hot, hard and fast

"run 6.2 miles along the atlantic coastline from the beach to the lighthouse"-- with 4,984 other people, plus 5 kenyans.

on-line registration for the 'beach to beacon' sold out in 34 minutes. the winner finished in 28. there are way too many damn numbers to deal with in running.

~ minutes sweated and strained in the port-a-loo over a complete no-show of last night's pizza: 7

~ number of clouds in the sky (for a consistently miserable "summer" thus far): 2

~ humidity index (after never ending rain for the last 3 months): 5,307- more accurately, the sensation of being asphyxiated with a hot sponge.

~ number of hills (in the last mile): lost count due to delirium.

~ thoughtful spectators pointing their sprinklers onto the swanky 6.2 mile stretch of cape elizabeth road: countless (thank you all for cheers, music, and a distracting carnival atmosphere).

~ end result: a staggering (verb, not adverb) 57 minutes and 49 (every one counts) seconds. perhaps there is some benefit to training with those nut cases on tuesday nights. if nothing else, the fact that they got "elite passes" to the starting line so that i didn't have to faff about with the shuttle was totally worth it.