Is That Auspicious or Inauspicious?

I can never quite recall that if you start off poorly, is it an auspicious or inauspicious start. So, I pretty much avoid that word. Too much risk of inadvertently making up a whole new word.

My first marathon...sucked. Maybe it was because I ran it in Pittsburgh. Bad karma. Should have known better.

Having been born in West Virginia, and being a graduate of WVU, Pittsburgh was enemy territory. Loved the Cincinnati Reds; hated the Pittsburgh Pirates. "We Are Family." Ugh, vomit.

The Pitt Panthers...also hated them. I remember one football game where WVU was up 28-0, and then Pitt came back to win it. Definitely not nice.

I was in Pittsburgh on September 11, 2001. That's not a strike against Pittsburgh. I just happened to be on a consulting assignment for the Heinz company at the time. I'd actually come to like Pittsburgh quite a bit by then. I have many memories of 9/11: the confusion, calling my sister in Arizona and waking her with the news, going to give blood, being told to evacuate the city by a security guard straight out of Reno 911, but having no idea how to evacuate. I was still in Pittsburgh when Alan Jackson first played his eloquent 9/11 tribute on TV, and I remember bawling when I heard it. It was all very sad.

The Pittsburgh Steelers have always been an exception to my bias against Pittsburgh. Together with the Green Bay Packers, the Steelers have always been my football team.

Anyway, I ran my first ever marathon in Pittsburgh in 1990. It really wasn't that bad. I'm sure I finished in the top half. I recall that the first part of the race was uphill, then it leveled out and gradually went downhill, both literally and figuratively for me. There were a number of bands along the route.

I hadn't trained adequately. I think my longest training run was 18 miles. Not coincidentally, I ran the first 18 or so miles of the marathon in a decent time, then faded fast. My calves cramped up, and I limped to the finish in something like 4 hours and 17 minutes.

It's not so much the time that was disappointing. I recognize that at 4:17 I'm doing something that 95% of Americans (and 2% of Kenyans) can't do. What was disappointing was the lack of preparation, and the poor finish.

It would get better after this first one. Then worse. Then better.