New England Series Day 1 Maine

Now we begin the New England Series with Mainly Marathons.  The first race, Day 1 is in Sanford, Maine. A rather flat course and rather pleasant.  Again kind of cold.  Spring has not quite reached Maine yet.  But I did find some pretty flowers along the route where we passed a few homes.  But there were no leaves on the trees yet.  No rain though. I enjoyed quite a bit of traveling through Maine before today.  I even got to visit a few friends who live up this way.

I was recovered from the last series so was back to just a little over 7 hours.  Even if I were to run as fast as possible, I would still end up being rather slow simply because it is so easy to linger at the food table with each loop or to walk a lap or two while talking to one of the other runners.

Independence Series Day 5 New York

Finally the last day of the Independence Series. This was a crazy course that zig zagged back and forth so that we were passing each other several times.  I thought it was kind of a fun course, around a track, through a barn and back again for 20 laps. I was a lot faster on this one. It was totally flat which definitely speeds things up.  I was still not breaking any speed records at 7:47.  It is nice to be done with races for a few days.  I plan to drive up through the New England states and do some sightseeing before I begin the next series which has 7 marathons 7 states in 7 days.  I have about a week to recover from this series before I start the next one.

I love the medals when you do a complete series.  Each day you get a new state to attach to the big medal.  They are really cute and that is one reason I like to run the entire series even if I don't particularly need all of the states.

Here is the finishers medal for the whole Independence Series.

Independence Series Day 4 New Jersey

Here I am back in New Jersey again.  This time in Clinton New Jersey for Day 4 of the Independence Series.  Of course I didn't really need to run another race in New Jersey, but it's more fun to run the entire series.  Today was pleasant with a small lake in a nice park. It was cloudy and cool but at least it wasn't raining.  In all ways it was easier than the other New Jersey run. But I am definitely wearing out because I still took 8 hours and 34 minutes.  I did a lot of walking and visiting with the other runners.  It easy to take your time on these because the object is to finish and there is no real purpose in pushing as hard as you can.  So I relaxed a lot today.

Independence Series Day 3 Pennsylvania

Today in Birdsboro, Pennsylvania at the Daniel Boone Homestead we really got to see what it's like to run a marathon in the pouring rain. It poured rain the entire day.  The course was basically trail with gentle hills.  Some parts were paved trail but other parts were gravel.  All of the low sections were eventually flooded. At times the water was actually over my ankles.  There was a bridge over a creek and as the hours passed the creek became higher and higher.  I wondered if it would finally flood right over the little wooden bridge. But I did finish before that happened.  This was a very slow race and I found that my raincoat was totally worthless.  I was soaked to the skin.  My shoes were so wet that I washed them out in the bathtub when I got back to my hotel.  I was really slow as I splashed through that course.  The only saving grace that made it better than the New Jersey Marathon was that it didn't include any wind.  Thank goodness!  But I was out there for 8 hours and 34 minutes, thinking that there must be a better was to check off a marathon in Pennsylvania!

There were a few sheep out there along the trail likely wondering what in the world the crazy humans were doing out there.

Independence Series Day 2 Maryland

Today's event was so close to yesterday's that I was able to stay in the same hotel for two nights.  My friend Ila shared the room with me for both nights.  It's always nice to have some company.  Today was in Elkton Maryland.  It was very green but again rather cold.  But at least not raining.  I was kind of tired from the day before so took about 8 hours to reach the finish. But I got there!

Independence Series Day 1 Delaware

Now that I've thawed out and basically recovered from the icy cold New Jersey Marathon, I have begun the Mainly Marathons Independence Series of 5 marathons, 5 days 5 states.

Today was Delaware.  We ran in the lovely Lums Pond State Park in Bear Delaware.  This is a beautiful time of year in this part of the country.  There are blossoming fruit trees blooming everywhere. That is something we don't see much of in Alaska. Since there is no actual time limit, I didn't push myself too hard, considering I still have 4 more marathons to do in the next 4 days. I took about 7:15 and walked a little here and there while visiting with my friends along the way.  We did numerous loops while counting our loops by picking up rubber bands each time we returned to the start.  It was still kind of chilly but not as bad as the New Jersey freezing cold race.

New Jersey Marathon

This was probably one of the most difficult marathons I have ever run.  The weather was terrible. It rained almost the entire time, but along with the wind it was very cold and extremely windy.  I noticed that I ran faster just to try to stay warm.  I was only wearing my running skirt and a light T-shirt, although I did have one of those disposable rain ponchos to help protect me from the wind.  But it really was not doing a very good job.  By mile 17 I felt that I was getting into trouble simply from the cold. The wind had pretty much destroyed the poncho by then.  I started looking for anything that I could use for wind protection.  Finally I found a heavy fleece pullover that someone had discarded.  Of course it was soaking wet, but I grabbed it and put it on over my T-shirt.  It was very helpful because fleece tends to hold onto some warmth even when it is wet.  My number and my purple shirt were so covered that the Team In Training coaches were having trouble recognizing me.  There were only 14 of us who ran the full marathon and as usual I was last among our group. Finally the TNT coaches all ran with me and encouraged me as I shivered through the last 5 or 6 miles.  My feet were so cold that for most of the race I never even felt them.  But towards the end they started to thaw out and the pain was excruciating.  I was very close to tears just from the pain to my feet.  But I managed to make my way all the way to the finish line.  I kept remembering that no matter how miserable I was, it was not as miserable as chemo.  And after all, finding a cure for cancer was my motivation for running this race..  I did finish, and managed to stay well under the time limit of 6:30.

I greatly appreciate the help and support I received from the NJ Team In Training coaches.  They were wonderful and I know they really helped me make it to the finish line.

This race weekend greatly increased my medal collection. One for the 5K, one for the marathon, a TNT Alumni medal and a special one for the fundraising increase by doing both events.