Tick one off the bucket list

I've finally gone and done it: I ran myself a marathon. The Christchurch Marathon, to be specific, all 42.2 km / 26.2 mi of it. I approached today with a deep sense of foreboding for every meteorologist in the country was predicting gale force winds, sub-zero (C) temperatures, and probably snow. In fact, we probably had all together 15 minutes of sleet, and the wind coming back along Kerrs Reach was pretty wicked, but all in all, the weather cooperated quite nicely. The moral of this story? If you whinge enough about the weather ahead of time, it might work out in your favour.

I was aiming for a time of 3:40:00 partly because that fit in with what I run halves in, and partly in the misguided belief it would qualify me for the Boston Marathon, which I have no plans to run (that's the time for girls, duh!). I was actually running 3 minutes ahead of that all the way until 6 kms from the finish, when I past my house and cheerleaders the second time. It's really handy having the race course go 8m from your doorstep, except when your body decides it's had enough of this running crap and wants to be in a nice warm, dry bed. Well, my body and I didn't see eye to eye on that and I really hit a wall around the last lap. I ended up running in 3:45:03, which is not a bad time at all, unless you consider the winning time: 2:18:18. The only way I could ever run that fast was if I just skipped the second half of the race!

Coming to America

I've booked flights to come back to America for a 3 week visit in the autumn; my first time back across the Pacific since I emigrated. My friend Chrysi is getting married so I thought I would combine her wedding with the High Holidays, the Great American Beer Fest, and some decent New Mexican food. My schedule is as follows:
18-21 Sept: Los Angeles, CA
21-25 Sept: Seattle, WA
25-29 Sept: Denver, CO
29 Sept-5 Oct: Washington, DC

Be sure to save the date when I am in your neck of the woods as I am not traveling all the way across the Pacific to find that you've got your golf trip to Hilton Head conflicting!