The First Half-Marathon (With an Interesting Introduction!)

Today I ran my first half-marathon, the first annual Brian Mikelson Memorial Half Marathon in Cottonwood, Arizona. It was a small-town event, tons of fun, absolutely wonderful views with about 1/4 of the event on some pretty rough trails. Good thing I have strong ankles! My time was 1:57:47. Not bad. The food at the end was a lot like a country picnic, and they had a fairly decent country band. At about the half-way point, they had a little high school aged band doing Beatles songs. They were horrible! They were singing "Help!" as I ran by, and boy, did they need help.

One of the most interesting--and strangely ironic--things that happened during the event was the introduction. Just before the starting gun for the half marathon, while we were in the starting chute, stretching, jumping around, trying to stay loose, an event announcer took the microphone and said that he wanted all of us to know who Brian Mikelson was, and that his widow and son were there today. Brian Mikelson had been the city's parks and recreation head and had done a lot to improve the area parks and recreation facilities. Very impressive, so far, so good. Then the revelation: Mr. Mikelson had died--sudden heart attack--training for a half marathon--followed by the announcement: Runners, get ready....