13.1

13 miles is such a freaking long way to run.  I seriously wonder what I am thinking.  I thought I would die, on the spot today...and that was just the half way point of a full marathon.  On the brighter side, I didn't die.  We really took it easy for the first 6.5 miles.  We were almost 11 minute miles the entire time.  The second half was lots better, as we kept our pace under 10 minutes for all but the last mile or so.  It was about 25 degrees when we started and it felt like it got colder as we went.  I may have dressed too warm because I sweat a ton and then got real cold every time we stopped or walked to drink or eat some gu.  Dave still hasn't registered, but I upgraded him to questionable because he did the entire run today.  

It was ice bath time after the run.  There is no better way to recover.  The ice didn't feel that cold after the 2 hours spent out in the cold already.  I'm still working on what to eat before, during and after the race.  Today I went with a protein shake with oats, a banana and peanut butter about 2 hours before the run and a spoonful of peanut butter right before the race, along with a 5-hour energy.  During the race, I had some power bar gummies every 3 miles and 2 gu's as needed.  I also had a banana throughout the run.  I really like the gummies.  I just put them in the side of my mouth and that helped keep my mouth from drying out. I didn't drink any Gatorade this time, which was a mistake, but otherwise I kind of liked my food during the run.

In a side note.  I played my first game of Pokemon today.  I watched the BYU-Utah game over at my buddy Daniel's house and his 4 year old son comes up to me and throws down a Pokemon card and says, "Slowpoke, I chose you.  Chose your Pokemon."  He hands me this deck of cards.  I have no idea what to do, so I take one out of the pile and put it down next to his.  He then says, "I go first and I use smash slam and kill your Pokemon.  I win, give me all your cards."  I was in total shock.  He completely dominated me.  When he returned a few minutes later, declaring the game was on again and I could tell he was going to "smash slam" me again, no matter what.  So, I did what every other adult would do in this situation...I selected a new Pokemon and read the card to him, "smash slams do not hurt this Pokemon."  Of course the card said nothing like that, but he's four, so I felt pretty safe in my lie.  I threw the Pokemon card down this time, imitating him as best I could and said, "your turn Slowpoke."  He still chose to use the smash slam, but when I told him my Pokemon laughed at him and thought it tickled he said, "oh, your turn then."  I used a triple kick to take away almost all of Slowpoke's life and then he tried to use some sort of flame to kill me.  I, of course, told him my Pokemon eats fire and it had no effect.  "It says it right here on the card."  He was sorely disappointed, but would never question what the card says.  My next triple kick finished him off and I took all of his cards away.  He started getting pretty mad at this bold move, so I gave them back with a warning not to mess with me and my Pokemon again.  I decided to retire a winner, but who knows what will happen next time Slowpoke brings his smash slam my way.  I think my Pokemon's name was Hitmontop or something.