<p><span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman';">Last Saturday I did a Half in the little town of Cotter, Arkansas. The main event there is the White River Marathon for Kenya, where two of my running friends ran in their 50<sup>th</sup></span> state. There was also a 5K. Registrants in the three races numbered almost 500, an all-time high. Over the last eight years, about $125,000 has been raised to benefit a village in Kenya, focusing on providing clean water by digging a well. Our group, totaling 13, enjoyed a nice pasta dinner Friday night, which included some inspirational words from one of the <a href="http://www.mtnhome.com/~jasonc/wrm/pages/rickspage.html" target="_blank">Biggest Losers who was running his first marathon</a>. Some of our group then topped off their carbs at a sports bar and watched our home-town team trying to come back on #2 Oklahoma State. The party broke up at a reasonable hour but some, including me, finished watching the upset in their motel rooms. They went into double overtime, so I finally got to bed at about 11:30.</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size:14px;"><a class="H-lightbox-open" href="http://www.kickrunners.com/content/type/61/id/107669/width/350/height/261/flags/" target="_blank"><img alt="Beer at Mexican joint the night before.jpg" class="lightbox-enabled" data-id="18429" data-type="61" src="http://www.kickrunners.com/content/type/61/id/18429/width/349/height/261" style="; width: 349px; height: 261px"></a></span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman';">On Saturday morning, after about 6 hours sleep, we drove to Cotter and stayed warm inside a school building. The start (all 3 races, minus a few early starters) was at the crack of dawn.</span></span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman';"><a class="H-lightbox-open" href="http://www.kickrunners.com/content/type/61/id/107661/width/350/height/263/flags/" target="_blank"><img alt="Sunrise start.JPG" class="lightbox-enabled" data-id="18425" data-type="61" src="http://www.kickrunners.com/content/type/61/id/18425/width/350/height/263" style="; width: 350px; height: 263px"></a></span></span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman';">The course was an out-and-back along the White River, done once for the Half and twice for the Full. We passed scattered houses, pasture, and sedimentary rock bluffs.</span></span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman';"><a class="H-lightbox-open" href="http://www.kickrunners.com/content/type/61/id/107663/width/350/height/240/flags/" target="_blank"><img alt="IMG_5660_Riverside_run.jpg" class="lightbox-enabled" data-id="18426" data-type="61" src="http://www.kickrunners.com/content/type/61/id/18426/width/350/height/240" style="; width: 350px; height: 240px"></a></span></span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman';">The weather was perfect, in the low 50’s with the wind chill in the high 40’s. By the end, my arm warmers were bunched up at my wrists. My knee didn’t give me any trouble, which made me think I’d made the right choice by deciding to run a bit farther than the doc had recommended. On the course I met a guy wearing a $1K knee brace who had his entire medial meniscus removed (the brace puts the force on the other meniscus). He is a 50-stater--what an inspiration.</span></span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman';"><a class="H-lightbox-open" href="http://www.kickrunners.com/content/type/61/id/107665/width/350/height/263/flags/" target="_blank"><img alt="About mile 10.JPG" class="lightbox-enabled" data-id="18427" data-type="61" src="http://www.kickrunners.com/content/type/61/id/18427/width/350/height/263" style="; width: 350px; height: 263px"></a></span></span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman';">I finished in about 2:07, which was good enough for 3<sup>rd</sup></span> in the 60-64 AG. I had chili and soup, then hung around to pick up my award (keychain showing a Kenyan vista with an acacia tree) and two others (our group got 7 awards in all) while others went to run in the 50-staters and give them some appropriate balloons.</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size:14px;"><a class="H-lightbox-open" href="http://www.kickrunners.com/content/type/61/id/107667/width/350/height/467/flags/" target="_blank"><img alt="Photo Nov 19, 11 16 23 AM.jpg" class="lightbox-enabled" data-id="18428" data-type="61" src="http://www.kickrunners.com/content/type/61/id/18428/width/350/height/467" style="; width: 350px; height: 467px"></a></span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size:14px;">We spent the rest of the day celebrating, which involved more carbs, a hot tub, more balloons, gifts, dancing, and I think there was a nap in there too. I’ll spare you the pictures.</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size:14px;">Sorry about the changing font above. I tried unsuccessfully to fix it after pasting this in from a word processor; font is not one of our editing options.</span></p>
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<p>ETA: Good luck on the turkey trot, ks. Hi TW, Rip, and those posting later. 3.5 M today on the TM.</p>
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