The Shamrock Sportsfest was this weekend. There was an 8K, 1/2 Marathon, and a full Marathon. The expo was a fairly good size. Pete and I volunteered at the expo Friday night scanning timing chips. I have to say, we had so much fun. It was so great to meet all these runners and feel the energy. Some were too cool to be excited, others were bubbling over with nerves. I have always loved packet pick-up. For me, it is exciting; it is when I appreciate the training and hard days. I love being around a bunch of other crazy people like me. And yet, I love how different we all are. Experience levels are different, as well as, expectations and even body styles. But, we are all in this thing together now and the adrenaline is pumping. Anyway, I also love the volunteers that work expos. So this time, I got my chance to tell everyone good luck or to have a great race or your going to do fabulous. I would love to work an expo again, even if I can't run.

So, yesterday was the marathon. Let me start by saying that the weather was tough. Although I have seen worse, it was certainly a challenge. We checked weather forecasts constantly for days hoping it would change. No rain, but the night before we had gale warnings. Great! It turned out to be mid-40's with lots of wind with gusts up to 25mph. My plan was to stay with the 3:30 pacer group, but I ended up leaving them at mile 5. With the wind, I felt they were running too conservatively. Wind is fatiguing and I wanted a bit of time in the bank for later. They were also a bit inconsistent with pace and that drives my crazy. I tend to settle in and stay there. Finally, they had a very large group and I hate running in a crowd. I had hoped to be able to do some drafting when the wind got bad, but I was way too claustrophobic.

My goal was to run 7:50 miles. To run a 3:30 is an 8 minute flat pace, but it doesn't give you any room for water breaks, really bad mind thoughts at mile 18 or 25mph wind gusts. I did great for the first half and was under time. The second half was really tough. There was a long stretch out to Ft Story starting at mile 17 that was horrible. It was a long slow incline, no spectators (did I mention that the weather sucked), and by this time people get really quiet. I ran with a young sailor who was doing his first marathon and this is the point that he started complaining about the monkey on his back. I told him he was not only trained, but authorized to kill the damn thing. I made it to mile 16 before my neuroma started hurting, so I had my own monkey. We talked each other through. At this point, what are you going to do? Walking only means you are in the weather longer. Unfortunately, his monkey got the better of him at mile 20 and he had to drop his pace.

Mile 22 and on, I just hurt like hell. My hips hurt, my feet were screaming, my lower back was aching. Thankfully, we had more spectators as we got closer to the finish. There really should be a training meeting for spectators, or at least a handout of what not to say to a runner. The first rule, do not tell runners they are almost there at mile 22.

The finish was very emotional. I was completely spent and I knew I would make my goal. Here are my stats:

Time - 3:28:54
Boston Qualified
6th Masters Woman Overall
1st in Age Group
2nd Mixed Team
You may remember that we joined a team that was started as a memorial/scholarship for a Seal that was killed in Afghanistan. You can have as many people on your team as you want, but they take the top 3 times and at least one has to be female. I was the fastest female on our team, so I am one of the three team members that placed our team 2nd. This is really cool because this team was never put together for the purpose of competition. It was a way to celebrate an athlete's life by his widow. How cool that we placed?

They didn't have an awards ceremony, which was great because I just wanted to go home and get warm. They will mail my awards this week. I am a bit sore today, but not bad at all. I have more to add to my story, but I have already gone long so I will tell you later. By the way, Pete did great! He was strong through the whole thing. We met up in the beer tent and he walked in like no big deal, as opposed to the gimping that I was doing. His time was 4:26.