#72 - Michelle's Grand Ass Marathon 2009

DATE: September 6, 2009

LOCATION: Puyallup to Tacoma, Washington

In 2008, Michelle and Eric Barnes hosted a fat ass style marathon that I helped out with. This was the second year of the event. I was more than happy to help out again this year. I created the logo in 2008, and operated the web site, and also provided the bibs. This time I would do the same. But this year, Eric and Michelle decided to change the course.

I drove up on Saturday evening, and spent the night at the Barnes' house. They were very kind to allow me to stay at their place. This saved me from having to sleep in my car. The race started at 7am, and so I followed Eric down to the start line very early at 6am. Michelle and a few of her friends took an early start in order to finish sooner.

It was pouring down rain the whole night and so I was wondering if this was going to be a messy race. As the sun started to come up before the start, it was dry and so everyone's hopes were high. One thing you should know about this race is that the field is made up of mostly slower runners. This is fine, but it just means I was running in the front of the pack.

As the race started, I felt a little weird being in the front. In the first few miles (about 4-5 miles) I was running along with Shawna Wilskey and Arthur Martineau. After that they took off. I ran behind them for a little while. When I got to the half way aid station, they were just heading back out. I ran the first half in 1:43 (give or take a few minutes). The weather was pretty good at that point.

But the weather changed in the second half. With the new course it had big hill about mile 16. At that point I was still feeling pretty good, but it was starting to rain.

From about mile 18 on it was pouring, and I was slowing down. Everyone was told before the race that the course was long. It ended up being a little more than 27 miles. This meant my time was long. I ended up running a 4:07:04, this ended up putting me in third place and was actually a good time. For a marathon this was about a 3:59, given the hills and rain I was pretty happy with my time.

After changing my cloths and hanging out a while with the other runners I headed home. It was a fun time.