During the Tacoma City marathon, the week before Capital City, I was at the half marathon sign and told Jim Boyd that he was inane when he said he was going to run the following weekend and that I would never run back to back marathons like he was planning on. He reminded me of that statement at Capital City which I found pretty humorous.
One thing that I have noticed is I am generally sick half the time, 7 of 14 marathons actually. I was definitely sick and I turned off my alarm the night before thinking, “no way”. Yet that inside clock went off at 4:41 and I stood up to check out how I felt, well I didn’t feel good, but I didn’t feel bad, so off I went to run 2 marathons in 2 weekends. Again, I’d qualify as a maniac a third time now by this act of pure insanity if I finished and they say 95% of running a marathon is getting to the start line.
By miles three I was wondering if I had made the right decision, but my pace was good at 9:15 which is around where I want to be to start and by mile 13 I felt pretty good. I liked the 2002 course better at Capital City as it was flat and residential; this course was hilly and had over half in the boonies. By mile 18 I somewhat regretted starting the marathon as I had a mini bonk without stopping due to being weak from the sickness, but it picked up when I hit the last six miles which was all through very friendly neighborhoods.
The crowd support was wonderful and I had several very friendly ladies spray me with water hoses due to the warmth of the day, it was much appreciated. I had one little girl ask if she could spray me with her squirt gun, I let her and she seemed quite amused by free reign to spray an adult! Overall I was very surprised that I finished the race about 2 ½ minutes faster then Tacoma the week before as I felt this course had more hills. I was quite happy overall and will run this marathon again Lord willing!
