to a new position.   Turns out, mile 6.5 was the next available location.  I set up an OP ( Observation Point) in a good location.   After almost 30 minutes,  one of the race officials discovered that I was in "too Good a Spot" and kicked me and a lady off to the "bad Observation spot."   One filled with swamp water, puddles, mud, and numerous other people with umbrellas... so they could block your view. 

An App that can't track runners.

Mile 8.2  where is she?

The App Cheryl downloaded for me was pretty much junk on this one.   It had predicted that she was ahead of where she actually was.   The first time, I managed to not believe it.  But the second time I did!  Causing me to believe that I had missed her at Mile 8.2. 

The spectators brave the rain.

I had not, but it did cause me to panic and rush over to mile 9.   Only then did I discover that I had not missed her and that she simply had not reached that area yet.  Which ultimately caused me to miss her at Mile 8.2.  Crumbs!

But Cheryl was having her own battles to deal with.   The rain had stopped just as the race started.   This allowed the heat to build up and crush her spirits.   She was looking for me at mile 5 so that she could drop out.... but by not being there as support,  I was able to inadvertently help her stay in the race.   She was not happy about that. 

It is rare that I capture an ENTIRE EXPERIENCE in one shot.... But here it is!   Look at her face and you will
see it ALL!  

Mile 9. something.   Rain is Really
bad. 

Cheryl is finally alone in front of me. 

As the pictures will show,  Cheryl was a little confused that I dropped the ball on her attempted failure.  Causing her to be successful!   This means that I'm reliable even when I'm not present to be relied upon!   How awesome is that!   Sometimes,  (Not often, mind you) I even impress myself!

I just missed her at Mile 8. something.

So After giving me her scathing look of disapproval,  She continued on to mile 8...  where I was not located ( see previous paragraph) and then eventually caught up with me at mile 9.   By this time the rain was pouring buckets on us.   I was thoroughly soaked by now.   At least the herd had thinned a touch so I could take a clean picture of her as she swam by.

On to the finish.   Once again, the App let me down with a less than accurate prediction.  It informed me that Cheryl had already finished the race and I had not seen her go past!  I scanned the area for her, eventually realizing that she had NOT finished and was approaching the finish line just as I snapped a few fleeting pictures.   I managed to get an almost focused pic of her crossing the finish with her time.

Now,  Cheryl had hoped to beat her 1:43:00 time of last year.   So 1:51:04 was not a very "happy" time for her.  However,  it turns out that the conditions for the race were not "Happy" for very many other people either.  Cheryl still managed to win second place in her age group.   She laments that she had to walk, jump puddles and not wear her Super Duper Nike Vaper Fly shoes because of the slippery conditions.  Add in the heat  never dipping below 70 degrees and I'm sure you can see why other folks might not even have bothered to show up for the run! 

Like she needs More water...

Plenty of water! 

But she did win a medal and an award.  And she made me promise to remind her to never run this race again.   She says that about all Summer races... and I DO remind her.   But she continues to spend money we can hardly afford to do races in places she hates.   I'm not sure if it is her personality of the effects of that "Runner's Drug."  Either way,  I'm not really a variable in this equation.

Showing off the medal 

 It was literally falling
out of the sky!  But no gatoraid.

The rain is supposed to continue until 5 P.M.  this evening.    The Sun might not even make an appearance at all, so it is a great time to make some Hot Chocolate and rest on the couch for the remainder of the evening.    Every now and then you have to have what we called in the Army.. "A Gut Check."  To see exactly the kind of person you are by experiencing something with less than stellar results.  Like Star Trek's Kobayashi Maru Scenario,  the situation is impossible to win.  ( But Kirk does... because Kirk is awesome... and born in Riverside, Iowa... so I hear.)   The point of the test is to see what you are made of.   Kirk had to Cheat to win, of course.  But in the Army, "If you ain't Cheatin',  you ain't tryin'. "   Sounds good enough for the Army and War and stuff, but that does not fly very well in the running world. 

Did she win a trophy? 

And that is why I'm here.   To tell the story in a way that turns losers into champions.   Because everyone is human after all.   And Rocky was a HUGE hit because everyone can relate to a flawed hero.  Just Like Cheryl...

Victory!... Kind of. 

Second Place? 

Whoa!  That got a little deep.   And that is the problem with Drama for any writer.   That is why I like to stick to comedy.   Everyone likes a good laugh now and then.   And I like to spin my "terribly disappointing results" into "unexpected opportunities for humor."   Because running really is a rather silly sport to dedicate your life too.   ( That and bowling....) I could even make the point that all sports are rather odd to pursue.  But sometimes chasing the odd and strange allow us to achieve bigger and better things.  We shall see how the results of running in the downpour will affect the future racing events.   For now,   Cheryl is mostly happy.  And that makes me mostly happy.... Mostly