Another picture of my cat playing with my medals and making it impossible to get a good shot. Even when you win, the medal makes a better cat toy than anything. I wonder what other runners do with theirs?
To recap, I won the half marathon on Saturday, and the full marathon on Sunday. I also won the trail challenge, which is the 39.3 miles, and I was the first person in my age group to run it on these trails. Not that I’m great or anything, just that I am serious about having fun. For me, this is fun.
Honest.
Preparing for the event. Caffeine, hydration, and polished toes.
Ready for the thrill of victory and the agony of de feet.
Ready for the start. I had already done the half marathon the day before, and had won it too. But this is a diff day, and a half marathon is not half a marathon. It’s 13.1 miles, sure, but I consider the first half of a full marathon to be 20 miles. The second half is the last 6.2. It’s a totally diff race.
Running along the bay. The grass was hard—it had holes and very uneven places. If you don’t take care on this section you could need the stretcher and ambulance. I saw one that fell afoul of that.
I’m in the distance in this shot from about mile seven. It had yet to get really hot, but it was getting there.
When I run Disney, there are lots of “furry animals” to see and get your picture with, such as Donald and Daisy. This is just not the same. but at least it’s beautiful.
More St. Patrick’s Day madness. The path is highly crowned in some places, just plain slanted in others, and generally challenging to keep rocks and sand out of your shoes.
Keeping the sand out was not possible. So I made many stops to clean out my shoes. It hurts your time (trail marathons are slower than street marathons for reasons like this), but you better do it or you may kill your feet and not finish at all.
Pigpen=me.
Me, in the distance. The trail is two-way for part of the distance. In the early going, those parts can be bottlenecks. Good thing there is pretty scenery.
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