Hatcher Pass Marathon

My fourth time for the Hatcher Pass Marathon.  I actually managed to be significantly slower than my pathetic result last year.  It was in the 80's with very little breeze and I guess that was too much for this slowpoke. I did manage to finish, last as usual.  In addition to the heat we had to deal with hoards of small annoying black flies.  Around mile 23 I started to feel kind of shaky, dizzy and nauseous.  I sat down at the mile 24 aid station and had a little food.  Suddenly I felt much worse them threw up all that water and Gatorade I had been chugging all day.  Like a miracle I immediately felt great.  I took off for the finish before the bad feelings came back.  I walked up the long steep hill to Summit Lake.  But once I hit the downhill section, according to my Garmin watch, I hit a 12 minute mile all the way to the bottom.  Then one last hill and I was at the finish.  People were gathering around me like I was some sort of celebrity.  But it's kind of sad because it wasn't my amazing performance that caught their attention.  It was the fact that I was so old.  I'm having a hard time enjoying such acclaim, simply because I'm so old.  But I'm still happy I made it, heat exhaustion and all. To myself I say, Better Luck Next Year!

Summit Lake

The long downhill to the finish