One more marathon down!

I decided to keep my marathoning sort of quiet this time, thankfully. I did tell a few people, but this time I didn't have any expectations because of the forecast. It was supposed to be hot, and boy, the forecast was right! It was just under 70 when the Stillwater Marathon started on May 30th and it quickly got up to over 80. It didn't get much over 80, but when you're running in the sun, it's humid, and it's over 70, it's extremely difficult for me to run, let alone run well.

Stillwater is a beautiful town so I thought the marathon would be scenic as they advertised, with lots of crowd support. If you count running on country roads, black aspault most of the time to be exact, in the middle of nowhere, as scenic, then this is the marathon for you. But it was a far cry from the fun that Lincoln was. Sioux City was more interesting than this one. There's only so long I want to look at a vacant road or trail along a golf course with people telling me that it's all downhill for the next few miles, only to find a nice big hill coming as I turn the corner. JERK!

Anyway, the heat got to me as soon as I turned at mile 6 and we started running with the small breeze. As I said before, I do not appreciate running in warm weather, I don't like it, and I don't feel well when I do it. So after mile 7, I ended up walking some, mostly to prevent me from barfing up the Powerade I had just drank. Considering I was keeping a good pace, about 8:15 per mile for the first 7 miles, I was satisfied, but I knew I couldn't keep up any pace near that. Little did I know that I would end up running a 11 minute mile pace marathon, which did seem like a marathon to me! Almost five hours after starting the race, I crossed the finish line along the St. Croix River in Stillwater, not far from where we started. I belive my time was 4 hours 47 minutes from crossing the start line. It was a hard effort, probably the most difficult run I've ever completed as I walked and drank and walked more and drank more and jogged in between. I've never seen so many other runners walking so I didn't feel so wimpy! Anyway, I am considering another marathon, but think I'm going to hang up my long distance shoes for now (that being anything over 14 miles!) and work on some speed races. Maybe I'll see how fast I can run a 5k without throwing up~can I get it to 22 minutes???? We'll see! It's all fun and I do look forward to the next race...maybe I'll even drag my wonderful supporting hubby along with me!