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k here and just click like for the photos you like you can also vote by leaving a comment on her blog post if you have a google account or openid account just mention the name underneath the photo you want to vote for more than one is allowed only one day of voting ends saturday 10 30 at midnight hawaii time posted by shirleyperly at 7 54 00 pm 13 comments labels fun marathon triathlon wednesday september 08 2010 turtle marathon don t expect much and you ll be fine that was my attitude after steve boone of the 50 states marathon club told me the turtle marathon was a minimalist s race my original plan was to do the new mexico marathon in albuquerque on labor day sunday but it d cancelled the turtle marathon was the only other nm state marathon that would fit into my race schedule if i wanted to finish my 50 states quest this year past years results on marathonguide com showed usually only 20 30 marathoners and the reviews were not glowing but for only 15 yes 15 why not i mean who needs lots of other runners spectators entertainment along the course or well stocked aid stations when you train by yourself and are used to running boring routes and carrying everything you need heck it was even on the labor day weekend too monday and though the weather would be hot running in an arid environment would be a nice break from running in humidity sign me up but the real question turned out to be how do i sign up all previous race related website links seemed to lead to nowhere emails i sent to the point of contact poc went unanswered phone numbers were disconnected had the aliens abducted the race director after weeks i finally came across a city of roswell events website that mentioned the race with a new poc vern bob the previous one had retired i called the number no email and vern assured me the race was on he said there d be no online race registration this year however so i gave him my address so he could mail me an application more weeks went by and nothing i called again gave him my address and same thing nothing does this guy want me to run his race or not then a month before the race vern told me there was a new race website with an application that could be downloaded and mailed in yesss now i felt much better about getting on a plane and flying cross country for a tiny race in the middle of nowhere then i got worried that if it was this hard for me to find out any info about the event would anyone else be there you see in order for it to count as one of my 50 states there had to be a minimum of 5 starters and 3 finishers hubby dave suggested i bring extra cash to sign people up on the spot 20 on race day it d be cheaper than flying back out to new mexico to do another race if there weren t enough starters finishers but a week or so before the race i checked out the marathon maniacs website and saw that 5 of their members were also planning to do the race then fellow bloggers misty brian said they were also going to be there so by race day i knew there d be at least 8 starters and knowing what type of runners we were 8 finishers full and half marathoners gathered in calhoon park at 5 30am man was it dark silly me there turned out to be a lot more than 8 while waiting for the start i scanned the surprisingly large crowd and spotted carol annette s marathon maniac friend we chatted for a bit and she pointed out some other guy doing his 4th fourth marathon this labor day weekend see and you thought i was crazy for running 8 marathons this year me and carol a real marathon maniac though she was not wearing her mm jersey today probably because she wore it yesterday i kept looking for misty or brian or misty s friend kate who lived in roswell but it was hard to recognize people you ve never met in person in the dark oh well i was sure i d see them out on the course somewhere after a few announcements and a countdown we were off at 5 40am i was glad i wore my headlight as it was even darker once we got going and sunrise was not for another hour people liked my headlamp and for a while i running with a little entourage i know it looks dorky as hell but it helps keep me from rolling my ankles we ran on a bike path for the first couple miles and then ended up on the highway a highway we d be for 11 miles until the turnaround and then 11 miles back so a total of 22 miles yikes like running on an outdoor treadmill but the early start kept temps fairly cool 65 degs f at the start and the dark also masked the nothingness that was out there by the time it was light enough so i could put away my headlamp i was already at mile 4 or so where d everyone go the field had spread out a lot so it was pretty much just me and my compadres myself and i sorry for the blurry photo at sunrise but trust me you ain t missing much it is then that i realized i must really love running i mean people think running a marathon indoors on a track is boring but really the ones i ve run have been a blast because there was music runners and spectators you d pass over and over aid stations and portapotties every lap and constant comfy temps the whole time very controlled predictable and stimulating this was the exact opposite no music at least for me because i never wear headphones when running outside no one around me no idea where the aid stations were or what would be at them no portapotties i d heard there might be one but never saw it just a vast open stretch of highway for miles with an occasional vehicle passing by at 70 mph and other lonely runners way off in the distance oh and an unforgiving sun that was going to cook you if you didn t get done as early as possible what a challenge by around mile 5 i started to see and cheer for some half marathoners who had reached their turnaround yay something new to do there was an actual aid station table set up at mile 6 55 with one person there but you had to grab the cups yourself still an aid station with cups of water and gatorade and our first spectator coming up on mile 10 i spotted something else new ahead ooh photo op holy moly a bend in the road how exciting gah i must be nuts to be out here playing with my shadow my only companion for miles boy am i glad i decided to bring my camera between sips to make sure i was staying hydrated checking my garmin to make sure i d moved same highway scenery taking photos and eating an occasional gel the miles actually seemed to go by faster than i thought they would at mile 11 i grabbed a bottle of water on the ground just in case there was nothing at the turnaround but an arrow on the ground remember low expectations these were every 2 3 miles where there was no actual aid station at the turnaround however there was another aid station table not only with fluids but also fruit and two people there amazing i decided to make a full stop and chatted with them for a bit while refilling my fuel belt bottles the guy told me i was right at the 2 hour mark my garmin said 1 58 something but i d forgot to set it so it d keep going when i stopped still that was right about where i wanted to be a surprising amount of climbing on this course for some reason i didn t notice the altitude usually very affected by it as soon as i left them i realized i d forgotten to take a photo doh but there was no going back as the woman ahead of me was the second female and i was only a couple minutes behind her there was a chance she might come back to me with only two 15 16 milers run in training in the last couple weeks however i was not going after her the return leg was mostly downhill which was nice but also into the sun and with the wind behind us which made the sweat pour into my eyes even in the low humidity temps were now well above 70 and climbing fast the name of the game was to stay steady stay hydrated and stay sane heading back sunglasses were a must a lot of sweat now but my shoes were staying dry so it was drying up fast i haven t a clue what i thought about the next few miles but remember cheering for folks going the other way including carol and misty though she didn t recognize me turns out brian was only a couple minutes in back of me which is why i didn t recognize him either having recently run a 100 miler thought he d either be way ahead of me or way in back i waved to a few cars that honked as they drove past and remember wishing more big trucks and campers would roll by so i could feel the big gust of wind they created thankfully the hills on the course helped break up the route so i could only see pieces of highway bleakness at a time and there was always the hope i might see the number two female again before i knew it i was back at half marathon turnaround aid station near mile 20 and this time i remembered to take a photo after filling up on fluids thanks ellie for being out there i think that was her name the last few miles also flew by except for the last two the funny thing was that i couldn t wait to get off that darn highway and as soon as i did i seemed to be going in slow motion wth did i hit the wall was i now running uphill a little was the heat getting to me i suspect a little of all of the above but i just kept following the occasional orange cones like hansel following bread crumbs the area looked very different in sunlight but there were other things along the way that i remembered from before a road that i crossed a hole i d avoided a bend in the path a hump that i went over the finish line from the other side after i d gone through the guy in red shorts was recording finishing times soon there were more parked cars along the road some familiar looking buildings and people standing around ahead i wasn t sure exactly where the finish line was as there was no arch or clock i ran past some colored flags lining the bike path and then heard a guy call out my race time that must mean i m done 3 57 55 9 04 pace 3 12 females not bad in fact about as good as i could have hoped but best part about this race was still to come oh my my choice of turtles they re all so adorable in their little cupcake holders of course i had to pick the green one as green teal is my favorite color i found vern the rd and thanked him for putting on a nice little event turns out there was a record number of marathoners this year 39 plus at least as many half marathoners and many more 5k walkers runners so a nice amount raised for the fight against ms great job rd vern as for aliens well i didn t see any along the course but did see one near my roswell hotel thanks lil green guy so let s see what d all i get for 15 a bright orange race t shirt the one vern is wearing above a uniquely challenging race course much more runners and course support than i thought would be there some wildlife sightings 2 dead skunks on the road one bird of prey flying overhead hey beggars can t be choosers no race medal but a cute handmade ceramic turtle sitting on a base shaped like the state of nm and of course nm checked off my 50 states list i d say the turtle marathon was a total bargain so now i have only 3 more states left woohoo posted by shirleyperly at 4 08 00 pm 17 comments labels marathon monday july 26 2010 kona blackberry blogging is it possible not to have fun in kona i don t think so even if i crash on my bike which i did no worries it was not really serious in fact with every visit it just feels like i m back home here are a few pics from this trip i ran two small 10k races while there both courses were a bit long and pretty tough but i got in some good speed work and ended up with two first place f40 49 finishes which was nice i d hoped to also do two open water swim events a one mile and a 1 2 mile but unfortunately both were too soon after the crash and my shoulder and ribs were not up to swimming long so i did my own shorter ocean swims next year for sure oh as for the broken blackberry in my last post no it wasn t me who hit it with a hammer dave did it but only because he already had a new one with him and just wanted to see what my reaction would be what a dirty trick but high speed internet service was fairly unreliable on our trip so the last couple weeks i ve been dabbling with facebook can you believe it me one of the last hold outs but now i see how much easier it is to stay connected with friends via facebook vice blogger especially when connectivity may be limited and every click that results in a new page being loaded can be painful so like many of you already have i am switching to using facebook for most of my postings this blog will serve mainly as a place to house race reports and longer thought pieces as well as my race schedule and 50 states progress if you re on fb you can find me here look forward to connecting with many of you there posted by shirleyperly at 9 03 00 pm 20 comments labels hawaii friday june 25 2010 offline for a bit oops dave s blackberry had a lil accident got hit by a hammer so now surfing is limited to ocean waves got a couple of books to read and some quality time to catch up on good luck to all racing in june july posted by shirleyperly at 5 11 00 pm 20 comments friday june 11 2010 casper marathon traveling to new locations meeting fun people running in cool places this is why i decided to run marathons in all 50 states and the casper marathon in wyoming did not disappoint i actually flew into denver which was much cheaper and only a 4 hour drive from casper while in denver i met up with fellow blogger runner and triathlete iron eric and his wife nicole for lunch they d had a new family addition since i last saw them at florida 70 3 in 2007 the drive up to casper also allowed me to see southern wyoming which i d never been through before it was not as stunning as the yellowstone area which i d seen on the drive between my week apart marathons in south dakota and idaho in 2006 but having lived in the burbs all my life i never tire of seeing mountains ranches and lots of open land the pink asphalt on the roads was also quite unique the casper marathon was small affair with about 150 marathoners 200 half marathoners and a few relay teams the course started at 5270 and ended at 5100 and was mostly flat but the altitude would be a factor for flatlanders still that didn t keep 50 staters like amanda and i away photo above we met on the short bus ride to the start in fact my guess is that a quarter of the field were 50 staters and or marathon maniacs most of us don t care about slower marathon times or the fact that the course was not certified hence no race times would count as bqs here we just want to run in fun places and check the state off our list i d planned to carry my camera with me during the marathon but discovered in denver that the shutter was no longer opening on its own probably due to embedded sweat grime i could force it open with my fingers but decided it d be too much of a pain to do so while running so i left it behind in my gear bag just before the 6 30am race start sorry no photos during the race photo of the path we ran ...