The Santa Rosa Marathon

What an exciting day!  My second full 26.2 mile marathon run.  I'd been training up all summer long with Amanda and unfortunately she was injured on our last long run and was unable to come with me.  So very disappointing for her; I hope we can train for a future marathon!  Trisha and Jeff were there for the half marathon.  For the marathon route; I was on my own!

You can see the route and timings of my run on my Runkeeper page.  I think having done a full marathon before gave me some good preparation for what to expect for this run.  It was still excruciatingly difficult and at times I wanted to give up, but I still persevered and made it through all 26.2 miles!  In this picture on the left you can see the 10 minute pacer with a pack of runners were right on my heels.  In the picture on the right you can see the decision point for half vs full marathon runners.  Half marathon runners were to head left back towards the start, full marathon runners headed right for the additional 13.1 miles.

As with the last marathon there were people there waiting to cheer me across the line and to congratulate me in the end.  Trisha, Jeff, Amanda and I got a finishers picture together.  So nice that Amanda could come down even though she couldn't run the race.  Jaime and her boys were also there and really made for a fun welcoming group.  Thanks everyone for sticking around or coming down to see me finish!

At this rate, I think the Santa Rosa marathon will be the one full race I do on a yearly basis.  The training plan sure helps me keep up my miles on those long weekend training runs leading up to the race.