Maggie and I have made it home from Vermont.  I would say it was a successful weekend.  First of all, I made it thru the marathon okay.  My time was 4:17:30, which is certainly not my fastest race.  But since I wasn't going for speed, I'm perfectly happy with the result.  My usual detailed race report with pictures will be forthcoming soon.  In other words, whenever I get around to it.

 

And other than the race, the weekend was fun.  Maggie and I visited a few of the typical northwest Vermont tourist attractions, such as the Ben & Jerry's ice cream factory, the Vermont Teddy Bear factory, a creamery, and a brewery.  The drive up and back was no picnic.  Just over 300 miles, and Maggie had to stop and pee six times on the way up.  But heck, I can't blame her for that; I don't know what it feels like to be pregnant.  On the way home, however, the problem was the traffic.  Holiday weekend, of course, but there was also a truck fire on I87 that backed things up for, oh, 20 miles.  And the most frustrating part was that the truck was on the other side of the highway.  Meaning the backup on our side was nothing but rubbernecking.  Wow, that annoys me!  Anyway, we made it back in one piece, even if it was later than I had hoped.  And that's what's important...

 

Keep an eye out for that race recap.  I really mean to get it posted soon...

It's just about time to leave for Burlington VT.  According to Mapquest, it's about 300 miles, which hopefully means it won't be more than a 5 hour drive.  Of course, at 20 weeks pregnant, Maggie might have to stop and pee every 10 miles...

 

I have had a minor nagging pain in my left leg basically ever since I finished the Flying Pig Marathon in Cincinnati.  It's very minor, but it is noticable.  And it has me just the slightest bit worried about the Vermont Marathon.  I intend to take this race very slowly, and hopefully it will help if I don't push myself too much.  There's no way that I will come anywhere close to the 3:48 I did in Cincy.  I'll be quite happy if I'm half an hour slower than that, and I'll be okay if I'm 45 minutes slower.  Heck, I really don't care about the time at all; I just want to finish without being in pain.

 

We shall soon find out...

Yup, yesterday was my birthday.  I am now 36 years old.  And celebrating birthdays with me on May 22 are such celebrities as: supermodel Naomi Campbell (1970), singer Morrissey (1959), songwriter Bernie Taupin (1950), baseball player and surgery pioneer Tommy John (1943), actor Sir Laurence Olivier (1907), author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859), and composer Richard Wagner (1813).  Some of whom, of course, aren't doing much celebrating because they are dead.  But they would be celebrating if they were alive.

 

As for being another year older... I guess it's not a huge deal.  36 doesn't sound much different than 35.  And goodness knows that I'm happier about my age than Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (for example) is about his, I'm sure. 

I have finally gotten around to adding a Race Report and a photo album for our weekend in Cincinnati.  Please check it out here.  In the future, it can always be reached on the Photo Album page along the navagation bar at left. 

 

Everything else is moving along just fine.  Maggie is well, and the pregnancy has just about reached the halfway point.  We will learn the baby's gender on June 7.  We've already got some ideas for names, but we will wait until we know the sex before we narrow the list down any further.  Keep an eye out here at bobmann.net for more information. 

 

While I have finally posted the pictures from Cincinnati, I will have more race pictures to post very soon.  It is only one week until we head to Vermont so that I can run the Vermont City Marathon. 

 

It's a good thing that I am so happy with my time in Cincy, because I might not be at full strength in Vermont.  Had I run a crummy race in Cincy, I might be tempted to make up for it in Vermont.  But as it is, I feel no pressure to be fast in Vermont and thus I can make it a nice leisurely race.  And that is most definitely a good thing.  For the last week and a half or so, my left upper leg (almost hip area) has been bothering me.  Not terribly so, but enough that it's somewhat annoying.  And enough that I am worried whether I can run 26.2 miles on it.  I have done very little running since Cincy, and hopefully the rest will do me good.  I am sure that it will be a slow run in Vermont, and that suits me just fine.  I just hope that I can make it the whole distance.  We shall see...

I will write up a longer report and give it its own page on the Photo Album portion of my website, so I will make this recap brief.  This past Sunday was my fourth marathon: The Flying Pig Marathon in Cincinnati.  My previous best marathon time was last December in Las Vegas when I ran a 4:04:56.  My goal for this race was really just to break 4 hours, but I was quite confident I could do that, so I definitely wanted to do even better than that.  I was figuring that I could finish somewhere around 3:53, since that amount of improvement would fall in line with what I did between my first and second, and second and third marathons. 

 

I followed the 3:50 pace group -- along with a couple of friends, Joe and Larry.  I had figured that if I found the pace too quick, I could eventually drift back and still end up with that 3:53.  But, I was able to keep up with the group and actually (just barely) finish ahead of them, good for a final time of 3:48:56.  That means my time was 16:00 faster than my previous best!  I am quite thrilled with this result.  It is better than anything I hoped for. 

 

So, in a nutshell, that's the good news.  Check back soon for that detailed report, along with pictures.

There was another visit to the doctor this week for Maggie.  She underwent an amniocentesis, which will warn us of potential genetc defects with the baby.  It will be a couple weeks before we get the results, and God willing everything will be okay. 

I'm not in the mood for a long blog post, so I'll keep this short.  I wrote up a slightly longer report for the New Jersey Marathon Relay here.  Suffice it now to say that it was a very fun weekend, and our relay team did very well -- a time of 3:38:07, which was good enough for 7th place overall (out of 61 relay teams) and 3rd in our division (mixed non-Masters, out of 38). 

 

I really never thought I would ever be able to brag about where I (or my team) placed in a running event.  I have long said that I am "not built like a typical runner because I am too heavy", and thus there is no way I will ever be fast enough to actually win anything.  Well, I do still think that is true, but 3rd place is pretty darn good!  Who knows; maybe some day, if I keep up at this, I can win my age group -- if I can find an obscure race somewhere where nobody else enters in my age group.  We shall see. 

For now, I am very happy with the results in Long Branch, and I am really looking forward to seeing how I do by myself in Cincinnatti.  My real goal is just to break four hours.  But I think I actually might be able to do as well as 3:50.  We'll see about that.  And I will report back here when it is done...