I went to the 2024 San Diego Rock and Roll marathon. I started past my corral but about the same time as last time. About 45 minutes after the first runners. My Garmin was keeping me between 14:30 and 15:00, legs were good. At mile 8 I was stopped and told I missed the cut off and I couldn’t finish the marathon. I could quit or finish on the half marathon course. I was pissed, I was running under the time limit and felt good.

I thought of my dog, Sterling Archer. He passed away last October, he had a lot of fast growing tumors, but he loved to run. Even when he could barely walk he could still run with a three-legged bunny hop. What would Archer do? FIDO, our acronym for his walking, running style. Nothing stopped the forward motion. If you did he complained about it. Fuck It Drive On I said. The half marathon course was very hilly but easy I was ready for 18 more miles, 5 was almost done. I was chipped at 3:20, which I could have done faster but I was steady for the first 8, I could have started faster. But the marathon distance had me beaten again.

What ever you believe in, God, Buddha, Thor, the great magnet, I thought it was not my time. Back to the beginning, my Garmin app keeps records of my fastest 5k, 10k, half and full marathon times. Now my next training strategy is to shorten my 5 and 10 k time. That will shorten my half marathon time. When my half marathon time goes down below 2 hours I will restart my marathons. Until next time, new cars are bad for the environment, they are still boring. I choose to fix something old.