Albany winter marathon --running against the wind! Feb 21, 2010

happy to have the race over and get out of the wind!


what a fun road Rob, Frank and I had -despite getting lost in Albany and eating up precious time to register and get ready before the race-heck, it's ONLY a marathon -
thank goodness Frank and I were organized and were able to pay right away, sign our names and rush outside the SUNY Albany athletic complex gym to the start. We both had to go to the bathroom so used the portajohns after we ran back to the start line...
It was an experience starting in the back of the pack, but since this was a training marathon and since I wanted to run the race at a 9 min pace, this was fine. n fact, it took all the pressure off of running a certain time. I had run 10.5 miles the day before, so was a touch tired plus had run 50 miles in Florida ...I caught up with Barbara and was happy to see her --Frank and I ran together until the first mile and then he took off -as soon as we made the turn into the inner campus loop, wham! We were hit by huge wind gusts and a strong headwind --boy was I happy to have hat and gloves, but could have used a headband...I found myself walking to take a breather even at mile 5, which was into the wind. I felt zapped. At mile 10, i regained some energy, and ran in a pack of people and turned my iPod on (which thankfully had remembered). I saw Eliot at every turnaround, somewhat ahead of me.
At mile 15 I prayed that the next 11 miles would go quickly. It was not until mile 21 that I began to pick up the pace so to get the race overwith --it seemed like each turn was windier--especially the last mile of the loop -wow!! I saw Frank finishing when i was on the inner loop --only 20 more minutes...finally it was over.
A hot shower, some soap, coffee, and then a trip to the brewery made us feel human again!!! all and all it is a good event (the volunteers are awesome)but the weather is unpredictable. It is Albany, NY in the winter!!! and good training..