Trail Marathon Anyone?

On April 19th, I ran and completed my 12th marathon, the Kingston Marathon. I didn't know much about this marathon. The course map provided wasn't helpful. Perhaps it had something to do with the fact that this marathon put me on a trail at about mile 3 and continued on a trail until about mile 22. I think I can check off trail marathon from my list. Boy, was I thankful that one of the running mamas, Rachel, decide to move up from the half marathon to the full. I was grateful to have her company. The first half of the race, we ran and chatted away just like we do on training runs. At the halfway mark, we missed the turn-around and ran an extra quarter mile. The volunteer was sitting in his car with the window rolled up, recording our bib numbers and failed to tell us it was the end of the line. Thankfully, a couple of runners behind us yelled to us. 

With half of the race to go, we were wondering when the trail running was going to come to an end. I'm not sure about Rachel, but I had enough of the trail running. It was very isolated with no crowd support. We were pretty much quiet for the rest of the race. Before heading out of the trail, Rachel decided she needed music. I kept plugging away at the miles and we separated. I wanted this race to be over. I was miserable. My stomach was not happy for most of the race. And, again, no crowd support!! I was happy to have had my camelpak. Water stations are usually placed just after ever mile. Not for this race. I finished in 4:08 flat.

This wasn't a big marathon. There were about 60 runners for this race. So, for the first time ever in a marathon, I placed 2nd in my age group. I'll take it! 

I made the Kingston marathon part of a Virtual half marathon in support of the Boston marathon.

                                                 

Next year, I'm hoping to go back to Boston for the marathon. But, for now, I will concentrate on the three that I have scheduled this year: Memorial Day, Wineglass, and Mohawk Hudson marathons.

Thank you for stopping by,

Sheila