memories

Yesterday, someone from the RWOL forum sent me this message:
I hope this doesn't sound weird, but I was kind of going through some of my old marathon photos & I noticed one from the Philly 07 marathon that had some "Front Runners" in it. I looked at it a little closer & thought - hey, that looks like dogpound from the BQ thread! My husband was taking some pictures of random runners in anticipation of me arriving at the spot he was waiting at.
Then emailed me the above picture.
I love this picture. I am running with my friend and coach, Kelsey. From the looks of it, this is just after the half way mark where the half marathoners finish and the rest of us continue to go at it. As many of you know, I did not finish that race. At the time this photo was taken, I had been running in pain for at least 3 miles. I would run another 4 with the pain in my ITB increasing with every step. I'm almost certain Kelsey and I are talking about that in this picture. He never flat out said stop running but he hinted at it in a way that I knew it would be ok. If I had been by myself I would have muscled through to the end, finished with a crappy time and most likely really hurt myself. Instead I stepped off at mile 17, crying like a baby with him insisting I keep telling myself that I'm a 3 time Ironman and this doesn't matter.
Philly was a huge turning point for me. If I had tried to finish that race, I would not have gone on to a 17 minute PR in Phoenix 2 months later. And PR again in Oct.
While I haven't hit my goal of qualifying for Boston, I know I'm on my way. I'll either get faster or I'll just get older!

As for Kelsey, he finally hit his goal of a Sub 3 hour marathon, and in NY no less. And he did it stride for stride with Chris, another fabulous team mate who has also been gunning for sub 3.

(awesome photo by Alex Kristofcak)