Marathon 4: Seattle, WA 11/25
Marathon 4 of the #50in50 was the Seattle Marathon.
I randomly saw my Instagram friend Warren (@kingpiggy), a fellow triathlete and runner from NYC, at the start line and ended up running the whole race with him. I knew he would be at the race, but I hadn’t asked him if he wanted to do the race together. Warren’s brother is Wayne Algenio, a YouTube personality.
Warren had just finished an Ironman 2 weeks earlier and was in Seattle for the Thanksgiving weekend, and he signed up for the marathon on a whim.
His PR was Philadelphia Marathon in 2016 4:09:30. So I suggested we run with the 4:10 pace group. He had never run with pace group, but he was open to doing it. It saved us a ton of effort.
We finished together at 4:07 and he PRed.
And while I was I Seattle, the weather was incredible and I also got to see my good friends and competitive eating duo Juan ‘More Bite’ Rodriguez and Sarah Reineke
Marathon 5: Memphis, TN 12/1
Memphis is a nice town. The people are super friendly.
I arrived into town on Friday night and quickly ran over to the Expo to pick up my bib before they closed down. The race was the following day on Saturday.
Because of rain in the forecast they pushed the start back by 1 hour.
I was staying in a hotel right next to the starting line so it was very convenient.
The weather was relatively hot for running and humid (65 degrees and 90%). I took it daily easy on the run.
During the run I met a very interesting character named Vicki who loved the donuts a family along the route was giving out. Turns out Vicki is a recent widow as well and she’s running 30 marathons in 30 states and she had just run Seattle as I did. It was surreal to meet her of all people.
We ran about 14 miles together until the finish line. I’ll see her again at several other marathons next year.
Great marathon, great cause and a really huge medal.
And I got to meet Elvis! I saw several Elvis impersonators in Las Vegas’s Rock n Roll marathon.
Another medal to add to the series!
Next marathons on the schedule:
AL (Rocket City in Huntsville) 12/8
FL (Walt Disney in Orlando) 1/13
LA (Baton Rouge) 1/20
MS (Mississippi Blues in Jackson) 1/26
Join me on the #50in50 for the Gweneviere Mann Foundation, with many ways to get involved.
Please download Gweneviere’s song
She was excited about releasing an album that she had just finished, but she passed before she could realize that dream, so we just recently released a single "What I Can Be" off of her album for her so that we could fulfill that dream for her. Download it here
Together we will save lives through early detection programs for lung cancer and brain tumors.
I ❤️ you Gwen.