LBL Trail Marathon

On Saturday I ran the Land Between the Lakes trail marathon. It was my fifth marathon and my second trail marathon. The weather on Friday and Saturday was highly atypical for western Kentucky in March. There was about 5-6 inches of snow on the ground and a temperature of ~22 F when the race started at 6 am! But actually it turned out to be a really nice day. The clouds cleared out, giving way to a beautiful sunny blue sky, but it stayed cold enough that the snow didn't melt. The sun on the snow-covered trees was really pretty, and at times I wished I had a camera during the race. Despite the snow, the trail wasn't that difficult to run on. By the time us middle-of-the-packers got going on it, it was packed down. It did get a little slushy and muddy by the second half of the race, though. The trail was fun, but parts of it were quite hilly, and so I was pretty pleased with my time of 4:49. It was my slowest marathon ever, yet the miles really seemed to fly by! Maybe this was because I was running with friends part of the time and I didn't look at my watch ONCE during the race. Usually I check my time at least every mile, but with my gloves and running jacket it was kind of too much effort to look at my watch:) I felt pretty strong when I finished, but I had absolutely no desire to try for the 60 K distance (you're allowed to switch events during the race - 23 K, marathon, 60 K, or 50 miler). Even if there had been a 50K option, 26.2 was plenty. Today I feel pretty good. My foot was bothering me this morning, but it feels fine now.

After I had finished the marathon, I rode around with Cuzn Don and Byroni to different aide stations along the course to catch Ellen on the last loop of her 50 miler. While we were waiting at one of the stations Cuzn Don and Byroni built this lovely snowman. I just helped touch it up a bit:



Note its gel packet ears! Also, here is the lime-green shirt we all got in our race packets. It's too bad it's such a boxy, unflattering cut, because it's a nice fabric and color: