Boston Marathon 2003

After the disaster of 2002, I had nowhere to go but up!  The training went well, and I was looking forward to a great race.

Of course, nothing ever goes according to plan, right?  A trip to China and Hong Kong a few weeks before the marathon, at the height of the SARS scare, found me with pneumonia (SARS?) less than two weeks before the big day.

Most normal people would have hung it up, but again, I'm kind of a stubborn bastard, and besides, my superb conditioning had the pneumonia out of my system pretty quickly.  I struggled through a few training runs, almost ready to give it up, but then a few days before the marathon I had a pretty smooth 6 mile run, so I really thought I was over the worst of it.

Well, the good news is I finished, the bad news is it was another hellish day.  Don't ever let anybody tell you a marathon is easy two weeks after pneumonia.

Looking better than I felt at the half.

Bao was also looking better than I felt at the half..

The cheering squad.  Mom wondering when the hell I'm going to stop the insanity!

The quote on Baos shirt couldn't be more true..