It's all about the 0.6.

Today was the last of 5 races in the Striders Winter Racing Circuit--a 5K, 10K, 10 miler, 1/2 marathon, and 30K.

30K is a long way to run...18.6 miles for you metric haters. Other friends who registered this circuit saw no logical reason to do this distance as they are training for the Ogden Half Marathon and didn't need or want the extra 5.5 miles of pounding pain on their bodies. (Smart girls.) My friend Quincey however, is a masochistic soul and drove up bright-and-early to run with me. She just about exiled me from her car when I spilled the forgotten information that the race was really 18.6 miles rather than 18. That 0.6 is a real killer! You see the blessed 18 mile sign and know that you're still too far from that pined-for finish line. What do you do? Well, I felt like curling up and rocking on the side of the road with my thumb in my mouth but I just kept up the slow foot-in-front-of-the-other and finished with a half-hearted sprint to the end cheered by some empathic crazies.

It was a little cold and rainy but not bad enough to interfere. I'm sporting some pretty good blisters on the arches (ouch!) of my feet. My stomach is rebelling. BUT, it was a pleasure to run with Quince and to finish this series for the fourth year.