Albany Marathon



"If found on ground, please drag across finish line"

 The Albany Marathon

Sat. March 2, 7:00 AM Albany, Georgia.

This was my fourth attempt to qualify for the Boston Marathon. 

Genius here screwed up her hotel reservation and narrowly missed sleeping in her car on a 28'F night.  Thankfully, a room was found for me on the outskirts of town.

The motel was posh.  The bed was dangerously comfortable, but I had packed 3 alarm clocks.  Sleeping Beauty wasn't about to miss her 3 AM wake up calls!  Included in the comforts from home were my coffee maker and my camp cooker to make my quinoa porridge.

With multiple layers of clothes that I planned to shed along the course, I toed up to the start line at 6:30.







Marathon pace group

 This marathon provided pacers:  professional runners who maintain a constant pace in order to finish at a set time.  I chose to run with Rich, a JAG officer.  I met him the night before at the Expo.  Serious, business-like, not bubbly and chatty as some of the other pacers, my kinda runner. 




Pacer Rich, in charge of running an 8:12/mile, finishing at 3:35 hrs



This is the running skirt he was wearing.

 The Albany Marathon honors one of their founders by fitting all the pacers with skirts.  Yeah, it was surreal at first to be following a sashaying mini skirt with hairy legs poking out the bottom.  But after a few miles,  it and the back of Rich's head were my only view.  The city's scenery is always lost on me when I race.  I'm in my zen world focusing on my running form.  I race with my MP3 player set with songs in the 180 beat per minute range.  I match the beat with my foot fall keeping me on pace.

Around mile 20, Rich's pack of runners had dwindled.  I siddled up beside him.  Apart from the occasional "You OK?", we didn't speak.  At mile 24, my answer to his question was "I'm struggling" to which he responded "No you're not".  Effective coaching.  I mulled it over and decided he was right, I passed him and finished at 3:34:30.  A full 10 minutes and 30 seconds faster than my Boston Qualifying time.  They posted partial results at the finish line.  I came in 2nd in my age group.  2nd Masters, I believe.  I'm not entirely sure what my overall standing is, the official results won't be up on the website for a few days.  I skipped out on the awards ceremony, I was too cold to hang around in 40' windy weather. 

Can you believe the start and finish lines were separated by a 30 minute walk?  Longest walk of my life back to the car.  Then try driving stick shift 2.5 hrs back to Alabama. 

Tired, but elated!

Only the Olympics Trials and the Boston Marathon require you to prequalify to register. The QT's, as they're called are set by age and gender.  Overwhelmed by applicants, the Boston organizers made the QT's more stringent by 5 minutes in 2011.  My QT is 3:45.  

2013 registration is already closed, but I'll be able to register in Sept. 2013 for the April 2oth, 2014 Boston.  They accept the fastest times within a group first, on average it fills up in the sub 5 minute fields, leaving many qualifiers unable to register.  As a sub 10:30, I'm sure to be making a trip up the East coast.   



Venison burgers

For supper, I rewarded myself with venison burgers with homemade bacon and cheese...all ingredients I have scarcely touched in months.  Sinfully good!

Now, what kind of running mischief can Cole and I get into before 2014???