Garden Spot Marathon

The marathon has come and gone, and I am feeling back to normal. Yes, I did complete the whole 26.2 miles on a very windy day. The course was very beautiful, we ran through a lot of farmland just outside of New Holland. I think my favorite view was near the beginning of the race when we were up on top of a ridge and could look out across the valley. It was really neat to see all the farm land with farm buildings and silos sticking up here and there, I was encouraged by the amount of farms that still do exist in Lancaster Co. Anyway that was a bit of a side track. Many people after asking me how the marathon was have commented "I would never be able to do that" or a similiar comments. There was a point in the race...oh about mile 21 when I wasn't sure if I could do it either...but that is when the mind has to take over and all you do for the last 5 miles is tell yourself that you can do it and you do it one step at a time. I realized at that point that running a marathon really is all mental, otherwise people probably wouldn't do them. I have also been asked if I will run another one...yes if the opportunity arises...but probably not in the next year. I think I would rather do some shorter races and possibly a half marathon. All in all my friend Monica and I did very well and I was glad that we were able to run the whole thing together. Our time was 4h13m58s, which put us at 11th in the women and 2nd in our age group. I have to wonder what our time would have been if it hadn't been quite so windy. Oh and thanks a bunch to my sister Beth who ran the last 5 miles with us...we are very grateful. Here are a few pictures from the day.