Kerry's Running Blog

Ran with Laureen at noon.

Just a quick run before work. Ran along the path behind the HS and then back along the path. It was dark and overcast and a very light snow fell at times, but temperatures were fairly pleasant. It was a bit icy in places, but fairly clear over all. My legs felt great, so I pushed it a bit and worked up a good sweat. I should have gone a little longer, but I've really been short on sleep lately and thought the rest would probably do me more good. My weight this morning was 162.0 lbs.

Headed out at 6:30 for a short run before work. Again ran the HS route. Temperatures were in the low teens, but it wasn't that bad. Skies were clear with a crescent moon. By 7:00 am the eastern horizon was getting light. Felt pretty good overall, but noticed a little stiffness in my left knee.

Early run with Laureen around the Highland Glen pond. It was fairly chilly starting out, but it felt pretty comfortable once the sun came out. Worked out on weights after we got back.

Today was a red air quality day so I decided that it would be better to hit the treadmill and do some weights today. 

I was finally able to sleep through the night and didn't really wake up until just before 6:30 when my daughter got up to get ready for school. As I needed to get into work by close to 8:00 am that only left me time for a short run on the treadmill (air quality is still in the red zone). I'm hoping that by tomorrow or Thursday, I'll be able to get back outside.

I ran on the treadmill again today even though it didn't look as smoggy outside. I really don't know whether the air is as bad in Cedar Hills as it is where ever the monitoring station is. In any case, it's supposed to be better tomorrow.

Laureen was awake as I was getting ready to head out so I coaxed her into coming with me. It wasn't all that cold (28 degrees with 75 percent humidity and no wind), but the trails were quite icy in places from snow that had melted and then refrozen. We ended up carefully walking over the hazardous stretches, but made pretty good time after that. It was a nice morning to get out.

Left the house about 6:00 a.m. Temperature 19 degrees, humidity 85 percent. It didn't feel all that cold, but I was blowing out big clouds of water vapor as I was starting out. As I was running alone this morning, I took my iPhone in case I slipped and fell and couldn't make it back to the house. I have an application on it call iMapMyRun that records pretty much everything the Garmin does and allows you to post your workout to their website when you finish. My pace wasn't that great (9:10), but I felt good and had some spring in my legs even at the end. It'll get better.

Easy run with Laureen around the Highland Glen pond. We walked when the path got icy, but ran at a relaxed pace the rest of the time. The sun was even shining through the clouds as we were finishing up.

Afternoon run with Laureen. It was fairly pleasant, but the sun waited until we were done to pop out.

Got out at 6:00 a.m. for a five mile run. It was snowing lightly at the start and gradually got a little heavier. There were a few sections where I slipped a bit and one where I almost went down, but for the most part the roads and paths were wet, but clear. It was nice to have some fresh air.

Didn't sleep well last night, so it was 6:30 before I dragged myself out of bed. Just did a quick run on the treadmill.

A quick four miles before work. Took it fairly easy the first three miles and then pushed it pretty hard at the end. Felt pretty good over all. Slept better last night.

Just had time for a short run this morning after a good workout shoveling snow. I was thinking about everyone doing the Painter's races this morning and realized that I need to step it up a notch.

A little bit slow getting up this morning and out the door. It was fairly cold (23 degrees), but it felt pretty good to get out. The main roads were clear, but I ran into some ice on the trail behind the HS. I pushed a fairly decent pace the last mile or so, but still only averaged 9:08 for the whole run. 

As I opened the door this morning to head out for a run, I was surprised to see that it had snowed overnight. I thought briefly about just doing the dreadmill, but after walking out to get the paper, I realized that it wasn't that slippery and it wasn't that deep. Snow was still coming down and it seemed to be blowing from the south, but no matter which way I turned it kept hitting me right in the face. After a mile and a half or so, I had to take off my glasses because they were so wet and fogged up. That made it a little hazardous in places as I couldn't detect such things as speed bumps. The footing was generally pretty good, but where they'd been out plowing and salting the roads, it was a little slushy. I only really slipped bad in one spot just behind my house on the trail. I didn't go down, but I came close. I shoveled the driveway off when I got back for my weight workout of the day.

Wednesday night I had a hard time getting to sleep and then was awake a good portion of the night. Not really stressed about anything and not even thinking about anything in particular, but my brain was just going 90 miles per hour. Once I got back to sleep, I tried to make it last as long as I could. Last night I slept a lot better. Had a dream about running the Provo Half Marathon and that one of the water stops was inside a big school or government building. I got lost and couldn't find where the race course continued...

 Anyway, today's run went well. My legs had good spring in them and the cold air felt pretty good (25 degrees 85 percent humidity). I didn't really feel like I was pushing it any harder than I have been, but my average pace dropped to 8:45. Still not great, but starting to move in the right direction. My knee was a bit sore during the night, but I didn't feel anything this morning. 

A little colder this morning (21 degrees), but a little less humid. Mostly cloudy. Roads dry. I slept well, but dragged a bit on this morning's run, especially the first mile. Finished strong.

Met up with the guys at the mouth of the canyon. With a wind blowing, it was much too cold to head up the trail, so we turned around and ran through the neighborhoods. Paul gave me a ride back to my car. It was great to see everyone.

Left the house about 6:15 am. Brilliant moon with partly cloudy skies (27 degrees, 65 percent humidity). Looks like it rained/snowed a little bit overnight as there were little patches of ice all over. Saw seven other runners this morning, which is a new record for this year. Didn't push it too hard, but put in a reasonable effort (8:51 average). 

A great morning to get out for a run. It was still kind of cold and there's still snow on the lawns, but the roads and much of the trails were clear. Had a little more time so I looped around the Highland Glen pond, even though part of the trail is still icy. Didn't see any other runners out this morning.

Didn't really sleep well last night. Went to bed a half hour later and was awaken when Brittany got up at 5 (to complete some homework, I'm guessing). Didn't sleep soundly after that. Dragged myself out of bed at 6:15 and was running by 6:30. Only had time for a short loop around the HS. Average pace 8:52.

Took yesterday off to catch up on some sleep, but was still feeling a bit sluggish this morning. After a mile or so, I started to feel better and gradually picked up the pace. I'm glad I got out when I did as the wind started to pick up shortly after I got back and it was starting to rain/snow as I was leaving the house. Hoping to get five or so in with Laureen tomorrow morning.

Ran along the golf course trail up to the mouth of American Fork Canyon with Laureen. The sun broke out from time to time and made things very pleasant. 

Kind of cold this morning (26 degrees) and mostly cloudy. A crescent moon poked out of the clouds from time to time, but I needed my headlight to see where I was going. Saw a number of other runners out this morning and almost ran into a couple of them that were going in the opposite direction without any kind of lights. Started out kind of sluggish, but finished pretty strong (8:58 average). I've been pleased to find that my RHR has dropped down into the 40's again.

Skipped Tuesday's run because I hardly slept that night (sick daughter) and briefly considered skipping today's run because I wasn't feeling that great (maybe picking up what my daughter's had). Got off to an even slower start after I started down the street and realized that I'd left my headlamp behind. When I finally got started I was a bit concerned that I was having some chest pain, but I decided to at least give it a half mile or so. I was relieved when I heard myself wheezing as I knew that it was some congestion and not my heart. In any case, I started feeling better after a half mile or so. Passed some ladies out for a morning walk. Heading up towards the HS on 48th I was surprised and annoyed when two cars within a couple of minutes of each other seemed to want to force  me into the weeds. There's a pretty good shoulder along that stretch and they were driving on the white outside line with no cars coming in the other direction and a good sized median in that stretch. I had my headlight on and the others cars just stayed in their lane. They might have just been distracted...you never know. The rest of the run was pretty routine. It's nice that it's getting a little lighter every morning. Average pace was 8:54.

Was able to start running again after more than a week off due to illness (apparently a strain of the flu that I caught from my daughter). I still have an occasional cough and some congestion so I didn't push it too far or too hard. Generally felt pretty good. I felt like I'd overdone it just a bit, but should be able to do similar mileage tomorrow and then start building up again. I'm hoping it will start getting a littler warmer in the morning (18.8 degrees this morning and high humidity). I was happy to find that almost all of the creek trail is now free of ice.

http://www.mapmyrun.com/run/united-states/ut/cedar-hills/580126684657239958 

Got out with Laureen this morning. We took it easy because I was feeling a bit wobbly. We came across a number of runners who were out for some kind of event (there were orange cones scattered over several miles), but we couldn't quite figure out what was going on. Our best guess was a group training run of some sort, maybe sponsored by the AF Rec Center.

I took it kind of easy this morning just to see where I was after donating blood on Friday.  I got through the run without any problems, but didn't feel like I had any energy to spare. I think if I just try to get out for a few miles every day that I'll be able to ramp up before too long.

Missed this morning's run because of a bout of insomnia last night, but managed to get home during lunch and talk Laureen into going with me for a short run. Even though it was overcast, temperatures were quite pleasant (warm enough for shorts and a long sleeve shirt).

Ran by myself at noon. From an effort standpoint it was a hard workout, but my pace wasn't too impressive as I'm still quite anemic. There were times where I felt like I was running with cement blocks on my feet. Gradually felt better as I ran. A very light sprinkle of rain as I started, with a decent breeze from the south. Turned sunny as I ran up 48th towards the HS. Grew cloudy and dark again as I came back along the trail.

Thought I might be running into snow and rain this morning, but it was actually quite pleasant. It was relatively warm (37) and only partly cloudy. The barometer's dropping so we might see something later on. 

 I realize my pace and distance isn't that great right now, but I'm just working on consistency (getting back to a six day a week routine). I'm injury free at this point, even though I had a little soreness on the inside of my left knee starting out. I didn't notice it after a couple hundred yards. I do need to get my weight down, however. 

Got out around 11:30 with Laureen and Amelia. Not as sunny as expected, but fairly decent temperatures nonetheless. Still some leftover slush on the trails that made things a bit slippery. Amelia is running a lot better since she started track team workouts last month (Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays). She showed us where they have been doing their hill sprints so we had to do a few. A great workout all around.

Got out around 6:15 as I had to take the dog for a quick walk. Started out kind of slow as I'm still not feeling that great. Gradually picked it up to finish at a decent pace.

Good noontime run. Laureen was gone, so I ended up going by myself. It was mostly sunny, but a breeze made it feel a bit chilly at times.  Pushed it harder than I have since giving blood and even ran up the hill to Cottonwood Drive for a little extra mileage. Feeling pretty good at this point without any significant injuries.

Made it out the door by 6:13. Temperature 25 degrees with no wind to speak of. Clear skies and a crescent moon low on the horizon in the south southwest. It was simply beautiful. 

 As I pushed it a little harder yesterday, I kind of took it easier today, at least starting out. Extended my run by running around the pond in Highland Glen Park. All of the ice has melted in the last week and the few ducks that stuck around all winter followed my every move in the hope that I would give them something to eat. The water was as smooth as glass. 

Did the four mile loop at noon. Was a little cool and breezy starting out, but felt great by the end. I pushed it a little harder today, but didn't wear my watch or check my pace. 

Ran a little easier than yesterday. My calves were a bit tight and I wasn't feeling particularly energetic. Temperatures were in the mid-50's at 12:30 with a slight breeze blowing. It seemed like the warmest day of the year. I ran in shorts and a long sleeve technical shirt.

Noontime run with Laureen. Very pleasant temperatures. We ran the HS loop with a little extension around the duck pond. 

Noontime run. Laureen hadn't made it back from taking Brittany to school, so I took off by myself. Felt pretty good and pushed it a bit harder. Average pace was only 8:43, but I'm feeling a little stronger all the time. No aches or pains to speak of.

Great Saturday midday run with Laureen and Amelia. 

Noontime run with Laureen. Creek trail to golf course to mouth of American Fork Canyon and up Canyon Road.

Lunchtime run with Laureen. Sunny, but a little on the cool side with the breeze blowing.

Lunchtime run with Laureen. Warmer than yesterday, but mostly cloudy with a stiff breeze (15 mph or so) from the south. Ran along the golf course up to the mouth of AF canyon.

Midday run with Laureen and Amelia. Had to cut it short after Amelia hurt her knee (as we were sprinting towards the flagpole along the path behind the high school). I ran back home and got the car and she elevated it and put some ice on it. It didn't seem to bother her too much later in the day.

Noontime run with Laureen along the creek trail and around the Highland Glen pond. Temperatures close to 60 under overcast skies.

Lunch run with Laureen and Amelia.

Lunch run with Laureen and Amelia.

Temple loop with Laureen.

Ran the AF canyon loop at noon with Laureen. Quite windy, but not too cold.

Laureen was gone (taking Brittany) to BYU so I just ran by myself. Gorgeous day with clear skies and a very light breeze from the south. The temperature was close to 50. I averaged 8:47 pace.

Lunchtime run with Laureen. Beautiful, warm day. Temperatures close to 60.

Laureen wasn't able to go today and I was a bit short on time so I just did a quick Highland Glen loop. It was easily the warmest day of the year, even with a high, thin layer of clouds. I pushed it fairly hard and could feel my face starting to burn about half way through. I averaged about the same time as yesterday. My weight is at a shocking 166.2 (yikes!). Hopefully, that will start to come off here in a few weeks.

Went over to the LPHS track to run some sprints with Amelia (she's been running the 1600 and 800, but they asked if she get help out with a 4 x 100 relay). We jogged a few laps and did some 400 and 800 repeats. All in all, a pretty good workout.

Lunchtime run with Laureen. Beautiful and warm (temperature around 70). Ran along the golf course loop to the mouth of AF Canyon and then up the big hill.

Highland Glen loop by myself (Laureen had to run Brittany up to BYU for a final). Warm with a breeze from the south. Averaged 8:47.

Ran the golf course, Canyon Road at noon by myself as Laureen had a doctor's appointment. Pushed it hard enough that I felt sick afterwards. Average pace was 9:00. Ankle was quite sore afterwards (the hills had something to do with that, I'm sure).

Nice run up Provo Canyon to Bridal Veil Falls with a variety of friends and WBR teammates.

Lunchtime run with Laureen (Highland Glen loop).

Lunchtime run with Laureen on golf course loop. Warm, windy and overcast.

Lunchtime run with Laureen. Neither of us were feeling that great today so  we cut it a little bit short. Ran around the pond with one of the HS girl's gym classes.

Lunchtime run with Laureen

Lunchtime run with Laureen. Golf course loop.

Ran along the canal and then the hills above Cedar Hills.

Beautiful, cool, fragrant morning. Heard some bird songs by the pond that I haven't heard for awhile. Stopped to talk to Stan K and his wife on the trail. He's heading to New York in a couple of weeks to be in charge of seminaries or institutes (I'm not quite sure). It was nice to see him.

Quick run at noon with Laureen (Highland Glen Loop).

Ran 5.0 this morning by myself (Highland Glen Loop and the Cottonwood hill). It was cool and humid, but a magical morning with mist rising up from the ground. Average pace was only 9:05, but I noticed the last mile was at 8:05 pace. 

 Ran 4.4 with Laureen at noon (golf course loop). No aches or pains to speak of.

Lunchtime run with Laureen.

As we were having lunch at work today, was able to just get in a short run this morning.

Nice run up to Nunn's Park with Paul and Ryan. Got a little wet by the time we got back. The time goes by quickly when you're running with friends.

Easy lunchtime run by myself. Heavy wet snow this morning that took down a lot of tree branches. In one place on the north end of the creek trail, it was almost impossible to get through. Felt pretty good today except for a little tightness in my chest.

Lunchtime run with Laureen (Highland Glen loop). Sunshine and very pleasant temperatures.

Early morning run. Highland Glen loop with a run up the Cottonwood Road hill.

Lunchtime run on the same course without the big hill. 

Ran with Amelia around 11:30. We ran along the creek trail and then west through the park to the Alpine Highway, north to Kohlers and then home. Amelia did quite well, except for getting a little overheated about half way through.

Lunchtime run by myself as the girls had a dentist appointment. Broke in a new pair of Cumulus 12's. I didn't bother to re-lace them for my high arches before heading out so I think my blood circulation was a little constricted. In any case, my feet got extremely hot. I know the surface wasn't that hot as it was still wet in places from this morning's rain. After about three miles, I had to stop and unlace them (almost to the point where they were falling off my feet). That seemed to help and I was able to continue my run without problem (except for a little abdominal discomfort).

Highland Glen loop with a a run up the hill. I took it easy for the most part as I'd pushed it much harder yesterday. Yesterday, I wasn't able to get my Garmin to lock in on the satellites so I don't really know what my pace was (except for the first mile warm-up: 8:20), but it was working fine today. A little breezy, but it felt pretty good.

Ran 5.75 in the early morning with Laureen (canal road and upper trail) and 6.25 with Amelia a little later (creek trail, Highland Glen and Kohler's loop).

AF Canyon loop with Laureen and Amelia. We stopped at the mouth of the canyon to just watch the awesome amount of water coming down. It was powerful. It looked like the water must have washed out a few campsites, judging by the debris that they were fishing out. The reservoir was filling up fast.

Highland Glen loop.

Cooler day. Took the extended Highland Glen loop and also extended the Cottonwood Dr section (ran to the stop sign at Canyon Road). Took a detour to find a POP.

Highland Glen loop with short Cottonwood Drive extension.

Temple route with Laureen.

Highland Glen loop with Laureen.

Started off heading west to Highland Glen and then followed the canal to the western end of Cedar Hills, then up the mountain and along the trail to the mouth of AF canyon and back along the golf course trail.

Highland Glen loop.

Highland Glen loop with Laureen. I added on an extra 1.2 miles as Laureen had to get back.

Temple route with Laureen

Highland Glen loop with Laureen

Highland Glen loop, canal to east rim trail, mouth of AF canyon and back.

Highland Glen loop with Laureen and Amelia. Ran the last mile by myself (up to Canyon Road) and pushed the pace. Great morning for a run.

One of the last of our long runs. Got up with Laureen about 5:00 am and took the grand tour of Cedar Hills, Alpine, Highland and even a little bit of Manila. It was quite cool before the sun came up and so we didn't mind it at all when the sunlight finally hit. It was a nice time to catch up on everything and although tiring, wasn't too bad. When I got back I took a little nap, mowed the lawn and drove back to San Diego. I was a bit stiff after sitting in the car, but other than that it wasn't too bad.

I haven't been blogging my runs lately, but I'll have a little more time to do that now. I'll be running with Laureen on Saturdays, but during the week I'll be going solo (as I'm now working weekdays in San Diego).

The building that I work in has a gym (pretty decent equipment) and showers. I took off a little before noon, just to explore the neighborhood. After about a mile or so on the streets, I found some dirt roads to run on. The first one I tried ran into a dead end after about a half mile and the second one I tried was really steep and covered with loose dirt. It was tough going down and even tougher coming back up. I could see other dirt roads off in the distance, but couldn't see a way to get over to them. I'll have to try to find someone that really knows this area well.

Great noontime run. Not being familiar with the area, I looked at the mapmyrun website and found a little loop nearby. After about a half mile of running along a busy street and through a parking lot I found the path I was looking for. It was pretty narrow at the start and then opened up onto a dirt road that quickly dropped down into a little valley, which eventually led to a parking lot adjacent to a wilderness area. There was a dry creek right next to it and I ran along that for a ways, through a strand of trees and along the base of a steep brush covered hill. For a mile or so you could completely forget that you surrounded by freeways and big office buildings as you can't hear any traffic there or see anything except wild country. After running along a mostly flat section I saw a sign that said something like "Old Lopez Road". I decided that was probably the way back up and so I started running up that path. The trail started to climb and became fairly narrow in spots. It was quite an effort to keep going with the sun beating down. After a mile or so I was back up on top and running along a nice trail behind office buildings. When I got to what I thought was the end of that trail, I turned back into a parking lot and ran back along what I thought was the street leading back to my office. It wasn't. I kept running along the street hoping to  catch sight of some kind of landmark. The further I ran, the less familiar everything looked. I finally stopped and asked someone for directions and he told me that the street I was looking for was in the opposite direction. Running that way I started to recognize some of the buildings and was soon back on familiar ground and found the way back to my building. You'd think that seeing Qualcomm on the side of a building would be a good landmark, but it turns out that there are thirty-eight buildings of various sizes with the Qualcomm name on them (they have twelve shuttle vans that are kept busy taking employees from one building to another). It's certainly a lot easier to get lost than I would have thought. It turned out to be quite a good run as I was still sweating a half hour after a cold shower.

Ran the Los Peñasquitos Canyon loop at lunch again and only got a little lost once. There was a nice breeze blowing and the temperature was very comfortable until I made a turn and had the breeze at my back (of course it was uphill at that point and running into the sun). Felt a lot better than last time although my ankles were a bit sore from the rough trail in places. Fortunately there's a lot of shade the last mile or so.

My ankle was a little sore this morning when I got up so I thought I'd take it a bit easy and see how it felt. When I started to run I felt some momentary pain and eased off, but it all went away in a couple of minutes and I just started running normally. I didn't know where I was going, but soon came to the Ted Williams Parkway. I didn't want to wait to cross it so I just ran alongside it for a ways before turning back towards my apartment. The morning was cool, humid and very pleasant. A good run all in all.

LP loop

LP loop

Ran the LP loop. Cooler today, mostly cloudy with a nice breeze. Kind of took it easy. Couldn't get away yesterday and didn't run on Saturday because Laureen wasn't feeling well and I needed to spend time helping out around the house (flew in Friday night).

When I reached the park entrance today I noticed a sign that warned about rattlesnakes along the trail. I'm sure the sign was there all along, but I noticed it for the first time today. I thought how strange that would be to run into a rattlesnake in San Diego when I haven't seen one for years on all our runs through the wild in the Utah. Well, of course, that's exactly what happened. I came around a turn and there stretched out across the path was a rattler about four feet in length. It wasn't moving anything but it's tongue. I found a little stick and threw at it before it moved off the path and started rattling. I was wishing I had my iPhone with me to take a picture of it. Anyway, I'll have to keep my eyes open along that path.

LP loop

LP loop

Good run this morning. Left about 7 just as it was starting to get a bit warm. Ran up to Del Norte and then down to Ted Williams Parkway and then back. Mostly gentle up's and down's. Average pace: 8:30.

For some reason the GPS wouldn't lock into today, so I'm just guessing on the distance. Intended to go for a short easy run, but went off exploring and got onto a long,winding, downhill street. I didn't realize how long until I turned around and started back up. Somehow the breeze I'd felt earlier disappeared about the same time. My head was burning by the time I got back to the top, but I felt pretty good. Spent extra time cooling off in the shower.

After running eight or nine marathons by myself or with friends, I was really looking forward to running this one with my wife. We ran my first marathon together back in 2001, but I kind of drove her crazy wanting to go faster on a day that she really wasn't feeling very good. 

 On Saturday morning we got up at 4:00 a.m. got ready and went down for a runner's breakfast at Abbey Inn. We chatted for a few minutes with a lady from Chicago who was running St. George for her first time, but had completed 35 marathons previously. We spotted Verdon and his son eating breakfast and we went over and talked to them and invited them to ride over to Worthen Park with us. After parking at the church across from the temple, we walked up to the buses and ran into Paul, Larry, Wayne and Kevin. The last of the buses were just taking off, but we managed to get on one of the others that showed up a few minutes later. We got to the starting line with about a half hour to spare (we used the time to hit the porta-potties a couple of times). After the race started we took our time getting to the starting line. It was just getting light in the east and it was warm enough for short sleeves. 

 We started off at an easy warmup pace and found Verdon about a mile up the road. It was nice to run with him and chat. We enjoyed the scenery and I stopped and took a few pictures along the way. As we started at the back of the pack, it wasn't very crowded and we walked through the water stops.

 At the water stop before Veyo we lost Verdon and didn't see him again. We ran up part of Veyo and walked the steeper parts. The sun had been up for a little while by then and it was starting to get a little warm. We took a couple more walking breaks through Dammeron Valley and we both felt more tired and achy than we should of, half way through the race. The downhill sections through the Snow Canyon area felt pretty good, but we really starting to feel the heat through miles 17 and 18. At about that point I started feeling a vague sense of unease about finishing. I just dismissed it as feelings conjured up from past races where I'd crashed and burned about eighteen miles into it. Laureen and I both tried to stay positive and just enjoy the experience. About the time we hit the downhill at 20 miles, I was feeling like were really close to the finish, but I was worried that my calves, ankles, knees and hips were really starting to ache. We'd been on track with our training through July, but with all the disruptions that came in August and September, we ended up skipping most of our long runs. We did get one 20 miler in towards the end of August, but we knew the end of the marathon was going to be hard. From mile 23 to 24 the wheels really came off for me. My legs and ankles were so tight and painful that it became impossible to run and nearly impossible to walk. Laureen was doing a lot better and just stuck with me. We'd caught up with Larry about mile 22 and 23 and it was nice to have him along as well. It was the Death March from the mile 24 water station to the finish, but we just kept moving and got some much needed relief from some popsicles that some nice people handed us and from the shade the last part of the course. It certainly wasn't pretty and it was the slowest marathon for both of us, but considering our schedule for the last couple of months and the heat, it was nice just to finish (Laureen's ninth and my eighth).