Fortunately, David is a wise man and probably realized that I was foolish enough to attempt it with or without his blessing so he'd better get on board and try to minimize the damage that I might inflict on myself; thus, undoing all the careful and cautious post-injury running babysteps we've taken together over the past year and a half.
His one caveat to agreeing to this last minute marathon was that I would scrap my plan to do the Fragrance Lake Half Marathon three weeks before it. To which I relied, "um, nope, I think I'll still do that one too." (Race report here.) Good lord, who knew I was so difficult?? (Lord to Stacey: EVERYONE knew! Your husband, parents, brother, friends, colleagues, neighbours, even the freakin' mailman had his suspicions and he's only been on the job a week.)
So long story short, I did the marathon and it was AWESOME! I won't bore you with all the details of what I ate the night before or how many trips I took to the porta potty race morning, but I will say that I had as perfect a race as I could have hoped for.
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| Nearing the turnaround at mile 2.5. |
Being an old rail bed, the mostly downhill course was fast and slightly more forgiving than asphalt as the surface was comprised of dirt and gravel. There was a very cool 2.4 mile tunnel that we ran through requiring flashlights because it was so dark inside. Race day temperatures where mild and calm and, thanks to all the aid stations, I didn't have to carry anything for hydration, which was nice for a change.
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| One of several trestle bridges we crossed. |
Like I said, it was a good day. The race was well organized and everything went smoothly, yet I still missed my long sought after goal of a sub-3 hour marathon by four minutes and 57 seconds. Sigh...I guess that means I'm going to have to do another one of these damn things!? (Full results here.) Instead of dwelling on what I didn't achieve, I'm going to celebrate the fact that I won the women's race and got a marathon personal best time by over two minutes. That, my friends, deserves a woo hoo! And also a round (or two) of beers. ;)
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| I have no plans to go to Boston, but it's nice to have qualified! |
There's a very good chance this won't be my last Cascade Super Marathon. I would definitely consider returning for another sub-3 hour attempt. But next time I'll give myself more than a month to train for it. (You're welcome, coach!)
