A Gross Close-Up from the Lake Johanna 4 Mile

Local event management company FrontRunner Events was at the Lake Johanna 4 Mile last weekend. They posted a video from the start, and you can see me go by in about 20th place (before working my way to up 9th place and then settling into 8th place for the last 85% of the race as noted in my race report - I'm ALWAYS sure to line up "too far back" with the stroller as to not impede someone who's faster than me). My friend Leah alerted me to the video by tagging me in a comment on it:

Then a few days later, FrontRunner posted a few random photos from the race. One was of me and the boys!

If I remember right, this was just about 3-5 seconds from the finish line.

I downloaded that photo, and then realized that it had decent resolution! So I (maybe unwisely) zoomed in:

Downright ANGRY!!

There's a mix of spit and sweat running down my chin. There's mud splattered on my forearm from the potholes. And nothing's sexier than a Dad in mittens.

Zooming in on the stroller also showed the wet potholes. That's a lot of spray!

And that white text in the stroller is the back of our portable DVD player as the boys were watching Looney Tunes.

I went back to that photo on Facebook last night, and I spotted a lot of fun comments. Here's all of them:

Andy's right: my 5K PR is 17:11, and all but 2 of my 1-mile races have been sub-5. But I don't think the stroller slows me down by 0:30/mile - maybe 0:15-0:20 at a race like this. And I think I'm being initiated into another stroller running Dad gang by those last comments.

If you missed it, here's my race report, and here's a post with more photos. OH, AS I VISITED THAT "MORE PHOTOS" LINK, I THINK YOU CAN SEE THE FRONTRUNNER PHOTOGRAPHER OVER MY LEFT SHOULDER IN THE PHOTO OF MY BUTT. He's pretty close to the finish line.

Back with a training update tomorrow.