The Adventures of Chuck, Part 2

If you haven't read The Adventures of Chuck, Part 1 then click here.

We left off at the end of "Part 1" with Chuck enjoying the sites of San Francisco, including Alcatraz which he thought was cool yet creepy. Not a good place for a chicken to be locked up, he figured. That was Friday night and part 1 of the trip. Now for "Part 2"...

Chuck was having a great time in San Francisco hanging out with the team. He had a place to sleep in our room and he was rested up for the fun we had on Saturday. The team went to pick up their packets at the expo. As you can see from the picture below Chuck was stylin' in his shades.



Some of us went to lunch at this little deli on the corner. We were surprised to learn that chickens are cannibals - Chuck had the chicken salad. After lunch we sat in the deli watching the people walk by. Below is a picture from outside the deli of Chuck with his friends Mike and Becca.



Sunday was the marathon. Julie and I weren't sure if we were going to see Chuck out there on the course - he's kind of a small guy. There were some 23,000 marathoners and only 900 of them were men. I think Chuck might have been the only chicken running that day but we still weren't sure we'd see him.

We got lucky though. Just before mile 7 Julie and I were standing by the side of the road cheering everyone on when we saw Chuck coming up the hill. As he went by he had a surprised look on his face (pretty much his signature look) since he wasn't expecting to see us at that point. Below is the picture I took as he ran by. He looked really good at this point. I think the can of broth he had right before the race really helped.


Things weren't going so well for Chuck the second time we saw him. It was around mile 22 and Julie and I had just gotten out of the car and made it over to the course when we saw Chuck in peril! We ran up to him just in time - a young Colonel Sanders had his hands on Chuck and was trying to force Chuck into his KFC bucket! Luckily we were able to free Chuck from this sinister fried chicken fiend and get Chuck back out on the course. Below is a picture of the situation when we got there - keep your eyes open for that KFC scoundrel. No chicken is safe!


Chuck was now on his way with about 4 miles left in the marathon. He was understandably shaken up after the incident but I also think it motivated him to get his tail feathers in gear.

Between mile 25 and 26 things took a turn for the worse. We had told him that he should drink another can of broth at mile 13 to help keep his meat from drying out but since he was feeling fine he decided to skip it.

That proved to be a critical mistake and coach Mike ended up having to help Chuck over the finish line. If you look closely you can see Chuck right "behind" Coach Mike and the two of them crossed the finish line at 6 hours and 49 minutes.


While it was a personal record for Chuck he felt bad that he needed assistance to cross the finish line. We tried to tell him that he did a great job and should be proud of himself. After all, only 1 in 20 million chickens ever complete a marathon. But that seemed to be of little consolation to Chuck.

Little did we know how much Chuck would let loose at the Victory Party and at the bar afterwards. You'll get the scoop on that in the Adventures of Chuck, Part 3, coming soon to a blog near you. Check your local listings... you won't want to miss it.