I'm going to try and make this a quickie because there are soooooo many fantastic RR's this weekend that I need to reply to.

My marathon finish time...4:18

This was without a doubt, one of the most beautiful trail marathons I have ever run. The weather was perfect, the aid stations were well stocked....bevy's were icy cold, nice hard packed dirt trail and gorgeous scenery.

The last few months I had been working hard on trying to get a nasty IT band injury under control and I guess all the pampering paid off because it seemed to be healing well and allowed me to run a decent time at this marathon with very little speed work under my belt.

Dave and I met up in Reno on Saturday and stayed at a hotel where we had way too much fun eating, drinking, and gambling. He showed me how to play craps, roulette, blackjack and poker and we actually managed to make a little money...unfortunately not enough to retire on, which was originally the plan... oh well.

We met and chatted with some really nice people, every one was so friendly. One in particular was a 24 year old fire fighter, running this on almost no training...she finished in just over 4 hours. Very up-beat, strong, athletic girl... I loved her happy, carefree attitude...I think Dave got a photo of us together... maybe I can get him to post it for me.

After Dave's incredible finish, I later found out that he managed to meet up with Choovie and Mr. Choovie before they had to dash off. I was really sorry I didn't get a chance to see them.

I ran this race as a stepping stone forward in my quest for a BQ. Since Boston 08' is on my birthday, we thought it would be really fun to be there and meet so many boomer friends. We are presently throwing around the idea of a February marathon in FL, which would give me at least 16 weeks to get some quality training in.

I arrived home totally exhausted after several days with only a handful of hours of sleep and incredibly sore cheeks from laughing so hard. No BQ yet, but an insanely fun, unforgettable weekend.

Thanks for reading...

arf