Marathon #3

Well I successfully completed Marathon #3 Saturday. It was quite an adventure. With a weather forcast of 30% chance of T-storms we didn't get so lucky. It was hail and brimstone. It started raining at about mile 3 and didn't let up until mile 18 or 19. It rained and hailed with lighning and thunder and was miserably cold. It was definitely a challenge for all 800 runners who dared run. It was a feat only the strong would survive. And near as I could tell the whole lot of marathoner's who should survived. Now I'm fairly new to the sport of marathoning, these people are a different breed of folks, for sure. For someone to want to runf 26.2 miles in just about any condidtion is insane but these people sign up time and time again to run and endure the self inflicted physical torture one must endure to cross the finish line. But in the end, what a feeling of accomplishment. My calves and thighs burn by mile 20 so one must dig deep inside to find the personal fortitude to cross that line. It's a most gratifying feeling when you cross with all the spectators, family members there to cheer and greet the pain staked runner's. So since January I've completed 3 marathon's and plan to complete at least 4 or 5 more before the end of this year. I know, it's friggin nuts but it's great even the risidual muscle soreness the few days after. But you saddle back up and prepare for the next one. I made a PR (personal record) during this run considering the weather lowering my time to 3:56:15.5, beating my Salt Lake Marathon time by seven minutes. You say only seven minutes, well in those last seven minutes a lot of things could happen. So, I'll take the sub 4 hour time and run with it, so to speak. Now the goal is to lower it again and again eventually gettiing time for the a qualifying time for the Boston Marathon somewhere in the neighborhood for 3:20:00. We'll see. Baby steps. One race at a time. So here's the plan. June is I've scheduled the Park City marathon, July the Deseret News, August On Top Of Utah Marathon, then we'll see for the rest of the year due to no more races being available in Utah to run. So we'll have to look out of state to compete or take a stab at Ultra-Marathoning which is an entirely different breed. These people run 50K to 50 miles to 100 milers. Yeah they are really crazy but more on that after I do my first. I haven't yet scheduled one but I may get one in before the end of the year. It's great fun for the family. This particular marathon offered a 1 mile run for kids. My 10 year old has been wanting to run ever since she knew 'Dad' was running. So we enrolled her in and she did great. I was so proud she finished and she was proud she finished. She placed 25th or so in the race and got a finishers medal to boot. Kudos to the reace organizers getting the kids involved in this run. It was fun had by all I;m sure. I think she'll stay with it and her next goal is to run a 5K (3.1) miles. I think it's great, this day and age to get them involved. I suppose there's worse things kids these days are in to. So more later from this realm of mine.... OUT 1/*