It's 2:45 a.m. in Columbus, Ohio on Saturday

... and there's a half marathon in Parkersburg, West Virginia at 8 a.m. Will I make it?

You betcha! After what this day has been like, I'll be dragging ... but I'll be there.

Here's the Cliff Notes version:

Thursday
11:45 p.m. Pacific - Arrive at LAX after work for red-eye flight home.

Friday
1:30 a.m. Pacific - Continental flight from LAX to IAH scheduled to depart.
3:17 a.m. Pacific - Continental flight scheduled to depart upon getting to LAX (because of whether from Tropical Storm Erin in Houston).
9:10 a.m. Central - Continental flight lands.
9:45 a.m. Central - Arrive home in Spring.
12:45 p.m. Central - Lay down to get a little bit of a nap.
3:25 p.m. Central - Leave to go into the office because I can't connect from home. Where's the office? The Galleria.
4:25 p.m. Central - Arrive in the parking garage at the Galleria.
4:50 p.m. Central - Pulling out of the parking garage after going in, connecting (checking for a deliverable to review), and going back to the truck.
5:30 p.m. Central - Have gone across I-10 to I-45, got off Crosstimbers, over to Irvington and up to Interstate 610. Call Bill Dwyer and tell him of the crazy turn of events.
5:32 p.m. Central - Hit the Hardy Toll Road. Should be able to get to the garage by 6:00 p.m. at IAH for a ... 6:45 p.m. flight. (Yeah, I've done this before.)
5:40 p.m. Central - Just shy of the Aldine Bender exit and begin seeing break lights. Call Waverly and talk to her to keep from getting stressed out.
5:55 p.m. Central - In the garage, level 3, and parked in a different spot. (Need to remember that for Sunday afternoon.)
6:05 p.m. Central - Have checked in and gotten through security, even though I just learned that the flight wouldn't leave until 7:51 p.m.
6:40 p.m. Central - After eating dinner, I learn that the flight has been pushed back to 8:31 p.m.
8:03 p.m. Central - Begin making my way to the gate after sitting in one of the shoe shine stand chairs in between the two sides of terminal C.
8:45 p.m. Central - The flight to Philadelphia finally pushes away the gate.
9:15 p.m. Central - We begin to board for Columbus. (Passengers getting off the plane told us that a normal one-hour flight from Tulsa turned into four for them.) Called my grandparents in Pennsylvania from seat 14A, exit row. (Yeah, the seat where I could stretch my legs out.)
9:50 p.m. Central - Begin to push away from the gate.
9:55 p.m. Central - Just before the pilot gets the engines going to move away from the gate after being turned around, he informs us that the load planners in the 14th floor of a building in downtown Houston had to evacuate because of a fire.
10:05 p.m. Central - We're out on the runway in a off-the-beaten path queueing area.
10:25 p.m. Central - Wheels are leaving the ground. He tells us that it will be 2 hours, 10 minutes. Start my watch.

Saturday
1:35 a.m. Eastern - I'll be darned. 2:09:42. No, that's not my predicted time for later this morning either. That's 16 seconds faster than my PR in Oregon in March 2006.
2:00 a.m. Eastern - Go straight to the Hertz counter to make sure that they were still open like they said they would be when I called. (Had already planned to sleep there until they opened at 5 a.m., if they weren't.)
2:15 a.m. Eastern - Got my bag, got my car (after bypassing one person in line because of my Gold status and calling ahead) and am out on the road heading to the hotel.
2:30 a.m. Eastern - Check in at the Towne Place Suites in Gahanna, a suburb. No Kool Aid to be found here.
3:00 a.m. Eastern - Signing off from this post.
4:30 a.m. Eastern - Wake-up call.
4:45 a.m. Eastern - Showered, dressed and out the door.

My wild and crazy life! Although, it is a little cool out. Let's hope it stays that way for a little while. It will be a welcomed departure from the last two years at the News and Sentinel Half Marathon - the RRCA Half Marathon Championship.

And for your reading enjoyment over coffee on Saturday morning, here's what happened to me - in an e-mail to friends and family earlier in the day - between 10:00 p.m. Pacific time and getting to LAX last evening:

Here's one of those travel stories that you would have to have been there to believe. This was last night, Thursday, August 16th.

I'm working at a client in Pasadena, California. The hotel is right across the street from the office (and less than two miles from the Rose Bowl.) Therefore, I don't rent a car. We'll take a car service to and from LAX.

Since I had a red-eye flight home at 1:30 a.m., I left the office at 10 p.m., walked across the street to get the bag that I had checked with them so I could change out of my suit before the car came and got me at 10:45 p.m.

After giving the bellhop my claim check, a problem developed a minute or two later. They didn't have a key to the room. A few short minutes revealed that someone had locked the key inside the room accidentally and they couldn't locate the right spare.

This is where the fun started to occur.

In my suitcase was my running gear, including my two current pair of running shoes. I am flying this evening to Columbus, Ohio to run a half marathon in Parkersburg. Therefore, what was in there was important plus I wanted to be able to wash my clothes at home for the next week. (Speaking of which I need to go and start.)

The manager on duty asked if they could FedEx my bag. I told her that it wasn't an option. I needed it before I took off at 6:45 p.m. Friday evening.

At 10:35 p.m., the driver showed up. I informed her that he had 10 more minutes and that I only had him for an hour to get me to LAX. I spoke to him, let him know what was transpiring and we enjoyed a bit of a chuckle.

They tried calling everyone and nobody was answering. I had called Continental to see when their next flights were in the morning. They had three. The latest leaving at 9 a.m. and getting here at about 2:20 p.m.

Granted, I wouldn't have been happy to go out and get it, but I was willing to work a little bit.

They were willing to pay for my car service, which would have left, and then arrange to take me to LAX if they could just get another hour to get somebody there (which wasn't even a guarantee). I said that that wasn't acceptable because I had planned accordingly to get to the airport without having any delays.

As she was speaking with her Operations Manager, I even offered a third alternative. I said, "Let the bag in there. I'll be a set of running gear, bring you back the receipt and you do my cleaning - a suit, four shirts and underwear and I guess it will all be less than $200."

The Operations Manager didn't want to do either of my two options, but wanted me to do his. Aren't I the one that is troubled in this situation? Shouldn't I be appeased to adequately remedy the problem?

So ... what was their next move? A crowbar. Yes indeed, a crowbar.

This nice, newly remodeled Marriott Courtyard taking a crowbar to a door just off the main lobby area. It was an interesting scene to say the least that was witnessed by more than a few guests.

The first two or three workers to take a stab at it messed the lock up pretty good, but were scraping up the varnish pretty well too. After they didn't seem to be getting anywhere, another employee, who might have had some experience at this in a prior life, started to take the crowbar and jam it straight in.

In less than five minutes, well, I had my bag.

The manager felt bad. I told her none of it was personal. Things happen. It is just how do you respond to them when they do.

Everyone had a good laugh, except maybe for the employee who locked them inside the room whenever they found out who did it. I told them that I'd see them all on Monday.

The kicker to the whole story though? When I got to LAX, the 1:30 a.m. departure had been delayed to 3:17 a.m. (Never saw anybody get off the plane from the gate. Therefore, the crew must have timed out. I never asked. By the time I got on the plane, I don't ever remember the plane moving until we were somewhere between LAX and here.)