And what a race it was. I set out hoping for a best time of 4:15 on a hilly course. I ended up running a whole 10 minutes faster, finishing in 4:04:40. Which qualifies me as a 50-year-old woman to run the Boston Marathon. AIEEEEEE!!!!! Don't think I didn't think of this as I saw myself within one hour of the finish at 20 miles. I only had to keep cranking out 9-minute miles - a pace I generally don't run even in a 10k. Which was exactly the distance to the finish.
But I did it anyway. Yes, I made pathetic little crying sounds the last two miles. But I made it in with, technically, one minute & 19 seconds to spare (because the qualifying time is 4:05:59). And I ran the second half of the marathon faster than the first (2:03:38, 2:01:02).
But enough about me. Steve ran the quarter marathon and did 100% of the driving on the trip. We had a little adventure with a flat tire in Eau Claire on Friday night, and got to meet the nice people at Saturn of Madison on Saturday to get a new tire put on. We got to spend some time with folks from our running club, the Minnehaha Marathoners, who were running the 4-person relay at the race. It was good.
But the best part was qualifying for Boston. I still can't believe it.
