13.1 down and 13.1 to go....

First, let me begin my post by thanking the cowbellicious Team Caliente Pantalones cheering squad! HP01 worked that cowbell. HP02 stayed focused on her cheering duties and left the heroes alone in key race moments and HP04, for someone with asthma you sure can yell. Thanks also go to DK for his guest HPCheer appearance and for the quick digi photos.

(In the above photo, the red arrows point out HP03's exceptionally badass leg muscles and are red for "hot-t." While the blue arrows point out how dorky distance runners are and represent what is not even "hot-single-t." Sorry 494, but me thinks you should consider the mankini.)

If you heard my post from Saturday morning you know that I got off to a rough start with the 5:30 am wake up call. (Speaking of wakeup calls, HP03's BF got no less than three drunk dials from west coast college buddies.) After the initial bumbling about and searching for missing bagels HP03 got herself together and is annoyed that she is becoming quite the little morning person, as TRI-mates 01 and 02 can attest to. A late start at home and long bathroom lines led to a slightly late start at the race, HP03 approached the start line only to have her manfriend realize he'd forgotten his bib number, but that's the great thing about chip timing, you can basically start whenever you want.

Ladies, this course was a bitch. I don't know who's genius idea it was to put Marines in charge of mapping out courses, but those kids are totally Semper-Fit. At least half of the course was uphill and half of those hills were complete ass burners. Hills are usually ok, but HP03 has been struggling with an injured left hip flexor, a key ingredient to effective hill climbing. Race highlights include: 1. hills, hills, hills 2. cowbell, cowbell, cowbell 3. Stellar sing along by SB to Aretha Franklin's R-e-s-p-e-c-t (HP03's official "hill" song) 4.random runner with seriously nasty body odor 5. Serious old man (generals/retired) Marines out for their morning run yelling "encouraging" drill sergeant themed snippets on their way by "Let's go boy, why aren't you at the front!" 6. SB's mock run impression of the dude with wildly ill-proportioned body and gigantic shoulders 7. final stretch race with SB, in which HP03 held a commanding lead and then lost miserably by a solid 100m 8. Save the best for last, Team Caliente Pantalones cheering squad! Seriously ladies (and DK), it helped so much to have y'all there. Every time I came around a corner I picked it up a little bit to look tough just in case y'all were there!

The chip times have not been posted yet. I think we came in around 1:55:something, but I'll get back to y'all on that one with pace details etc.