I thought up this title somewhere along the way this morning. Given the weather here, and the way everything came together for me, I like the irony.

You see, it didn't rain. I expected it to pour. After all, it was in the forecast and it did rain last night. So I put on the old Asics GT-2080's that I wore in the rain at Royal Victoria, the same shoes I wore when my team won hardware in Ft. Worth. It's time to retire them with honor.

It's a point to point from Gardner to Olathe, Kansas, so I rode the shuttle bus from the finish to the start with some fellow Maniacs from the PacNW. They were wonderful. I kept seeing them on the course, and it helped. I have that same sense of belonging I had in the relays, but with the full distance. I ran strong today, just behind TomD, who had a similar realization: He wanted to break 4:45, I wanted to PR and break 5:00. I remember that moment, when you look at your watch and you're close enough to the finish to know you're going to PR. Priceless. Then it was just a question of whether I would hit the big goal. If I could just find the right song on my mp3. Aha, it was one I got from DS, "Ready for This" from his Stadium Jams CD.

I wasn't sure until I saw the finish line. Is that it already? I charged up that last hill for all I was worth and finished in 4:59 something on the clock. My watch says 4:58 but I have no idea what my chip time was yet. I don't care. I am so freakin' happy! And I'm able to walk without the shuffle. We'll see how long that lasts. And speaking of walking, I didn't do any of that this morning, for the first time.

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