I have been following Brian Reynolds on instagram for a while now. He's a double amputee distance runner who attempted to break the 3 hour barrier at the Chicago marathon yesterday. Given his current PR before the marathon of 3:03:35, I was sure he was going to make it and become the first American amputee to break 3.
He was running a consistent 6:45-minute mile pace and on track to his goal when he fell. Then suffering a concussion. At mile 22.
The crazy thing is, despite the concussion and nausea and dizziness, Reynolds still finished the marathon. In 3:03:22.
I am so grateful for
, Phil, and
for coming out to help pace me. I spent the last four miles fighting to stay upright through dizziness and blacking out. These guys were my rocks and helps pull me through thick and thin. I wouldn't have made it without them!
If this camaraderie and determination doesn't melt your heart, I don't know what does.
I don't have an incredible stories like this one, but most of my humble races have been wonderful experience. The most recent was the Global Energy Run #ger2018 that I ran with the coolest people I know about two weeks ago, a few days after I returned from California. I don't know how I was able to persuade them to get up at 6a on a rainy Saturday to run this race with me, but look how happy we were to complete it:
Guess who was excited to find some food:
(In that box was only my jacket, a few tiny chocolate chip muffins and half a dozen bagels.) I do have to comment that Tulsa post-race food is better than Philly. Depending on the race, but we would have beer, protein milkshake, coffee, pizzas, pasta, sandwiches and even banana pancakes. In Philly, 
And check out that negative split!!! Overall, I ran this race at approximately the same effort at the Tulsa 15K at the end of October last year, which is a great surprise to me! Oh and I placed 3rd in my age group, which is an even greater surprise! I know we still have a lot of work to do, but a sub-4 marathon seems so possible now.
Philly has been waking up later and later, but as usual, I'm psyched for 7.5 miles at 6:30a tomorrow!
À plus tard!