Quite True

2012 Seattle Rock N Roll Marathon

Finish Line

I woke the next morning at 4AM and consumed a pre-race meal consisting of fried lamb and curried rice. A note from my journal reads:

Seattle. Marathon starts in 85 minutes. pre-race meal of fried lamb and curried rice-check. Last will and testament donating all my worldly possessions to the Society for the Prevention of Country Music-check.Nectar-flavored energy gels on hand-check.

A couple other notes I wrote read:

I feel like that mouse who after a few drinks got brave and said, "Now where's that darn cat everyone's talking about."

Should today not go so well, I've a couple of kidneys, a heart, and a liver or two I'd be willing to donate.

Naturally I wasn't feeling over-confident.

Surprisingly, the marathon went well. I walked the 25th mile since my legs felt like somebody spent all morning running a jack-hammer on them, but the 26th mile I continued on. The last 400 yards were uphill and I think I almost cried. That afternoon walking was extremely difficult but surprisingly next morning I felt fine...just some somewhat sore quadriceps.

Sunday morning I went to Christ Church Kirkland where a former Regent U classmate of mine used to attend. I met a most classy blogger whose blog, I must add, totally rocks...and a must-read. It's called Southern Nomad.

Later I explored the Capital Hill District of Seattle.


Odd Fellows Cafe...a must go to place...this is the perfect writer's hangout. Not necessarily on Sunday afternoons as it was quite crowded, but during the day it would be perfect.

Next morning it was time to go home and I flew to New York...then to Pittsburgh where my bleary-eyed parents took me to their house. This morning, I drove back to Merry Ol' Virginia.

Marathon Traveling and Marathon Running

At precisely 4:56 PM last Monday I began a journey of 6,000 miles via plane, train, and automobile.
First, I packed up and drove the Mazda to my parent's house in West Virginia.

I camped out here for a day before my mom and sister dropped me off at the Pittsburgh Amtrak station. There were about 30 Amish folks there traveling en masse to Chicago with me and well got on the same car.


Elkhart, Indiana...minutes after being involved in an Amish pillow fight.


Union Station, Chicago


Milwaukee, Wisconsin


Near Madison, WI...1st amber wave of grain sighting.

Wisconsin Dells,WI...getting ruraler...train is temporarily stopped due to small herd of badgers.

 

Winona, Minnesota...Downtown Winona Minnesota...the...um...business district of downtown Winona.

Fargo, North Dakota

 

Rugby, North Dakota

 

Little house on the prairie.

More evidence of human overpopulation in North Dakota...if you look closely you'll see an old house about 5 miles away.

 

Perfectly flat dirt roads for dozens of miles. This is perfect training ground for ultra-marathon training and crop-circle making activities...still in North Dakota.

 

Train Literature, fascinating reading.

 

Havre, Montana...dinosaurs used to live here. Thank god and extinction they're on vacation.

 

Shelby, Montana

 

Columbia River, Washington.

 

(I didn't take any pictures whilst in Idaho as I was overcome with sleepiness)

 

Bingen-White Salmon, WA

 

Vancouver...the American one...we're getting closer.

 

Random Note#1: Dear Conductor-There's an old fellow snoring like the London Philharmonic warming up. My psychologist tells me I've Chronic Snoring Syndrome that causes me to go into violent spams of senior citizen choking yoga (his words, not mine). I propose we ditch him at Walla Walla where he can snore happily ever after.

Windmills on the Columbia River early Friday morning.

Mt. Hood, Oregon


Portland, OR...I shall

Random note#2...Amtrak baggage guy's name tag reads 'Hi...I'm Gregory Peck.' I think he's lying.

Finally, after nearly 60 hours on a train I arrived in Seattle.