Miracle Match Marathon

Finished the Miracle Match Marathon in Waco, Texas in 4:41:12.42 according to the time on my watch. Official results have not been posted yet.

This was the most challenging marathon I've run without an injury. Didn't set a personal record but I now know that I'm a sub-5 hour marathoner.

I would not recommend this race for a first-time marathoner but then again if you finish it as a rookie all the others in Texas will seem easy.

The challenging parts but scenic parts of the course are between miles 14 and 24. There is nothing in Bryan - College Station that could have prepared me for some of the downhill slopes. I had to walk down several.

Waco's Cameron Park is quite gorgeous and I enjoyed the running beside the Brazos River through a park. Waco should be proud of its parks. Their beauty, even in winter, made me wonder why I live in Bryan.

The race was well directed with plenty of friendly volunteers manning water stops in the freezing cold. Sponsors provided wonderful perks such as food, wine, beer and post-race massages. The finishers' medals looked incomplete but the finishers' windbreaker jacket more than made up for that.

The race packet swag bag had some good stuff in it. Surprising for a race with 1,200 total participants.

The cool thing about such a small race: the third place person in my age group (40 - 44 Female) had a time of 4 hours and 20 minutes. A slower person has a shot at placing.

The Miracle Match Marathon is a well-run smaller race that supports a great cause. If you're looking for a challenging winter race be sure to check this one out.

Exercise Log: January 24 - 30

Ran, biked, and walked 37.75 miles, burned 3422.7 calories and weigh 138.6 pounds.

Sunday: run - 8.25 miles in 1:23:50
Monday: bike - 5.19 miles in 20:54
Tuesday: run - 3.27 miles in 32:33.82
Wednesday: bike - 2.72 miles in 12:00; run - 1.37 miles in 15:00
Thursday: run - 5.40 miles in 52:50
Friday: run - 2.83 miles in 30:00

Mary Faust, Part Fifteen

Click on comic to enlarge.

Maybe time to reinstate the Mary Watch: Number of Mary Worthless days. The over-arching lesson from the 2009 stories and continuing into 2010: stay off the internet.

As to a masquerade, with absent minds, they press,
Sheer curiosity their footsteps winging;
Ladies display their persons and their dress,
Actors unpaid their service bringing.
What dreams beguile you on your poet's height?
What puts a full house in a merry mood?
More closely view your patrons of the night!
The half are cold, the half are rude.
One, the play over, craves a game of cards;
Another a wild night in wanton joy would spend.

Mary Faust Part Fourteen

Click on comic to enlarge.

I've given up trying to fit the text into the balloons. Easier to redraw balloons. I inflict my learning process upon you! Hopefully, the divisions will make more sense.

Wilbur doesn't own a cooler? I bet his condo neighbors appreciate him transporting the fish like that. Next panel: Dawn introduces her guest, Jill the Game Warden.

How it revolts the genuine artist's mind!
The sorry trash in which these coxcombs deal,
Is here approved on principle, I find.

MANAGER

Such a reproof disturbs me not a whit!
Who on efficient work is bent,
Must choose the fittest instrument.
Consider! 'tis soft wood you have to split;
Think too for whom you write, I pray!
One comes to while an hour away;
One from the festive board, a sated guest;
Others, more dreaded than the rest,
From journal-reading hurry to the play.

Exercise Log: January 17 - 23

This week I ran, walked, biked and rowed 49.01 miles, burned 4426.5 calories and weigh 139.9 pounds.

Sunday: Run - 12.35 miles in 2:02:56.07
Monday: Walk - 2.68 miles in 1:12:01.44
Tuesday: Run - 3.57 miles in 34:53
Wednesday: Row - 1.31 miles in 10:00, Elliptical - .45 mile in 10:00, Bike - 3.57 miles in 15:00
Thursday: Run - 5.05 miles in 47:29.26
Friday: Row - 1.90 miles in 15:00, Elliptical - 1.27 miles in 15:00, Bike - 3.53 miles in 15:00
Saturday: Walk - 3.32 miles in 1:20:16.36

Tomorrow, my final long run before the marathon.

Mary Faust: Part Thirteen

Click on comic to enlarge.

Wilbur and Kurt continue fishing.

Karen Moy gives the reader a feel for a real fishing trip when the fish refuse to bite. Too bad she didn't provide beer. A single keg should provide plenty of beer for everyone who actually reads Mary Worth.

Spin for their eyes abundant occupation,
SO that the multitude may wondering gaze,
You by sheer bulk have won your reputation,

By mass alone can you subdue the masses,
Each then selects in time what suits his bent.
Bring much, you something bring for various classes,
And from the house goes every one content.
You give a piece, abroad in pieces send it!
'Tis a ragout--success most needs attend it;
'Tis easy to serve up, as easy to invent.
A finish'd whole what boots it to present!
Full soon the public will in pieces rend it.

POET

How mean such handicraft as this you cannot feel!

Mary Faust: Part Twelve

Click on comic for larger image. The Sunday strip was a recap of the action from the previous week, which is to say, nothing has happened.

A sprightly fellow's presence at your play,
Methinks should also count for something too;
Whose genial wit the audience still inspires,
Knows from their changeful mood no angry feeling;
A wider circle he desires,
To their heart's depths more surely thus appealing.
To work, then! Give a master-piece, my friend;
Bring Fancy with her choral trains before us,
Sense, reason, feeling, passion, but attend!
Let folly also swell the tragic chorus.

MANAGER

In chief, of incident enough prepare!
A show they want, they come to gape and stare.

Exercise Log: January 10 - 16

This week I walked, ran, biked and rowed 58.03 miles, burned 5228.1 calories and weigh 139.1 pounds.

Sunday: Run - 20.09 miles in 3:25:19.90
Monday: Bike - 8.91 miles in 35:00
Tuesday: Run - 4.31 miles in 45:00
Wednesday: Walk - .61 mile in 15:20.45
Thursday: Run - 6.94 miles in 1:05:00
Friday: Row - 1.92 miles in 15:00; Run - 1.92 miles in 20:00; Bike - 4.32 miles in 20:00
Saturday: Walk - .70 mile in 19:57.63

There are other walking miles with Loki and during the work week not listed above that are part of the total. Loki walked a total of 3.42 miles.

Tomorrow, I start my taper for the Miracle Match Marathon. 12 miles on the agenda.

Will enjoy my 3 day weekend.

Good luck to everyone running in the Chevron Houston Marathon tomorrow. You can do it!

Mary Faust: Part Eleven

Click on comic to enlarge.

Wilbur kept the same glasses all these years.

A failure now, with words now fitly mated,
In the wild tumult of the hour is drown'd;
Full oft the poet's thought for years bath waited
Until at length with perfect form 'tis crowned;
What dazzles, for the moment born, must perish;
What genuine is posterity will cherish.

MERRYMAN

This cant about posterity I hate;
About posterity were I to prate,
Who then the living would amuse? For they
Will have diversion, ay, and 'tis their due.

Mary Faust: Part Ten

Click on comic to enlarge.

Has the boredom of Kurt and Wilbur's conversation driven everyone, including those out of earshot, from the lake?

POET

Oh of the motley throng speak not before me,
At whose aspect the Spirit wings its flight!

Conceal the surging concourse, I implore thee,
Whose vortex draws us with resistless might.
No, to some peaceful heavenly nook restore me,
Where only for the bard blooms pure delight,
Where love and friendship yield their choicest blessing,
Our heart's true bliss, with god-like hand caressing.

What in the spirit's depths was there created,
What shyly there the lip shaped forth in sound;

Mary Faust: Part Nine

Click on comic to enlarge.

Out of boredom, Kurt's legs have left the scene. A most extreme case of Restless Legs Syndrome.

Still in broad daylight, ere the clock strikes four,
With blows their way towards the box they take;
And, as for bread in famine, at the baker's door,
For tickets are content their necks to break.
Such various minds the bard alone can sway,

My friend, oh work this miracle to-day!

Mary Faust: Part Eight

Click on comic to enlarge.

Thanks and shout out to Seattle PI for making larger comics available. You can even rate each comic.

I enlarged a bit more when removing original dialogue but since I had a larger image to start quality has not degraded as much.

How make our entertainment striking, new,
And yet significant and pleasing too?
For to be plain, I love to see the throng,
As to our booth the living tide progresses;
As wave on wave successive rolls along,
And through heaven's narrow portal forceful presses;

Mary Faust: Part Seven

Click on comic to enlarge.

The posts are now erected, and the planks,
And all look forward to a festal treat.
Their places taken, they, with eyebrows rais'd,
Sit patiently, and fain would be amaz'd.
I know the art to hit the public taste,
Yet ne'er of failure felt so keen a dread;
True, they are not accustomed to the best,
But then appalling the amount they've read.

--------------------------------------------------

The tackle box does not have tackle in it.

Mary Faust Part Six

Click on comic to enlarge.

A yearning long unfelt, each impulse swaying,
To yon calm spirit-realm uplifts my soul;
In faltering cadence, as when Zephyr playing,
Fans the Aeolian harp, my numbers roll;
Tear follows tear, my steadfast heart obeying
The tender impulse, loses its control;
What I possess as from afar I see;
Those I have lost become realities to me.

Prologue in the Theatre
MANAGER. DRAMATIC POET. MERRYMAN.

MANAGER

Ye twain, in trouble and distress
True friends whom I so oft have found,
Say, for our scheme on German ground,
What prospect have we of success?
Fain would I please the public, win their thanks;
They live and let live, hence it is but meet.
-------------------------------
I'm filling balloons. Seven Sunday panels gives me lots of balloons.
I ran my final 20 mile training run - 20.09 miles in 3:25:19.90. I will set a new personal record if I can repeat that performance for the marathon on Jan. 31.

Mary Faust: Part 5

Click on cartoon to enlarge.

Sorry about the Comic Sans. I need to download Digital Strip to my home computer. I enlarge the comic strip and then paste text into balloons. I try to fit as much as I can while maintaining readability. I do cheat occasionally by slightly enlarging a balloon to add a bit of white space around the text.

Part of the third verse of Dedication:

Dispersed the throng, their severed flight now winging;
Mute are the voices that responsive rang.
For stranger crowds the Orphean lyre now stringing,
E'en their applause is to my heart a pang;
Of old who listened to my song, glad hearted,
If yet they live, now wander widely parted.

Mary Worth is the work of writer Karen Moy and artist Joe Giella and is owned by King Features Syndicate. All images from the comic strip are owned by King Features. Faust is the work of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and is public domain.

Exercise Log: January 1 - 9

This year so far I walked, ran & biked 44.04 miles, burned 3782.8 calories and weigh 141.3 pounds.

Loki has walked 5.62 miles. He had a great time today walking off leash in the woods and park.

Less than a month until my marathon in Waco. Tomorrow, I run my final 20 mile training run. Then I taper. Thinking about running by time rather than distance tomorrow. Maybe run 4 hours and see how far I go.

Jan. 2: walk, 1.08 miles, 23:36.25
Jan. 3: run, 8.31 miles, 1:24:42.48
Jan. 4: bike, 9.18 miles, 35:00
Jan. 5: run, 6.20 miles, 1:05:00
Jan. 7: run, 5.38 miles, 51:52
Jan. 9: walk, 2.82 miles, 1:04:53.98

Mary Faust: More Dedication

Click on cartoon to enlarge.

Today's larger word balloons allowed me to place more text. If you wish to keep up with the storyline as written by Karen Moy visit Mary Worth & Me. Wanders & friends do an outstanding job of keeping up with the goings on in Santa Royale. You will understand the humor of Mary Worth if you spend any time over there. Be sure to enjoy the Charterstone Jukebox.

Looking forward to the Sunday comic. Lots of balloons to fill.

Sorrow revives, her wail of anguish sending
Back o'er life's devious labyrinthine way,
And names the dear ones, they whom Fate bereaving
Of life's fair hours, left me behind them grieving.

They hear me not my later cadence singing,
The souls to whom my earlier lays I sang;

Mary Faust: Dedication Verse Two, Part 1

Click on cartoon to enlarge. Picture quality degraded because of enlargement. I don't know why syndicates don't make larger versions available for online venues. Maybe to prevent miscreants from rewriting crappy comics? It takes a larger comic to truly appreciate the care Joe Giella put into rendering Wilbur's comb over.

Shades fondly loved appear, your train attending,
And visions fair of many a blissful day;
First-love and friendship their fond accents blending,
Like to some ancient, half-expiring lay;

Mary Faust: Dedication Verse One

Click on picture to enlarge. (Click here for the first part)

Dedication

Ye wavering shapes, again ye do enfold me,
As erst upon my troubled sight ye stole;
Shall I this time attempt to clasp, to hold ye?
Still for the fond illusion yearns my soul?
Ye press around! Come then, your captive hold me,
As upward from the vapoury mist ye roll;
Within my breast youth's throbbing pulse is bounding,
Fann'd by the magic breath your march surrounding.

Mary Worth: Faust

Click on cartoon to make bigger.

An insomnia induced project idea: Goethe's Faust replacing Mary Worth dialogue. A fun way for me to read all of Faust and make Mary Worth a bit more amusing.

Also something to justify the continued existence of this blog.