3M: Before, During and After...

Finally, right as Katie is about to leave town, dramatically cutting down her ability to rag on me for not getting the 3M pictures up...

From Friday's pre-race pasta gorgefest, at which I went nuts and ate many meatballs, pictures of pre-sweaty Team Spiridoners wearing their growed-up clothes:

Then, just as the wine and pasta had settled a bit, two days later, everyone showed up and kicked butt (except for Amy, who did her butt-kicking on a 22-mile run the day before, then showed up to cheer us on).

It was the first half marathon for Katie (2:17:38), Susan (2:04:55, in spite of being conservative for seven miles), and the singing duo of Amber (2:22:20 - you couldn't wait two more seconds? Ooh! That's what she said!) and Laura (2:22:16, beating the 2:25-2:30 prediction I made while eating my oatmeal Sunday morning).


(Apparently, Katie's mom likes to make signs. The wedding pictures must have been interesting...)

Super mad shout to Lounell. At San Antonio in November, she came in at 3:00:17 a PR over her 3:02:30 at 3M in 2007... ... Yesterday? 2:48:26. What the hell, Lounell? No, I'm sorry, WTF, Lounell? That is amazing. And you looked smooth and strong at the end, too.



Jim, Eve, and Kellie all motored through it with their usual smooth efficiency (spending too much work time on the email to look up more times on this slow system), and Paul came cruising through, maybe at the tail end of things, but looking strong and ready for the marathon.

Mirsa, who continues on the low-pro (where are you?), was out there, and ran it in 2:12:42.

Sarah led the way for all of us, blazing the race in 1:49:26, which I think she said was a PR for her, coming in ahead of Christina's 1:52:02 (though Chirstina maintains her Spiridon-record 1:47:27 from last year).

Phillip and I didn't see each other before the race, though I saw him duck behind a bush just before the end of the first mile, and played leapfrog with him past mile 5. Yet, by some weird, freak accident, we tied each other - 1:58:47. Phillip has raised the idea of synchronized running as an event... Stay tuned for that.

Afterwards, we were brought right back to the eating and (light) drinking with mimosas and tacos at the Screaming Goat...