Click here for Part 2 of this weekend...

09/15/2023:

haven't done a Back to Back (B2B) in a while but it's really the way to go in terms of costs and time savings. Let's back up tho a little... We, wife and I, had an opportunity to go to Hawaii. We took it. That had the effect of making my selections for August slim as we were traveling from Saturday and landing back on the following Sunday. Slim pickings and a way to get 2 states equal awesomeness. It also would mean that I'd potentially be really tired but that's irrelvant to me.

I didn't remember that the boy and his girlfriend would be coming at that point as well and that's on me and that didn't make the boss too happy unfortunately. That's a future problem tho.

So, the weekend would be The Nebraska State Fair Marathon on Saturday and the Sioux Falls Mararthon in South Dakota on Sunday. I signed up for both races. I got flights. I got hotels. In terms of flights, I wasn't sure I would make it Sunday night, so I decided to stay an extra night in SD and fly back Monday AM. I could not find a car unfortunately. I was hoping to rent a car in NE and return in SD but nada. Did I mention that it's a 4 hour drive by the way? Yuck!

What to do? What to do? I had an inspiration and decided to look to see which Maniacs were doing the race. As expected, Glen Anderson and Karen Murray Anderson were doing both. I immediatly reached out. Glen answered with a "NO PROBLEM!". Whew... I didn't know how he was gonna score a car but I figured if anyone would be able to do it, it would be him. By the way, he has done this double already 3 times so I wasn't worried. I figured he would also figure out how we would pickup our stuff for Sunday's race as their expo was mandatory and we would NOT be able to make it.

That being said, we went to Hawaii. I still checked in with him to remind him about me etc.

I was truly wondering how he would score a car and this is what he did... They live in Virginia. They flew to Omaha and then drove a little over 2 hours into NE. Turns out they stayed in the same hotel as I did. And they contacted the Sunday race RD and he said it was not a problem to pickup race day after all.

Mikey and Matet decided to do NE as well and it turns out, I was able to get on the same flight as them which was cool. Even better, I sat in front of them on the same plane. He kept asking me details about my flight and I kept avoiding the subject as I wanted to surprise him. I even told him Delta and a little later than them. I'm such a bad guy...

With all that in mind, let's start...

Friday AM, woke up early and walked the dogs with Elizabeth. I then got into an Uber and went to LGA. Surprised Matet and eventually the Starbuck lover himself. Had a good flight to Dallas. No issue. We even had time to eat and I got 2 baked potatoes from Wendys.

I was starving but also wanted to digest as early as possible. The GI Debackle I had a few weeks ago in Minessota really was on my mind.

Got on the next plane and it was small. This annoying woman sat next to me and she kinda spread herself all over. She was a thin woman who took all the hand rest and other things. I was annoyed. I actually put my elbow a little on her and asked her if she was comfortable. She didn't even realize it was an issue and said yes. She wore a wool cap on the plane too. It was weird. Mikey was enjoying all of it. Troublemaker that he is...

Turns out there were a bunch of Nebraska runners on the plane. In front of us, were 2 guys talking to 2 ladies on the other side the aisle about races. In front of them there was a runner who I was sure looked like Bristal who ran the Half Sauer Half Kraut with us, I asked her. She didn't. As a quick aside, Later I found out her name is Nicole but that's for later. Anyway, there were probably 8 of us or more.

Landed and Mikey got the car and we went to packet pickup. It was at a YMCA, made sense as they were the beneficaries of the race, and it was very very quick. The YMCA also provided shower access the next day with a race bib which was nice.

Mikey then drove me to my hotel. He waited too long to look for a hotel and ended up elsewhere. Sucks... Seems like my hotel was nowhere. Still, had the nicest check in person ever. I don't usually rate them etc but I did. She was great. She was also the complete opposite of the horrible check in person I had on Sunday whom I will also rate. I told her I had a problem with my AC and took a photo off it. She immediatly said, "Lets go to your room and fix it...". Wow.

There was a place near the hotel and since the temperature was 107F (you read that right), I asked him to take me there and then to drop me off at the hotel. They got stuff there too. I got some snacks there and some yogurt.

Mikey picked me up Saturday morning and we went back to his hotel to pick up Matet and then to the race. They were actually closer to the race then I was. They paid more and I paid less. Glen/Karen were going to the race way too late for me...

Stomach... My fears it seemed were going to happen. Minnessota once again. Sucks... Little TMI here... I went to the bathroom many times Friday. It wasn't diarahee or anything thankfully but I just constantly needed to go. I didn't mind Friday... Less for Saturday but Saturday AM came and even though I woke up 3 hours earlier, as usual, I was in trouble. Constantly sitting... I would finish and then before even pulling my pants up, I would sit back down. Nightmare city. TMI I know but it kinda sets things up so bear with me.

At race site, I immediatly hit the port-a-potty. More biologics. Took the little blue pill. Found indoor plumbing and went some more. Took another blue pill and wasn't sure what's gonna happen. Keep hoping it will be ok... I have NEVER taken 2 little blue pills. Please let me be ok.

They had free postcards to mail out so I actually filled one out. I'll post a picture. I was very proud of my choice of postcards and what I wrote. I was hoping it would get home either the same day as me or earlier but it turns out it got here a week later. Oh well...

Met a bunch of MMs and 50 staters. Nice people...

Met a dude named Jun. He was supposed to do an Ironman that day in Canada but because of wildfires, he signed up for the B2B instead. He is an interesting guy. He crashed in an IM. Ambulance and all. Hospital for 5 days. Surgery for shoulders, had a collapsed lung and a TBI. TBI...!!! As in Traumatic Brain Injury!!! The Doctor told his wife that he may snap any day and she should just let him do anything he wants so he's happy.

He lives in NE, so Friday night he drove 4 hours to pick up Sandy. She lives in SD and is a fellow 50 stater/MM. By the way, later I found out that she took a 2nd mortgage so that she can complete the 50 states for the second time. Anyway, He slept there for about 2 hours and then they drove to race site Saturday AM for another 4 hours. Jeez.

Race started. Talked to this person and that person and all was good. About 0.5 miles from the start, I recognized Nicole from the plane. I didn't know her name at the time but we started talking and all was well in the world.

We had a lot of common things going on. All in all, it was good except for the threat of a GI storm as always. Always keeping an eye for a port-a-bush. Always checking in with stomach. We were talking. We were cruising. Kept leap frogging with these 2 women. All was good. Turns out that I wasn't the only one who was fearful about a GI Storm. Nicole was also going through something. Her GI system was acting up. I offered a little blue pill but she refused. Cool.

We ran. We talked. We laughed. We checked in with our GI system constantly. We met stacey at one point and leap frogged with her. She was nice. Doing her first half and worried. She did fine.

Mikey and Matet ahead of us and looking strong.

We were almost at mile 11 which is where the half/full split was and Nicole, unfortunatly, reached her limit. At the split, we saw a port-a-pottie on the half side, a little away from us. She HAD to have a sit down if you know what I mean. Yes, I'm aware that females ALWAYS have a sit down, but this was a different sit down and I won't TMI it any further. OK - it is what it is... She went right with the halfers, targeting the prize at the end of the rainbow while I continueed straight. Not too far ahead, what oh what do I see?!? A port-a-pottie. She didn't have to go off course. If only the volunteers knew but it is what it is and that's that.

On I go. I'm alone. Hoping for company. Hoping for Nicole. Hoping for stomach to be ok. I make a turn and suddenly I see the lead male runner with 2 cyclists escorting him. To say, the guy was flying is an understatement. I was shocked. Here I am a little over 11 miles and this guy I later realized was at mile 24-25ish.

I continueed on and I ran into a cop and a female cyclist waiting for the lead female. I said to the cop that he should have given that guy a ticket because he was SPEEDING but the cop didn't get my humor. The cyclist did tho.

So far the race was some small parks and stuff but then we went on the right lane of a highway and then to some desolate road. From there into a VERY richy neighborhood. Real beautiful. They had their own man made lake too. Even though this area was really very pretty and scenic, I must mention that I did not like it. While I did not get lost, it seemed that we were constantly going back and forth and it's probably because we did. We would go straight on some street while runners were going back on that same road while other runners were on a parallel street that we could see (seperated by a grass median) and they were going back and forth too. It was strange. Still, I didn't get lost so that was cool.

I did see a port-a-potty and I needed to pee but I wasn't going to go in there when I could just go behind it. Felt good to pee but when I farted, my GI fears came back but I managed to rein things in still. But I was worried.

I did see 2 signs worth mentioning. They were different than the usual ones so... The first was horrible (yet very funny). Truly inappropriate... It said, "If halfs/fulls were easy, they'd be called your momma". Wrong. Very wrong. Funny. Very funny. A spectator held up that sign. Later, I saw another sign which had nothing to do with the race. It was on someones house and it was great. It read, "Friends are always welcome. Family by appointment only.". Wow!!! Sent these messages to Crazy Gerry as I knew he would appreciate both.

I passed a runner and later she and I would leap frog a little but eventually she was in my rear view. Turns out she was also from New York (upstate) and was doing SD tomorrow as well. A runner I passed, started talking to her and they were happy.

I did eventually see 2nd, 3rd male etc and also lead female with her escorts. She was smiling. Everyone else weren't.

I finally left the neighborhood and back to that long out of nowhere street toward the highway when I hear someone screaming from in back of me, "A NEW YORK!!! HANG ON!!!"

Hm... Did I hear wrong? Turned around and it was Nicole!!! She caught up to me... YAY!!! I had a friend again...

She told me that little trip of hers cost her a 1/4 mile each way but it had to be done...

We continueed on...

Her friend was supposed to meet her but didn't but we eventually did see her which was cool.

Mile 24... Mile 25... This one sucked. The volunteers were gone. We weren't even sure we were going the right way but I asked people and they said yes. Finally finally finally, we saw the finish line and Nicole wanted to sprint and so we did...

Chocolate milk was good. Did I mention that Pepsi was a sponsor? That was good too...

Spoke to Mikey and Matet. They had a good race. Glen and Karen finished and Glen wasn't too too thrilled that Karen beat him. I think he was actually ok with it but she kept rubbing it in. Still, he's a really good guy. Nice guy. Calm guy. Loved that southern drawl.

Moved my stuff from Mikey's car to Glen's car and went to the beer garden. Not my favorite thing but it is what it is. I was worried that Glen would drink but it turns out that the little beer belly he has is actually a pepsi belly so that was good. Spoke to people there and hung out and then we left.

Jun/Sandy drank quite a few beers and hung out for longer than us. We went to the YMCA to shower and then got food from Wendy's and started the long drive.

Glen drove the whole thing straight. I was shocked. Never stopped. There was nothing to see except corn fields. The "highway" was a 1 lane road that had no shoulder and nothing there. Boring... I talked to Elizabeth and napped a little and went on facebook a little and talked to Glen a little and it went just fine.

Last thing worth mentioning. The race had a professional photographer present. He seemed to care more about the 5Kers and the halfers and the fast fulls versus the slower fulls. Therefore, I have no pictures from him. BUT... The highschool photography club was present and they had FREE HIGH QUALITY pictures available and that was great. THANK YOU!!!

By the way, the lead male finished in 2:17:33. The next male came in at 2:41:20. WOW!!!

The rest of this will be in the South Dakota notes...

Click here for Part 2 of this weekend...