Garden Spot Village Marathon

It was windy today.
Wind, wind and more wind!
As Pooh would say ... "It's a blustery day."
Jerry's assessment - the wind felt like a tornado without a funnel.
So windy you could sail from New Jersey to England in about 30 minutes.
When you used a porta pot - you made sure someone held it up, so it didn't blow over like a few others did.

Get the idea?

Other than that it's been a good day! Garden Spot Village's first marathon, my first race post-accident, 5 teams in the relay from our running club and/or friends I knew (with over half running a race for the first time) friends from Canada came to cheer me on, other than a sore muscle on my knee, I felt good - so it was a good day.

Quick notes of the day ...

• Most of us were there by 7:30AM to see the race start at 8AM (very cold at this time - I was annoyed and wondering why I had the 'great' idea of doing this)
  
• Our first 5 runners took off with the beginning crowd
  
• The other runners took shuttles or carpooled to the relay transfer spots, then waited (froze)
  
• One by one the first runners arrived - with a quick transfer of a velcro band put on the ankle containing the timing chip, each 2nd leg runner took off.
• I ran the 2nd leg, so I warmed up with a short walk around 9AM knowing Lee, the runner before me, would take a little over an hour. By this time, excitement had replaced the annoyed feeling I had earlier and I looked forward to beginning the run I had recently been dreaming about and training for. Lee arrived, we transferred the chip and I took off. Actually 'took off' is a relative term, since that start was due west into the wind (had to be careful not to have both feet off the ground at the same time or I think I would have gone backwards!) Running into the wind was hard, but I felt good - breathing was fine and legs didn't hurt more than normal. A few times through the 4.6 miles - cheering would erupt along the way or from cars driving by, the support of friends was such an encouragement. During the last 1 1/2 miles - a muscle behind my right knee that I had some aching in lately, really started hurting. Hurting to the point of needing to walk/massage/stretch it to keep going. Coming into the relay transfer spot was encouraging as Jerry, the boys and friends cheered me in. I was hoping to finish under an hour, I made it in an hour and 2 1/2 minutes - with those winds, I'm happy with that.
• Now it was time to cheer the others on - I loved this!!! Pre-accident I did a number of races, but rarely with anyone. This time there were 20 runners/walkers on our teams, plus I knew some other people that were participating - so the 'cheerleading' was fun!
• Jerry (my wonderful chauffer) took me from one relay transfer spot to the next to watch and cheer during the transfers of our teams.
• Our teams finished between 4 hrs/4 mins and 4 hrs/40 mins!
• Everyone I talked to was happy with their run, except for the wind.
  

Great job all runners and/or walkers!