After the first two Buck Fifty Races, Traffic Panther Gary ended up running the Athens Ohio Half Marathon the next morning. Of course we all thought he was a jerk and a show off, but since he has done a fair job of ribbing me about races he thinks I should be running - poking harmless fun at one another - I bit the bullet and decided joined him in the ridiculousness this time around. After running 14 miles over a 24 hour period Friday & Saturday in my hometown, I would travel the 58 miles directly east of Chillicothe to the home of Ohio University to run the 13.1 mile half portion of Ohio's longest running marathon (52 years) on Sunday. Along the way I stopped by the Southeastern Valero and picked-up two grilled chicken sandwiches from the restaurant portion of the convenient mart, the same store that sits on the Buck Fifty's Leg 20 route at the corner of Jones Road and U.S. Route 50.

In order to avoid having to drive the hour and 15 minutes to Athens stupid early Sunday for packet pick-up, L booked a hotel for me for Saturday night. The hotel would be about a mile from start and a bit more than that from the finish. I arrive a bit more than an hour after leaving my Buck Fifty teammates Saturday afternoon.Tired and not wanting to go anywhere to grab dinner, I had one of the remaining Cliff Bars in my possession and two peanut butter sandwiches. I then spent time cleaning off my mud caked shoes and running tights. (And my apologies to the Highlander Motel folks for the amount of dirt clods scattered throughout the room) My shoes rested over top of the vent of the room's central air the rest of the night in an attempt to dry them out.

The official out & back marathon and half marathon routes, "...start together at the corner of South College Street and East Union Street in uptown Athens by Ohio University College Green. Both races will be on the scenic Hockhocking Adena Bikeway which is fast and flat. Both courses are USATF certified and well marked. The marathon course serves as a Boston Qualifier. Both races will finish on the track at Pruitt Field." Funny, this year's Boston Marathon would take place the following day.

Packet pick-up that morning was less than a mile away from the hotel at Ohio Valley Running Company and less than half mile further was our start line. I'm a bit sore and worn from the previous day's running, but have plenty of time to rest up before Sunday morning's affair. I watch the Reds beat the Cardinals in the first game of this year's Mexico Series, then go to bed.

I get up at 5am to make myself coherent and complete packet pick-u, then find a decent parking spot near the start line. All the while, it is raining and it has been for several hours. I'm a bit stiff, but as I move around it wears off. Standing under the porch over hang of an Ohio University building in downtown Athens, the downpour arrives. About ten minutes later, it is back to a light drizzle. Nearing the gun time, I make my way to the start line and endure the less than warm droplets pelting me from above. The rest of the running crowd slowly joins.

As we take off I attempt to keep within myself, luckily there are a few folks I'm hanging with who are of my ideal pace. The beginning portion is all downhill and we have to listen to that one person who tries to hard to be funny and everybody's friend. His jokes aren't funny and I fully expect him to fall behind soon, it is quite clear we aren't amused and he has no idea what he's doing. I feel good and the lead group is relatively together, my first mile passes at 6:18 - not too fast and the pacing is comfortable. We leave the streets of Athens and onto the bike trail and the jokester is long gone. We have thinned out a bit more, but there is no giant gap.

The rain continues to fall and is somewhat therapeutic as it has a sort of calming affect while concentrating on what I'm doing. The trail is lined with the spring's bright green vegetation and the tunnel like atmosphere is helping to keep the focus. I had feared fatigued would set in, but it hasn't and the next couple of miles pass at an average around 6:30 - ideal for me. Around mile four I recognize a singular figure on the right spectating, a quick smile and wave and L bellows out some encouragement in return.

The drizzle hasn't slowed and I've been passed twice, but I haven't slowed and I'm focused and chasing a small group ahead. We reach the turn around (my split is 43:20) and a few of those ahead continue on for the full marathon, those running the half marathon come back toward me and it is now a much smaller crowd I'm chasing. Just after the turn someone following us and headed the opposite direction alerts us (myself and the dude directly behind me), "You guys, are 7th and 8th". This was exciting news since I could easily see all six runners ahead of us now that the marathoners are no longer among us.

About halfway through mile seven, the downpour returned and I notice the jokester from the start of the race creeping along on the other side, he looks to be suffering - serves him right. A couple guys come up from behind and we jockey for position, two get some space ahead, one of them falls back behind me and I jet ahead of a dude I've been following for quite some time. It is now getting down to crunch time and I'm feeling pretty good, my pace is better than expected and I'm focusing on each passing mile. No one is making a break for it and we aren't all that far behind the nearest group ahead. I passed L a second time and things are getting real.

The dude who had been on my tail drifts ahead a bit, I tag along but stay behind. The trail splits and we head to the right, one of those I had been following drifts back and disappears. Around the two mile mark, I pull ahead of the dude who passed me just minutes before and I feel a congratulatory pat on the backside followed by, "Nice pace man!" He would drift back ahead, but I stay with him. A glance further down and I can see runners being directed off the bike path, the dude I'm with moves ahead a bit and the stadium finish is in clear view.

We cross a muddy patch of grass and into OU's outdoor track facility, I hear my name announced as one of those coming in to finish as I navigate the track's turn two to then finish on the other side. At this point, I've only glanced at my watch when I felt the buzz for each mile progressed to keep tabs on pace and entering the straight stretch home I see the clock to my right, I'm going to finish in the 1:25 range. I cross, stop my watch grab my medal and see 1:25.53 (6:34 pace) - a PR by 37 seconds. Just then I'm stopped by the photographer for a quick picture. I grab some water and quick food and as it continues to rain, I am now freezing my ass off. It has rained the entire time, I'm drenched and it is maybe 50 degrees.

I place myself under the massage tent to avoid the rain and scan the crowd for L. Moments later I see her wave and I meet up with her and she, thankfully, hands me a jacket. I hold tight underneath the awards tent as she goes to bring her car around. While there, I'm a bit annoyed that the board with the age group award winners has a dude I beat by about three minutes as the winner of our age group. I want to say something, but I'm more interested in warmth at this time. Minutes later, L arrives and we hop in her car with the heat on full blast. We get my car and we drive to the motel. I have lucked out with the fact that I have a full hour before my scheduled check out time, here I shed my soaked running gear and take a welcomed hot shower.

Out of curiosity, L asked if I had seen Gary and I, too, had wondered why I we hadn't crossed paths. Come to find out, we as in less than stellar shape from the day before - as was I - and isn't a fan of running the rain, so he skipped the Athens race this year.

We browse the OU campus for a few minutes before heading to Little Fish Brewing Company for celebratory food & drink. While there, the sky clears and we have a sunshine, a blue horizon and an absolutely beautiful day. The weather had changed on a dime. I try to check the results online and I see everyone, but myself on the list of finishers. I drop a quick, friendly email to the race director and about an hour later I get an apology and confirmation that I have been added to the results. Finally, I have confirmation that I have finished 10th out of 588 half marathoners and yes, I did win my age group. Why my information had been skipped over, I don't know. I guess I'll let the dude who thinks he won live with this lies.

We drove home and crashed the rest of the day and having taken Monday off as well, I didn't move much as most of my body was in pain in it's attempt to recover from a crazy weekend of running. I was, though, thoroughly satisfied.

Running the Buck Fifty and Athens Half Marathon on back to back days was probably not the smartest thing I've done, but no one wants to wonder "What if?". Maybe it will become a cool story to pass down in the years to come, running 28 miles over a period of 42 hours in locations 60 miles apart. At the moment, we're now focusing on the OhioHealth Capital City Half Marathon in two weeks. My previous half marathon PR was established here last year and if all goes as planned, I'd like to be replacing a two week old PR with a more fresh and lower set of numbers and be...you know...better than ever...

Illuminati Hotties - (You're Better) Than Ever

All my favorite socks are getting holes in them
All my favorite people got a load on them
But I heard that you feel better
Better than ever, than ever

All my jeans and hoodies smell like parliaments
All I wanna do is skate back to your bed
I heard that you got better
Better than ever, than ever

It's not to say that I'm unfortunate
Or that I haven't been succeeding
But I'm a hushed and quiet resonance
When i wanted to be screaming

All the things I used to do are boring now
All the baddest words i knew came pouring out
When I heard that you feel better
Better than ever, than ever

It's not to say that I'm unfortunate
Or that I haven't been succeeding
But I'm a hushed and quiet resonance
When I wanted to be screaming

All day long I waited for my phone to ring
I counted every glow star on my ceiling
Texted you a picture where you looked pretty
And wondered if you saved the ones you had of me
But i'm sure you must be better
Better than ever