America! Gosh yeah!!!

Per done moi for the use of the G word and the Anglo spelling but it just seemed appropriate. I truly exceeded my race expectations by finishing 84th overall with a time of 1.25.49. Thats a personal best. I was also the first American to finish if you hadnt noticed. I wont give you all the play by play as you can view some photos at the Sportograf site, bib number 4477, linked from the race site. But let me touch on a few highlights.

It was a good start and as usual I began much too fast. I tried to hold back but when one is feeling good, one must go with it. The course had plenty of incline and I thank my lucky stars for that 9 mile hill route in St. Joe, MN. Running that clearly paid off. Another fortunate aspect was that only a fraction of the race was run over cobblestone. It looks lovely in photos and isnt bad to walk on but its a frickin pain to run over. I would have been royally pissed had I sprained an ankle or tripped and fell. Belgium wouldnt have liked that lawsuit.

A great portion of the race was through the suburbs of brussels where there were few spectators but smooth ground. Aside from two tunnels we ran through where I lost the GPS signal on my watch but got it back upon exit, it was a pleasant journey.

I checked my time at the 9 mile point. Sorry, I cant write in kilometers. I was ahead of schedule and just let it ride. As I had suspected however the last hill came around the 11 mile mark and it drained the you know what out of me. I hit the last water station head on following a svelte looking Belgian to the finish. I ended up passing him near the end but not in an unsportsmanlike fashion like at the very end but with about a quarter mile left. He thanked me afterwards for urging him on and a good race. Im kinda like the United Nations that way.

Anyhoo, I felt well for mostly the entire competition except for some bloody toes, the same on each foot. I think its a shoe size issue and will have to talk to my sponsor.

Overall the race was a good experience and I'm sure I'll tackle another half marathon in the future. Im celebrating this moral victory by attending a 7.30 showing of the film HOWL starring James Franco as Allen Ginsburg. Sounds very heady.

Au Voir