1. More than once you have finished a race only to find an abandoned finish line and your significant other holding your finisher’s medal which they obtained by promising a blood oath to return if you didn’t make it.
2. After an entire year of training, you finish your first marathon. A friend asks if you beat Oprah Winfrey’s 4:29 finishing time (AKA the Oprah Line). You say yes hoping he won’t look it up. When he asks which marathon you reply Le Marathon du Medoc. Figuring you can claim the wine tasting, oysters, foie gras, cheese and ice cream slowed you down.
The 10 Strangest Marathons according to The Telegraph
3. You and one of your mountain biking buddies are doing the nine-mile Horse Pasture Road climb. Midway through she can tell that you are struggling and says “I’ll see you at the top.” When you get to the top she is surrounded by sheriff’s deputies and EMTs describing what you were wearing when she saw you last.
4. The day you set your 50K trail PR was somewhat marred by several people mistaking you for a hiker and asking you to take photos of them.
5. You have had to shoo people away from your transition spot in T2 who were standing around idly chatting about their favorite barbeque joints because they thought everyone had already finished.
6. John Bingham, author of No Need for Speed: A Beginner’s Guide to the Joy of Running asked you to write the forward to his new book: Just Tell Them You Got Lost.
Amazon Link to Bingham’s Funny and Touching Book
7. You made a trip out to the Rocky Mountains with some of your trail running friends. When you arrived they gave you a bandolier of pepper mace and a t-shirt that read “bear sweeper.”
Jennifer Stahl’s beautiful article: A Slow Runner’s Lament from Runner’s World
Pick a number! Which one is your favorite or sounds like you?
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Suggest topics for future 7 Signs posts.
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