Run With Scissors Double Marathon

Running a 54.4 mile race after two marathons in two weeks, what was I thinking! Yesterday, I ran Run with Scissors Double Marathon which was in Cuyahoga Valley National Park in Penninsula, OH. The race was all on trail with hills, rocks, roots, leaves, stream crossings and lots and lots of mud. I did ok, but my time was slow.10 hrs and 17 min. I wanted to at least run an hour faster but under the conditions and on legs that weren't freash, I guess I'm happy. It was a tough course, tougher than I thought! I finished 1st female and 5th overall.

The morning started very early. Mark was going up to crew for me so we got up at 2:00am and left the house at 2:30am. We arrived in Penninsula around 4am with the race start at 5am. The start would be in the dark and I was alittle uncertain about footing since the leaves would be covering up the trail. I decided not only to wear my headlamp but to also carry a small flashlight which turned out to be very helpful to the group I was running with because I could shine the light up in the trees to see the ribbons marking the course. The first 10- 15 miles were in the dark and everyone was having a good time. Runners seemed to be split up in groups to help each other with lighting and directions. Actually, it was fun to be on the trails at that time of the morning, seeing all these lights bobbing around was really neat. I got with a group of about 4 guys,which made me feel secure and we helped each other through the dark. At about mile 12, the sky started to brighten and it got much easier to run and follow the course. When we reached the covered bridge, at mile 10, the aid station workers gave us a pair of scissors to carry with us. We had to find this skeleton head on the trail, that would have with it, two books. We were to cut a picture out of the book and take the picture and scissors back to the aid station. I must say that this was different! At mile 18, I started feeling bad and started thinking that I would only be able to do the marathon. I think my blood sugar was low from not eating, so I made sure at the next aid stop to eat and drink. After that, the food, gatoraide and coke kicked in and I felt like a whole new person! Thank goodness I had other runners with me to keep me going! At the turn around, I ate some soup and turned around to do it all over again. The second time around was much harder and I walked more which caused me to run the second lap, 20 min. slower. Somewhere around 30 miles, I was trying to avoid some mud and ran into a patch of prickers and scratched up my leg. It looked like I had sliced open my leg with all the blood but it eventually stopped and dried up along with all the mud that was caked on my legs! With 20 miles left, I started to get tired but tried to keep pushing myself. The legs were starting to really suffer!! It was so good to see the finish line and I was so happy that I didn't stop after the first loop.

Congrats, goes to all the finishers and Roy Heger for putting on a great race! David Peterman, who won the men's double and Beth Woodward won the women's marathon(she even got lost) both ran great races as did Michael Patton, Mark Carroll, Ron Ross and Tanya Cady.

Now it is time to take it easy for a while!! I knew I had to do something today to keep my muscles loose so, I swam 1 and 1/4 miles at the Y, I think it helped loosen me up. As for what's on my plate next, who knows, maybe the Bobcat trail marathon on Nov. 8. Time will tell.........