I’m posting this against my better judgement. Despite the saying “a picture is worth a thousand words”, some pictures leave the viewer speechless. In any this case, I present to you some “early” and “late” pictures from my recent 3M and Austin races. So, without further ado, be warned enjoy.

First we’ll look at the more recent 2011 LiveSTRONG Austin Marathon. In this first picture you can see I’m looking fierce. Not only am I in full-on running form, but I am totally dominating some sort of zombie boy/girl of Oriental persuasion. In perfect contrast, I look like I could be a Spartan from the movie 300 while this boy/girl may actually blow away in a slight breeze. Let’s not overlook the abnormally large calf muscle on the blue-shirted guy. And to be totally smug fair, I’m running the full marathon and these guys/girls are running the half. Boomshakalaka.

If you remember my race report, things were not going well towards the end of the marathon. Nonetheless, I learned from my 3M mistakes (be patient, keep

reading and you’ll see what I mean), and was still able to take a good picture. My watch says 3:10:20, so I was near mile 23 and having a brutal time. Never fear! A good picture is still within reason. This was taken by a coworker who was also the pace group leader for the 3:15 marathon group.

Here’s where the party starts. At the 3M Half Marathon, where I literally left everything out on the course, we weren’t so lucky to have winning pictures like in the full marathon above. The first photo is actually the good, strong, pre-implosion/explosion of me a little passed halfway. Just like above, with a thumbs up and forced smile, things don’t look so bad. But that’s just because I knew there was a camera. Now would be a great time to send the kids into another room and put down anything you may be eating.

Cue implosion/explosion. At the very end of the 3M Half Marathon, with the finish line in sight, the clock nearing 1:30:00, and not noticing the swarm of cameras, I really went for it. My face, a bit tilted and grimacing, with eyes clenched and mouth out of whack, is only the beginning. Just about every muscle is convulsing in exactly the wrong way, and I’m not even sure my left knee is still in its socket based on how it’s kicking out to the side. I hereby decree that this is a top 10 worst race picture of all time and deserves proper recognition from the designated governing body.

No matter, for in both of these races I set new personal records. It is in these pictures that the true spirit of the runner is shining through, in the best of times and the worst of times… especially the worst of times. And with that, you can expect some bike-related posts coming your way, because that is certainly enough running imagery for quite some time.