Day3 was the warmest of all three days, but a perfect day for running.

Not too cold.

Not to Hot.

Just right!

Luckily I only packed shorts to run in because I really wasn’t prepared. Day 1 & 2, I wore the long sleeved race shirts. At the trail event, I wore the bright orange from last year. Then Saturday, I wore this years grey. I have to say while nice, I think a bolder color is better.

Sunday, I ended up going with short, tankand running sleeves. Perfection.

As you can see, I started in the back…….In the way way way back. The goal for me was tru a smart race. While I had no concrete goal, I did plan to start around the 2:45 pacer and take it from there.

I started with my son and his friend. This was both their first marathons. Justin has not been running long and his training was lots of hiking, climbing, and. Some running. His longest run was 10 miles. I wanted him to run conservative as I knew he would finish either way, but I didn’t want it to be the hard way.

So we ended up starting together behind the 3 hour pacer. We did our own thing. We walked when needed and I tried to keep conversational. There were some times where I would point out we were running in the 10’s. We pushed when needed. We walked some of the hills. We ran and most of all, we had a good time!

Then at mile 11, I told them to run the paces that they wanted. The ran ahead and I kept doing my thing.

By this point we were running near the 2:45 pacer again. so I thought maybe, just maybe it would happen.

Then it did!

Official time 3:41:08

Celebrating the victory!

Done is done!

More. To come tomorrow: