Team Runner-Up

Western Mass in blue

As I suspected, Blitz Mountain got 2nd place in the team competition at the Chicago Marathon, just as Team VA did in 2009. Despite running as a pack as long as we could, the Western Mass Distance Project put two guys on me and Charlie and had another three guys in before Thomas. Their 6th man beat our 4th, so we didn't really have a shot. All that in spite of this awesome photo of us passing their team. I remember when we passed them too, because I noted that they did NOT have team bibs on their backs but that they had matching uniforms. They must have had another guy ahead of that group though, because I only got passed by one of those matching uniforms at the end of the race. We will probably get grocery bags and baseball caps again as our prize. I'd had this vision of getting the Nike+ GPS watches as our first place prize, but now it doesn't matter. Next time...

Photos are up at MarathonFoto.com now, obviously. And team results are available here.

I'm still proud of our team and very happy to have shared the experience with Jon, Chris, Charlie and Thomas. This was my third marathon with Jon. Our first one we finished together holding hands, our second one he destroyed me over the last 10k, and here I got my revenge. It's also my third marathon with Charlie. Each time he has finished ahead of me, but this time it was by the narrowest of margins. I suppose it's my 4th marathon with Chris, as we and I are the marathon veterans of the group, having no NCAA to hold us back at the end of college. Thomas, running only his second marathon, probably has the biggest learning curve left in the group. He's young and he'll end up running really fast someday in the future.

Me, Thomas, Charlie, Jon, Chris

Great job everyone!