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April 5, 2008
4:55:46
Running Yakima is more like joining a family, once you run one, you're hooked for life. Bob and Lenore Dolphin are 78 years young and no other RD in the U.S. can say that! This was the best organized marathon I’ve ever been a part of and everyone honestly cared about one another, which is the amazing thing about our sport of running marathons. But the Dolphin’s take it one step further to where I even received a hug from Lenore after I crossed the finish line, which was more valuable then the medal that was put around my neck.
I train on a treadmill, which is definitely a mental drain and I only had one 18 mile long run already and due to run a 20 on race day, so as a true new marathon maniac, I thought, I can do a marathon as a long run instead. So, I wore my maniac gear for the first time at a marathon where maniacs are prevalent and it was a gorgeous run! I’d definitely put this as the most scenic marathons I have run in Washington to date.
I trained faster but did not have as many long distance runs as last years fall schedule, so I suffered and was 17 minutes slower then Seattle, but overall I loved the race. I had a 2:06:41 split and was at 3:06 at 18, so I slowed the pace at mile 15 when I hit the first of two hills. One neat thing about this "runner’s first" marathon is there were volunteers driving by and asking if they could take your jacket if you were carrying it, that was a first and I was grateful to not have tied around my waist thereafter.
By the time I hit mile 22 I was definitely feeling sore and the 1.5 mile hill did not help, but the Dam was just gorgeous to see. I power walked a bit of it to conserve energy but realized that my body may shut down at such a late stage of the race and knew if I didn’t start running I may not get under 5 hours, a goal for my first marathon of the year, so I took off and ran much of the hill. Fortunately the last 3 miles was downhill or flat so I glided in to the finish line.
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