littlerockgm
Cool Runner |
 posted Apr-02-2007 01:01 PM
   
Very, very long. Get some chips and a drink or turn back!!!Knoxville was a great experience for Vicki and I for many reasons. First is the race itself, a fine event in a beautiful city supported by many locals….RR later. Second is the fact that our DD moved there last year and it was our first visit to her domain….other than the moving weekend. The early morning, Saturday, drive to Pigeon Forge and then to the top of the Smokies was breathtaking, literally and figuratively. There must have been a tobacco convention at the crest of the mountains. Definitely not a place to get a clean breath of air….at least not last Saturday morning. Finally, the Boomers made our weekend complete with a Saturday night get together which was a jovial bastion of good food, great refreshments and plentiful belly laughs. Saturday afternoon piejones and I were getting together to tour the course….and stash some personal “juice” along the way for the race. Of course I sometimes find the best laid plans are usually trashed by some insignificant detail….. like our rendezvous spot being negated by a change in location of the Expo. Small detail. Luckily Terry (piejones) had my phone number and we were soon united. Piejones had a great knowledge of the race course….a knowledge that only comes with having run the various parts of the course hundreds of times. Imparting that knowledge on this first timer was not easy but after the first several miles I got the just of the course…..hills. Omaha was a very difficult course for me because of the hills….I would have to venture that Knoxville was an even more difficult course in comparison. My final verdict was that any course that took an hour and a half to drive would be a difficult course to run. After a brief stint at the local Saturday night mass, Vicki and I quickly shuffled down to a local pub to meet up with the Knoxville boomer group. Piejones met us at the door as they had already sized up the group and stuffed us upstairs in the rarely used portion of a back hallway. I think the last time they had live customers in that area was in the 20’s. My thought was they must have seen Tom White first. Our little table of eight had Pickles, Tom, Munchkin and her DH Steve on the back side with their backs to the wall. On the front side, Wild Bill seated, was Vicki, myself, Vista and Piejones. What a group. First let me reiterate what TW said in his RR; piejones is an excellent host and all round nice guy. I really would have loved to have run the race with him but unfortunately he was pacing a group further back in the pack and I couldn’t. Pickles, Vicki, Tom and I took up the left half of the table and were pleasantly sharing belly laughs while Munchkin, Steve, piejones and Vista were doing the same at the other end. Occasionally we paused to intermix with the whole group….such as when Vista announced that he was quite anxious, this was his first half marathon and he seemed to be having angina pains over the past several days. TW immediately went into pharmacy mode while I just discretely tried to clean up the beer I had just poured down my cheek. Vicki and Pickles soon broke the silence with their comments about boys and their ailments and the conversation went on. I was quite impressed with TW’s tenacity as he drove several hundred miles to run a race with a running partner who didn’t show and he continued with the race anyway. But what really won me over about TW was his excellent choice of beer.
I’ve got to tell you that Munchkin looks great. The first time Vicki and I saw Munchkin, (we’d been conversing with her on line for over a year and tried but failed to meet up with her at 06 Disney and then the staging area of the 06 Nashville Marathon), was at mile 22 of the Nashville marathon. Now I don’t know anyone who looks good at mile 22 of any marathon….especially one where you are coming off of chemo several weeks before. At any rate our first impression of Munchkin was this was someone who really needed all our prayers. Let me tell you folks that Munchkin now is the epitome of life itself. Prayers wonderfully answered by the Good Lord himself. With her beautiful flashy bright eyes and a great bubbly personality it was a joy to be in her presence. And, her wonderful DH Steve, one look and you knew this was a guy you wanted to have on your side should the locals come looking for you. Compared to my slight frame I would have to say he was eight foot something and could kick over your tractor with one sharp blow of the foot. At any rate I’d have to say a good time was had by all. Which brings us finally to the race. At 7 am it was still very dark outside, primarily because of the heavy cloud cover. At 6:50 am the rain, which had so dutifully held off for hours, came crashing down with a vengeance. First the lighting at the start shorted out, then the loud speakers and finally, after Noah and the family floated by it stopped as quickly as it started. It remained very cloudy and in the low to mid 60’s through the morning, and even rained slightly at times during the race but the weather was never a factor other than drenching everyone ten minutes before the start. This race for me was a timed long run between two marathons; (Little Rock last March 4, and Oklahoma City this April 29). I reluctantly signed up for the 4:30 pace group on Saturday but thought anything from 4:30 to 5:00 hours would be a good long run outing for my training. My sights are set for Oklahoma City where I want to see if I can BQ again, or find out if Tulsa was a fluke. The Ipod is finely tuned to about 9 hours of Beatles music, we are all freshly showered, the gun goes off for the start, I punch my watch and we start up the side of Mt. Kilomanjaro. About halfway up the side of the mountain we make a sharp left and proceed down the backside of the mountain. Another half a mile and we attack the mountain from a different slope, then down again….you get the picture. Soon we are running through a beautiful neighborhood, large homes and dogwoods all in bloom. A gal taps me on the shoulder, she is the pace setter for the 4:12 group and can’t read her watch, wants to know what our pace is. I haven’t been looking either, missed the first mile marker but soon we are at mile three, its getting light enough to see our watches and we seem to be ahead of pace by about a minute. I decide I like the pace and we run together. Some hills and valleys later we reach mile six. This is an interesting spot in the race for us because we are suddenly passed by the 4:00 hour pace group who has been struggling to catch us…..oops, we are about 2 min. 20 sec. ahead of pace at this time. We do the best thing we could at this juncture, we drop the pace flag at the next water table and continue on. Several folks join us and we continue on with our conversations over hill and dale for the next seven or so miles. The full half marathoners split off at mile 12.5 and we continue on with only about 450 full marathoners on the back half of the course. I am impressed by how many people braved the rain to come out and cheer us on. Of course, by this time any rain we got…which was minimal….was welcomed. At about mile 16 to 21 we got a little complacent and lost the time advantage we had built up by mile six. For the rest of the race we pressed on and I found myself in quite a comfortable position so by mile 23 I knew I would press for the finishing time of 4:12. Over the river, through the woods….well we didn’t see my grandma….back over the river and up, yes up a long city street, up a short city street, turn right, turn left down the small hill and across the bridge where we started then up Mt. Kilomanjaro once more, turn left again and down the hill into the Volunteer’s Stadium. Don’t slip on the wet concrete, out into the infield of the stadium and race to the 50-yard line where we finish. A wonderful run. Again, I forget to stop my watch and the results are not posted yet but my watch said 4:13 after I had walked thought the gates gotten my cap, chip off, blanket on and a bottle of water….so I guess I was right on pace with the 4:12 group. We heard from Munchkin, who had a great race. I assume piejones finished with his pace group and I know TW had an amazing race cause I read it on this here site. I am still worried about Vista as I haven’t seen anything posted by him and don’t have the results in which to look him up…..maybe we should have spent some more time talking about his chest pain Tom? Vicki and I had a great time with friends, family and a good run in Knoxville. Good running all, Jim
IP: Logged |
tomwhite
Cool Runner |
posted Apr-02-2007 07:15 PM
........littlerock//.........great racing.........it WAS kinda wet wasn't it??.........really enjoyed meeting you and Vicki,,,,,,glad you had a Good Time....
.........hope we can do this next year,,,,,,,The Brewery makes an even BETTER beer I was keeping a secret from you////....... ...........it was fun,,,,,,let's do it again.......
IP: Logged |
. Although the mysterious but wonderful piejones is Terry in your report and Greg in tomwhite's, did he give out different aliases to everybody?
