It was a beautiful weekend with temps that started out in the upper 30's, eventually making its way up to a sunny 60, perfect running weather (for me anyway).
We arrived at Lexington Park, MD early Saturday morning and spent the forenoon hiking 1-3/4 miles to a small beach that's known for fossils and sharks' teeth; it was a lot of fun and very relaxing. We checked into our hotel, and then picked up my race packet in the afternoon. After crashing for a couple hours, (we drove straight through on Friday night), I woke up with a splitting headache (not exactly a condition that makes you feel like running 26.2 miles).
The race: Sunday morning (after a good long nights sleep) I felt much better and ready to go. The race was pretty small with only 200 runners, which makes it the smallest marathon I've run so far (Hatfield-McCoy was around 350 with the half-marathon runners).
The 1st part of the course was pretty nice, it crossed over a bridge onto St. Georges Island which has the Potomac River on the west and the Chesapeake Bay on the left, so it was very scenic. The last half was pretty boring, just a run out and back along a state route with nothing much to look at. The good news was that I didn't have any cramps (I decided it must have been because of having dinner at Chipolte the night before!).
Spiderman won the marathon! A world record was set at this small marathon for the fastest marathon run by someone in a superhero costume, and it was set Michael Wardian, who it turns out is quite a runner, having won quite a number of marathons.
The race started and ended at the Harry Lundeberg School of Seamanship, and after the race we had a nice, hot pasta meal, as well as hot showers awaiting us. This is one the best perks any marathon can have, especially when you have an 8-9 hour drive ahead of you to get home. We headed home and were back by 11:00 or so.
That was a fun marathon (from the perspective of a spectator). Beautiful sunrise over the water, terrific weather, very friendly crowds that I chatted with quite a bit :) Also, a highlight was finding out that I had been talking to and hanging out with Michael Wardian's dad for the first part of the race. He is a very nice man, and never let on who he was . . . until later :) I also learned how to be a better fan - a man who was cheering his wife on came with his two little girls and they got out pom-poms, clappy hands, horns - you name it - then jammed the Rocky theme song from their car as they cheered everyone on. What fun!!!! We were dancing with them, honking . . . you name it - great fun!
ReplyDeleteVictoria :)