Is this the way to Beer?

Marathon relay day with Andy! He clobbered the first half marathon in 1:39. I picked up at mile 13.1 and ran it home. Yes...RAN...pretty much the whole way. The first section was beautiful - right along the sound, trees overhead, gently rolling course.

I was aiming for 3:30. At about mile 20 I re-estimated that 3:15 might be a good goal, and 3:00 would be fantastic. At mile 21 the course started going up, and up, and still up. At mile 25 I passed something like the 'Hill Top Diner' and took that as a good sign - my knees were on fire by that point. At mile marker 26 I thought 'almost there', the half-marathon marker for 13 miles should be very shortly and then there will be a finish line.....any time now that 13 marker will show up....wait...that kind of looks like a big group of people...is that a timer...OH...that's the finish line...and if I hurry I can finish before the time ticks over to a new minute. SPRINT!.

About halfway from my realization that that was the finish line and actually crossing I felt someone coming up behind me. More speed, mustn't be passed right by the finish line! We finished at exactly the same time. I turned to congratulate the mystery sprinter on an awesome sprint finish, only to realize it was my friend P! Four people, two teams, 26.2 miles each, and exactly the same finish time.

Walking is now difficult, but post-race beer is darn tasty. Plus I clobbered that goal time - finished in 2:33!