I ran the Decker half marathon today, and about 1/3 of the way through it someone on a bike across the road yelled “Hi Mr. Watt”. Since I was totally out of it I said my obligatory “Hi” and continued on while wondering who the heck that was. A few minutes later Paul F. and a friend on their bikes caught up to me and asked me how I was doing. Still being out of it I assumed that Paul was part of the support staff typically made up of EMTs and was asking how I was because I LOOKED LIKE I WAS GOING TO COLLAPSE. I told him I was doing OK, and needed to get a gel packet shortly, which I did. He mentioned that he was here because Heather, his girlfriend, was running the race. Then he rode on. Well that still didn’t sink in right away. For the next few miles he kept riding around where I was running. I kept thinking that if he was still support staff (just who else would be there and not running) that he should probably stay in the same section of the race. Gosh, I’m slow witted when I run. Finally, yes finally, I realized that he was riding about 50 feet in front of me and I recognized Heather as a runner next to him. Then it all fit. He was riding his bike while Heather was running the race. With about 2 miles to go I caught up to them and said a simple hello and continued on. She was running with a friend as Paul was riding with her friend. At the end we finished only a few minutes apart. So I apologize to them for my being a total dunce, and it was nice to see them out there. I finished in 1:57:48 or 9:00/M.
Mile Time Total
01 08:09.26 0:08:09.26
02 09:12.97 0:17:22.23
03 08:32.25 0:25:54.48
04 08:33.45 0:34:28.45
05 08:47.00 0:43:15.45
06 09:04.50 0:52:19.95
07 09:06.14 1:01:26
08 09:13.60 1:10:39
09 09:39.51 1:20:19
10 10:00.00 1:30:19
11 09:29.22 1:39:48
12 08:42.87 1:48:31
13 08:34.62 1:57:07
HM 00:43.29 1:57:49
