Thunder Road Marathon
Charlotte, NC
Saturday, December 9, 2006

Before the Start

We started the race weekend off on Thursday night with a runners' dinner at Bertucci's.
Special guests were Karen Bingham (world traveling runner and mentor to
so many of us and to other runners across the land) and Lucas (Ron and
Wendy's grandson who is on a training plan for NYCM2024).
Seated, L to R: Kim, Wendy, Ron, Lucas (under the blanket), Bree, Greg, Josh.
Standing, L to R: Colleen, Shannon, Scott, Jeff, Karen.

Lucas wasn't paying much attention to the runners' strategy discussions

Yep, it was a crisp morning. This is the reading on the thermometer just before we left the house at 0645

Santa Claus found his reindeer! These ladies were with Girls on the Run,
a great organization that brought a large contingent to the 5K.

Josh was pacing the 3:30 group. It's nice to know fast people...

Karen came out from her expo booth to cheer us on and also run the
Reindeer Romp 5K. Wendy is our #1 World's Best Scream Teamer.

Karen with Marilyn and David, friends who are members of the Nashville
Striders in Tennessee.

It had warmed up to 20 degrees by the time the gun sounded.

There go the REALLY fast guys. Note that most of them have a yellow stripe
above their number, which designates half-marathoners. The yellow arrow
points to Birhanu Wukaw (#10), who went on to win the marathon with a time
of 2:24:20, TWELVE minutes ahead of the second place finisher. His
time also set a new course record, breaking last year's 2:31:42.

And we're off! Chuck (blue shirt on right) first talked Ron (#486) into this
marathon foolishness 10 years ago for NYCM96. This was their first chance
to run a complete marathon together since Jersey Shore in April 2001.

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