A little run, just for fun

Our latest Brussels adventure was the annual Brussels Marathon. I heard about it about a week after we got into town and decided then and there that I was going to run it. Okay, so I never decided to run the marathon, I decided to run the half. In my opinion, a half-marathon is the perfect length for a challenging run. It's long enough that you feel it afterward, but not so long that you seriously injure yourself. It's all the fun of a marathon with only half the pain. Speaking of pain, I was a bit worried going into the run because my proposed training plan (downloaded off Runners' World.com, it called for a number of 7 plus mile runs) differed substantially from my actual training (Oktoberfest, beers in Brussels, multiple grande portions of french fries, one run over the course of the preceding 3 weeks). What the heck, I'm not that old yet, right? Hmmm....

The weather in Brussels had been absolutely amazing the week leading up to the race, and the day of the race turned out to be a repeat performance; 60 degrees and sunny with nary a could in the sky. At the bus stop I met a German guy wearing a "San Diego Lifeguard" shirt and he invited me to run with him and his Austrian buddy. They were great guys and we had a blast throughout, mostly making fun of the goofy costumes and the guy with a seriously inappropriate soccer jersey. The course was absolutely awesome; it basically made a loop through the city hitting all the tourist attractions and had plenty of gatorade and water stops. Jen met us where the course went near our house and snapped a few pics. I look really energetic, but don't be fooled, that was right around mile 2.5. Good little fall run.