Second Race Is A Charm!

by Bill
(PA)

Wow, I almost forgot how to type it has been so long since I sat down at a computer and typed a few words. So you all know I am heading to Greece in October to run the Mother of all Marathons, not that it is harder than some out there, but It gave birth to marathons.

As I prepared for my quest, and started sharing my story with others, out latest count is a total of 10 people going. Let's see, We have me, the big fat Greek, (by the way since December I have lost 20 lbs from running) I am trying to lose another 15, but I can't run fast enough to get away from them.

OK back to my team roster, this is an interesting crew. So besides mysellf, there is my Greek buddy who is the grandson of the "Modern" day Pheidippides, check this video out, it was aired during the closing ceremony at the Athens Olympics got to the 8:10 minute mark is where the story starts an amazing story, that in part inspired me to Run.



There is a statue at Mile Marker 1 of the Boston Marathon of his Grandfather Stelianos Kyriakides. there are a couple of more Greek American friends, who are coming to get their Spartan on as well. Then I have a friend who I reconnected with on Facebook, Patty, she is Married to a Greek, and she was Mrs. Maryland 2006. She also recruited a few girlfriends of hers.

Then my friend Brian from high school. PHD in Psychology and is soo smart he actually writes text books on Nuero psycholgy something or another, basically if you go to school for it, thank him (I tell people he is my personal psychologist and is running it with me to keep me focused as my ADD may throw me off coarse during the race.

And then most recently, a neighbor of mine and (coach will love this) a Beer Aficionado. Scott also is an Airline pilot, makes me feel a hell of a lot safer knowing he will be on board the flight to Greece. The good thing is, that when Scott is home I have a training partner. What I love about this is the diversity and all the reasons for running. I believe only one of us has ever run a marathon. My goal is to see all of us cross that finish line.

Oh yeah, My second race!, So my friend Patty and I thought it would be great to get a few of us Athens bound runners together for a smaller race. We picked a 10K in Maryland. the Pike's Peek 10K. easy race, 6.2 miles, almost all down hill, two short rises in elevation, but the rest down hill.

So we start out with over 3000 runners, could barely get running at an 11 minute pace, I hate the feeling of being boxed in. as it thinned out our group of 4 started picking up the pace, I was nervous as I still was dealing with a little shin pain. I am thinking pace yourselves people. I kept on, and felt pretty good. Each mile I actually increased my pace just slightly, by the last 100 yards I was in a dead sprint at about a 5:50 pace over the finish line. My biggest fear was that I would slip on the finish line timing mat(as it was wet pavement due to yet another rainy race day) and I would slide in om my stomach thus sheering my nipples off
(See Coach Carvey's Nipple story).

My time was around 58:40. I averaged a 9:25 pace overall, I was happy to have run with some fun people. The best part was the finish area, they had a tent full of Dunkin Doughnuts, a BarBque stand, a pizza stand, OMG if you have to put the weight, that you just lost from sweating out a 10K, what a better way to do it. It was an amazing day.