Did Anyone Catch the License Number of the Truck That Just Ran Me Over

I think it had a 21 in it. As in 21 brutal and unhappy miles. I really feel like a truck ran me over. Our goal today was to run 21 miles along the Minneapolis Marathon Course. We were doing alright as we wound our way down streets and parkways, but then the course goes into the Fort Snelling State Park and loops around the fort and doubles back on itself. When we got into the state park it felt a little like the Blair Witch. The trail followed along the bluffs and through the woods. I honestly don't know how they are going to run a race down this narrow trail. 

When we got to the base of the fort we were very confused by the directions. We had already stopped a couple of times to get our bearings and this stop just put us over the edge. We figured out where we were supposed to go and followed the directions and trail to a DIRT PATH. We are really hoping we made a mistake but highly doubt it. We are not at all excited about the prospect of running along, basically an uneven dirt path. We were despondent, dejected and damn far away from our cars. 

At some point my watch stopped working reliably and I realized I was still on the bike setting. I tried changing the settings on the fly and accidently stopped the timer and cleared the damn thing. I was so mad! I got it working again, but then our pace just wasn't adding up so I thought is was still screwed up. When we stopped for what seemed like the 20th time I completely reset it. From then on it worked fine.

We soldiered on, complaining bitterly for awhile and then retreating into our own private hells. It was just not a good time. I tried to lift the mood by recycling stories I told hours before when we first started out and were happy - they failed miserably. 

We did eventually finish. The amazing thing - our average pace was about 10 seconds faster then our pace from our first 20 miler a few weeks ago. And for a long while there we were 15 to 20 seconds faster per mile. Although miserable from a psychological perspective, it is very encouraging from a fitness perspective. 

Immediately upon finishing I had to meet A and the kids at the "health club" for swimming lessons. A had missed the class she likes to take, I scratched myself and was bleeding like a stuck pig and I had nothing to eat - happy times. F did his lesson and then A came to relieve me for E's lesson because F and I had to get to the Pinewood Derby set up and I was still in my running stuff. 

We get to the Pinewood Derby setup (I had showered and changed and put on some compression socks - thank goodness for those) in time. I then spent the next three hours on my feet. I downed a giant bag of peanut M & Ms for "lunch" and chased them with a room temp bottle of flavored water - BARF!

F did OK at the race. He was a middle-of-the-packer but was a very generous loser. I am very proud. This was his first year and I learned some tricks that we can implement next year. Then it was back home where I finally got to eat something. I also got to lay down for a short nap before going with F to get our hairs cut. Then home to make dinner - burgers and chicken breasts on the grill - and now I sit here exhausted. 

I really hope they find the driver of that truck soon.