I was a passenger in a car wreck in 2015. I was pretty beat up and my family all thought I was dead. I had a few hours of memory lost and don't remember the wreck, traveling to the ER, and only a few brief things in the ER. One of these few brief things was that I have been there for quite a while and they hadn't given me any drugs for the pain. My family asked if they were going to give me anything and the nurse said "Oh...ya, we should have done that a long time ago when he first came in." So she came to me and asked if she could get me anything for the pain. My response was, "No thanks. I am fine. Ironman hurts worse than this and I do that for recreation."

 


Years ago my wife and I competed as a relay team at the Marathon 2 Marathon in West Texas. The full started in Alpine Texas but the relay started midway between Alpine and Marathon along side of the rural highway. At the end they combined the times and that was the teams finish time. We were bussed to the start, a gravel driveway and let off. Instructed not to go far away because of rattlesnakes. Start time was almost there and only a few runners standing about. Then a big dually races up, the driver gets out and stands on the back with a rifle in his hand. He states: start running when I shoot this. Then bang, off we go. We make it to the first aid station and there are boxes of bottles water, still sealed, alongside the road. I was tie for first at this point, my wife just behind in third. We stop, tear open the boxes and hand one Cynthia and then off again. I went on like for most of the race until the last aid station. I managed 2nd overall, Cynthia 4th overall and first relay team overall. Both of us masters over 50.

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Once, I was fast. But I got over it.

Running the same exact marathon time down to the second in same IM course for 2 consecutive years.