Marathon results

Here are the official results. D-towners may recognize women's winner Katie Nowak; she ran for Coatesville.

The marathon is over

Remember me? Yeah, me neither. Anyway, the marathon is over. 3 hours, 17 minutes, 19 seconds. Fifty-sixth place overall out of 987 runners; eleventh among men 25 to 29 (including the overall winner). I'm about to take my post-race nap, so I'll have to give details later. But hope you blog readers have been well over this past 18 days.

Holler back, young one

Twenty miles today!

I was prepared to battle the whole time and lose all enthusiasm for the marathon by day's end. Instead, I felt good-to-great, finished in 2:33:37 (7:41 pace) and with a 20th mile of 7:05. I attribute this to excellent sleep, more frequent water stops, a sunny but cool afternoon, and the consumption of two energy gels -- one at the beginning, one after 12 miles. Also, lots of lasagna late in the week probably helped, carb-wise.

In the final 50 or 60 meters I felt an intense runner's high, but the good feelings ended 50 to 60 meters later. I unsmartly ran a route that had me finish one mile away from my car, and that one-mile walk probably took 20 minutes. I'm just going to come right out and complain, since nobody's forcing you to read this: my legs have never hurt so badly in my entire life. I had to stretch two different times before I trusted myself to operate the pedals of my car.

So I came home and weighed myself -- 163 lbs. Probably lost 7 or 8 in the course of the run. I haven't weighed myself since I scarfed that Gordita and Grilled Stuft Burrito at The Bell, but that's because I'm not getting out of bed until it's time to make dinner. And -- frick -- it looks like it's almost time to make dinner.

Go Tiger Woods, Go Phillies, Boo Steady Job, Boo Constant Tornado Warnings. Go Moxie, Go Mojo, Boo Earmites in Ears of Moxie and Mojo.

-30-

COME ON

ESPN amazes me.

Editor's note: ESPN.com hired Roy S. Johnson, who is not affiliated with ESPN, to review the new reality show "Bonds on Bonds" that debuted Tuesday night on ESPN.

So here's the third paragraph of Johnson's review...

It was also clear that the producers, Tollin/Robbins Productions, award-winning creators of quality films ("Radio") and television shows ("Arli$$"), would tell the story well. ESPN reportedly paid the company $4.5 million to produce the series, and it shows. (Disclosure: Tollin/Robbins partner Mike Tollin and I attended college together at Stanford, where we shared an interest in radio broadcasting and softball.)

COME ON! You go to the trouble and the show of hiring an unbiased reviewer, and you pick a buddy of the freakin' producer? It is mandatory that you are kidding me.

GO TERPS

Nice job, ladies.

Party in the bathroom

We had a tornado warning and a badass thunderstorm come through tonight, strong enough (as were the pronouncements from local TV weather guys) that we spent 20 minutes in the bathroom with the cats, waiting out the weather. (Actually, we started in one bathroom, then concluded that we should move to the other bathroom since that one wasn't adjacent to the outside of the building.)

But all is well, everyone unharmed, including the cars. (There were reports of baseball-sized hail at the airport. I love how hail is always compared to balls -- golf balls, baseballs and softballs. I'm waiting for soccer-ball-sized hail.)

Bad blogger! Bad, BAD blogger!

Yeah, I've been slacking. I was able to fit in more posts when it was just work and running, but cat ownership seems to be elbowing out my ability to blog effectively. And I know a multitude of cat pictures posted does not compensate for that.

Things are pretty good. It was a crazy week, culminating yesterday with a 17-mile run, a 4-hour fantasy baseball draft, and a visit to the vet that revealed the need for several medications, none of which the cats enjoy having administered to them.

But the weather is a little nicer, if rainy today, and a bedroom window is open. And baseball season begins tonight, as does election night on The West Wing. And something on Grey's Anatomy about Meredith's sister that looks decidedly uninteresting. But since everything about Meredith Grey is uninteresting, aside from her prominent clavicles, that was to be expected.