the king is dead!

and buried. at least it was a quick kill at the swamp stomp on saturday. since the official results are not yet posted (thank god), i'd estimate there were about 200 people in the race. at the start, nathan was directly in front of me, and andrew was about 10 feet ahead of us. that was the last i saw of andrew.

on your mark
get set
go!

where's andrew? nathan skirted around some "slower" runners and was gone. i saw him about 1/2 mile later, about 100 yards ahead of me. that was the last i saw of nathan.
i'd never done any trail running, and it's alot different than road running. usually, i get to a point where i'm kinda like on cruise control. the legs do their thing, and the mind wanders about. not so on trail running. with mud, roots, railroad ties, rocks, etc.. you have to pay attention to every foot placement. i could never get "in the zone." the first two miles were pretty easy. most of that involved the roads around the park, and a stretch around a lake. then came the trails. at the start of mile three, we were introduced to what the locals here call "Mt. Breathless". you can't really run up this thing. it's practically straight up. many people were using small trees to pull their way to the top. those last three miles were all on these trails, and included lots of hills similar to this, including another foray up Mt. Breathless in mile five. so this certainly wasn't your typical five mile run. but it was a blast.
i actually didn't do too bad. aside from a 5-minute spell when i walked with darrin's daughter who was having stomach issues, and the two hikes up Mt. Breathless, i ran the whole way at a pretty consistent pace. consistently slow, but consistent nonetheless.
the unofficial results are:

andrew: 44:30
nathan: 46:00
me: 53:00

yeah, that's right. andrew beat me by nine minutes. and this includes when he walked for five minutes after having a coughing fit and vomiting. now, before anyone gets alarmed, he is still suffering the late stages of pertussis (also known as whooping cough - yes, he's had the vaccine, but recent research is showing that the current vaccine may not be sufficient). this is a "normal" symptom of pertussis, and unfortunately, he's somewhat used to it. vomiting is also a normal reaction. then he just needs a couple of minutes to catch his breath, and he's as good as new. according to one of the course volunteers who was talking to us after the race, he was in the top ten overall at mile three! geez... heck, i wasn't in the top ten at yard three! anyway, i'm glad they did such a great job. i'm so proud of both of them.
the twins capped off the weekend by going to indy yesterday and winning their soccer game 3-2. andrew scored our 3rd goal.
all in all, we had a very successful weekend. even though i had to give up my throne, i couldn't think of any more worthy successors. and besides, i can still take 'em at soccer!