Within 30 hours…
drove 762 miles round trip
and ran a full marathon.
More sleep please 😊
Hatfield McCoy Marathon was good. No where close to enough training but glad I went. Met up with old friends and made some new friends.
Can’t complain about temperatures. Had nice cloud cover almost the entire run. Humidity, on the other hand, was high and heavy. I stayed hydrated. Unfortunately the liquid poured out of me faster than I could refill.
National anthem was played before the marathon. Standing near the start line, facing rearward, holding the flag up high I looked at all the runners fanned out in the parking lot in front of the Food City building. Of all the marathons I’ve ran (47 with this flag and always presenting colors during the anthem) this is the absolute first time seeing every hat off every head and every hand over every heart. It was a beautiful view. Never been so proud of a group of fellow participants before a marathon began.
After the national anthem we all took off. Hung with about a half dozen front runners for the first quarter mile. Decided it wasn’t worth overdoing the start like I’ve done many times, so I turned around and began jogging the wrong direction until reaching the last person that crossed the starting mat. Kind of fun yelling at the runners “You’re going the wrong way!” Got some good laughs. Once reaching the tail end of the group I got to walk and talk with people before slowly starting the jog again.
Had a couple of nice long ascending hills. Can’t say it was a mistake running the entire way up BlackBerry Mountain, although it did deplete energy levels for much of the remaining mileage. Rest of the marathon was a combination walking, talking and jogging with others and occasionally running alone when I could find energy to keep the legs moving at desired pace.
Always struggling to stay in motion during marathons while carrying the flag and the energy gel packs, I don’t keep a phone on me. Afraid it would slip from my sweat coated hands, hit the ground and break. Rely a lot on photos from running friends/runners.
Thank you Toni Smith Jensen,
Barb Weaver Sims, Sandy Gage, Karen Johnson Derrick, Carol Fenelon Earles, Don Carpenter and Hank OnThe Hill, amongst others for sharing pictures and chatting with me. You all keep me motivated when I’m feeling weak and inspire me to do better.
Good strong finish on your run
Danielle Chastain Norton. Also a congratulations on pacing another marathon to my new friend Marie Bartoletti.
photo and post credit Randy Woodward