a more detailed report

A week later, and I had time to reflect more on the race, and write a more detailed report, so here it is.

We started in Forest City, at the high school. They had four volunteers for every runner, this marathon seems to be the high point of excitement in the Scranton area. Revolutionary war reenactors sounded a cannon to start the race. Forest City was filled with lots of white haired women in plastic rain bonnets standing in front of Byzantine Catholic churches cheering us on. We ran to Carbondale, which also had great support--high school bands, cheerleaders, and one little boy asking, "Is *she* the last runner, mommy?" as I chugged by. In addition to the official aid stations, there were lots of kids handing out pretzel rods (really good when you're sweating a lot) and one group with ice cold water from their well. The race went onto a rails-to-trails by a river for a few miles; it was beautiful and I got to see some changing trees at last--the foliage wasn't what we were expecting because of the hot fall. I had to stop for band-aids and take off my shoe and sock at an aid station on the trail, all the downhill running gave me blisters.

I was so happy when we finally entered Scranton. There were marathon parties on people's lawns; kids had chalked messages of good luck on the road. I had gotten slowed down a lot in the industrial outskirts, was really feeling the unseasonal heat, and walked quite a bit. Back with people and the end in sight I picked it up and ran the last two miles fast (for me.)
I finished in 5:35 and felt good about it. It was a record hot day, and so they kept the course open longer than the usual 6 hours to let the last runner finish officially--and it wasn't me. I crossed the finish line with kick left in my legs and a strong intention to run more of these.