When Hillary first had this plan to do this marathon, there were supposed to be more of us...slowly everyone dropped out. Niki ended up running the half because she was smarter than us-no...just kidding...she was sick during the week so she decided to just do the half. Gwen also dropped down to the half and her husband was going to run the 10K-they ended up having to drive up to the mountains Saturday night because of an emergency with one of their kids. (The pic is Hillary, Niki and I before all the fun began.)
I do have to say that the scenery was incredible. The race was up in Apache Junction near Goldfield Ghost Town where we take a lot of our visitors. Because of our chilly weather lately there was even some snow left on one of the mountaintops. The volunteers at the aid stations were also super nice-almost all senior citizens...except the last few aid stations were the local football team. (They must have been out there in case anyone needed lifted up.)
I did forget to mention that for the marathon start we had to take a 45 minute bus ride into the mountains. It was pretty cool. When we got up there they had at least 30 fires going for everyone to stay warm...and even though you see everyone in shorts it was cold! I know it didn't get above 50 while we were running...that is why there was no way I was wearing shorts.
Of course, everyone thought we were tourists because I brought Christine's camera with me. It was interesting to talk to all these people that were running. The one guy from Pennsylvania we talked to because he had a "50 States Marathon" shirt on. After thinking that nothing bad could happen to me from running a marathon, he set me straight. His previous marathon before this one had been 2 years before that. He had formed a blood clot during the race in his leg and ended up having to have an artificial artery in his leg and they had told him they he would probably never run again. The one couple from New Jersey was around us for a lot of the race. Around mile 22 maybe, Hillary was saying that she felt better than she thought she would. The husband was laughing because I replied that I felt exactly how I thought I would-horrible. There was even a 13-year-old boy running! He even had a cast on his arm...we had to make sure that we beat him. He is from a family with a lot of runners and I guess one of his cousins ran a marathon, so he wanted to be the youngest in his family to finish a marathon. I can't imagine Christine having any desire to run with us next year.
Yes...I did say that we would be running next year. Hillary wants to do it again. Niki wants to run the full marathon since she only did the half this year. Hillary's husband, Steve, wants to do it...so I can't miss out on all the "fun"! We figure it would be better next year if we actually train a little more to do it. So, if anyone is up for a February marathon in 2010 we are getting our team ready.
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