This video reminded me

. . . about the heartbreak of marathons.



Kayoko Fukushi, the fastest female half-marathoner in Japanese history, covers the last track lap of her inaugural marathon no faster than I run. Of course, she fell down three times in the final lap in order to run that slowly.

Only a ten-miler today

Heh. Heh. I said "only" and "ten-miler" in the same sentence.

I'm heading out in a few minutes for my last longer run before Marine Corps Marathon.

I'll probably have to return home going past the Bush entourage on his visit here today. Hopefully they won't scream through our little town with sirens blaring and lights flashing and block the entire street - that's just tacky, calling attention to yourself that way.

Updates later. . . .

---

The helicopters kept zooming overhead while I was running, in advance of the presidential visit. When I finished up and headed back through town to go home there were numerous state, county, and local cops hanging around along with plentiful and obvious Secret Service. Before 9 o'clock in the morning. I can't imagine how expensive a little trip across the Bay was, nor why he can't sit in the traffic at the toll plaza like everyone else. . . .

I don't take great photos while simultaneously driving, but here's one in front of the Inn at Perry Cabin with the ominous black Suburbans all lined up toward the rear:

Here's an AP photo of him today in front of the lighthouse at the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum, about a half mile from my house:

Meanwhile, I had cleaned up and we escaped the traffic tangle in town on the ferry to the next peninsula and enjoyed the beautiful autumn afternoon next to the Tred Avon River in the quaint little town of Oxford, Maryland. Appropriately, the girls wore their "Little Oxford" shirts that grandpa brought back from England.