Melt down

My entire body hurts.

I felt great for the first half of the marathon, started out nice and easy, settled into a good pace, and then mid-way through the temperature rose to 86 degrees and the sun came out in full force and at times I just wanted to stop and jump into the ocean alongside which I was running. The course was quite stunning as you run by all of the major beaches in Rio, the latter of which (Ipanema and Copacabana) were swarming with Sunday beach goers, joggers, Rollerbladers, and dog walkers. While I am glad that I ran the race, I will say that it was the most brutal (and slowest) that I have completed, to date.

Afterwards, Dave and I spent a lovely evening at the Copacabana Palace which is often touted as the nicest hotel in Rio. The room was beautiful and you really did feel like you were staying in a palace. The pool was also a much appreciated respite for a post-race soak.

Above are some photos. The one of Dave and me was taken pre-race. "Amazon man" as we have dubbed him, ran the entire race barefoot and in his grass skirt, noise-maker in hand, and finished, I'm told, well before I did. The man in his leopard print outfit caught my attention when I saw him along the way, and Dave noticed him as well and decided to take a photo. Lastly, me and my many men. Dave got a good action shot of all of us running together and the latter is taken at the finish. The guy in blue is the Rio-based runner (a beach life guard, we learned) who ran the entire race with me and afterwards - as I was limping around - said good bye and walked away as though he had just jogged a quick 3-miler or so. The other two are my faithful shadows, the Moustache and Flat-top (who is no longer thanks to a recent head shave), who both joined in a mile or so after the half-way point and finished the race with me.