I did the Portland Marathon in Sept of 2001. My friends Missy and Jeanine and I all trained and flew out there a couple of weeks after the tragedy of Sept 11. I walked most of it but ran down hills when I could and my time was 6:12. This is a huge event and there are thousands of participants. Loved the whole experience. The funniest thing that happened around this marathon was that the day before the 26.2 we were walking around downtown Portland and Jeanine stumbled somehow and went down on the road. We were all just shocked. She was OK but we were just thinking, "after all that training, mile after mile on that treadmill, for it to end the day before on a leisurely stroll thru the streets of Portland!" We all got a laugh after it was clear she was alright!
I am fuzzy on the date but think it was Dec of 2002 that I did the Memphis Marathon. Missy was training to run the half so I went ahead and decided to go with her and do the marathon again. It was cold and I remember seeing all the sweatshirts that people shed on the course lying on the sides of the road. This marathon hadn't been going as long as the Portland but was still a good one and they even had an Elvis impersonator on the route to cheer us on! My time got better, 5:39.
After all that I have read about the Hatfield-McCoy AND considering the fact that I am 10 years older I don't look for my time to get better. I really just hope to finish and would like to do it in 6 hours.
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