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Tomorrow is the Rock n' Roll half marathon, and I don't feel all that good.  I was feeling queasy last night, and today, I felt even worse.  I was awakened at about 1:45 by the panic that I missed the alarm.  Stayed awake until about three, my stomach roiling.  Then, the alarm went off, and it was really go time.  I had to get into the station and anchor the morning show.  I went into the bathroom and dry heaved for about five minutes.  I crawled back into bed, cell phone in hand, ready to make the sick call.  I decided to nut it up and go in.  I made it in about 4:10.  

When I get in,  I read over as much of the copy that's written as I can.  Today, a huge portion of it, as you can imagine, was devoted to Michael Jackson's death. 



We had legal analyst Anne Bremner on the show today, and she made several interesting points.  First, who gets his kids? Debbie Rowe has made a claim to them, but there will be a fight.  Were prescription drugs a factor?  A family lawyer says he has long been concerned about Michael's use of prescription drugs, which he reportedly first began taking regularly after that historic "hair on fire" incident while shooting that Pepsi commericial in 1984.  This afternoon, police were looking for a doctor who lived in Jackson's house and may have treated the singer shortly before his death.  Doesn't this sound just like Elvis?

He was 50.  He was working out hard to get ready for this big 30-show extravaganza in London.  He was $400 million in debt.  He was under tremendous stress. 

In the four-hour broadcast this morning, we probably did a full hour's worth  of coverage on Michael Jackson.  We only mentioned Farrah Fawcett once an hour.  It's hard to compete with MJ.  He's the most famous/ infamous celebrity in the world.



Michael Jackson was a brilliant performer, and one of very few that truly transcended race.  He brought soul to the masses on a scale that has never been seen.  You don't sell 700 million units without extraordinary global appeal.  His music and his performances completely changed the face of Pop.  I never in my life thought that "Pretty Young Thing" could bring tears to my eyes, but when the crowd that was gathered at the Apollo Theatre started busting it out-- belting it out at the top of their lungs-- it was deeply moving.  



So, it was an emotional morning, and an exhausting one.  I was really dragging, but I got through it, and folks seemed to think I pulled it off, so there.  I was supposed to go to the Rock n' Roll Marathon expo and hang out at the Q13 Booth for a while, but I was wiped out and needed to get back home and go back to sleep!  And that's precisely what I did.  

The marathon starts very early.  7am, in Southcenter, which is a good 20-minute drive from our house.  I guess we're gonna be running down 99 for part of the race.  I hope some folks along the course come out and cheer us on.  That makes it so much better. Catherine is picking up our numbers and stuff, and is parking her car near Qwest Field tonight.   I'll drive us to the starting line at Southcenter in the morning.  After the race, we'll take her car back to Southcenter and pick up the other car.  What a hassle!

I think we'll get up at 5:15 or so.  Catherine is going to be wearing a pink "Team Wixey" shirt, with "Team Building Exercise 2009" on the front.  I'll be wearing a blue "Team KCPQ"  T-shirt.  Brian Callanan is running the whole marathon tomorrow, but says that he would like to run part of it with me.  That would be cool. 

I am not going to be running very hard.  I'm going to take it nice and easy.  If I finish in under 2 hours, I would be astonished.  But strange and wonderful things happen on race day!  Wish me luck!