Sometimes you just do your best – SLO Marathon Photos

Friend of Fansmanship, Matt Jones, gets ready to kick into the last two miles of the half-marathon on Sunday. By Owen Main

Sometimes, your best isn’t really your best.

Last night, I had my alarm set for 5:15 AM. I had it all planned-out. First, I’d get downtown and take photos of the two huge groups of runners as they streamed through downtown. In front of the Fremont Theater. Under the railroad bridge on Johnson Ave. and back over the pedestrian bridge by the train station.

I had the saddle bags on my bicycle packed, camera batteries charged. It was going to be a great morning. I went to sleep about 9:30.

“Wasn’t your alarm supposed to go off at 5:15?” my wife asked. It was 6:30, and my plans were out the window.

If I had been a runner, it’d have been Seinfeld-esque

I know the issue wasn’t “snooze” or “AM/PM.” Pending a few tests, my bet is also on “volume.”

Anyway, when it came to the marathon, I didn’t go to the finish line, and I didn’t try to get downtown during the day, which helped me avoid a disaster like the great Fosters Freeze blockade of 2013. There were a few frustrated drivers I saw downtown, but none of them were me.

I set-up shop on the west side of the pedestrian bridge over the railroad tracks. I got some decent shots of the first few guys that came through, some shots of people I knew who were running, and watched in awe as an increasingly large mass of humanity jogged past me with varying levels of suffering evident in their eyes.

In a lot of ways, it was inspiring to watch people who had absolutely put in time and painstaking training to get to the point they were at. For a minute, I talked to a friend about what it would be like to train and do it next year.

I brushed that thought out of my head pretty quickly, got on my bike, and headed home.

Photos by Owen Main