I am a marathoner

Well I can say that I am a marathoner....we'll leave it open for interpretation as to whether that means I have done one or more than one.....it was hard to say the least.  But I am glad that I finished/completed it.  It is a pretty powerful feeling- knowing the commitment that one puts into training for something like a marathon and or half marathon.  We went to Big Sur in CA to run my first marathon, the last weekend in April.  I knew this would be a hard course, but I don't know if I'll ever do another one, so I wanted to make it a vacation.  The kids stayed in WI so it was just Adam and I that went away, we started in Monterey for the marathon and toured around the San Fran area for a little over a week.  I talked my brother, Joe, into running his first marathon also.  He we are crossing the finish line.  It was a hard course, the uphills were hard, the downhills were just as hard, (and there were a lot of both) and there was wind to contend with.  But I'm happy that I can have this memory to share with my brother.  I wish our time would have been faster, but I think there were lots of factors that led to the time, and I know why people do more.  Either A- you love running, or B- you are competitive and want to beat your time.  And I want to beat my time.....so down the road I'll probaby do another.  But for the time being, I'm happy to  hang up the shoes! 

 Here is our cheering squad, Adam and Suz where there to support us.  It was up in the air if Suz would be able to make it, and I'm so glad that she was. 

 The Big Sur International Marathon is ranked as one of the top 10 destination marathons in the world due to the scenic coast that you run along.  Here are some shots of what we got to run.   It was ocean, coastline, and then the road that we ran on, Hwy 1. 

This is the Bigsbee Bridge, a famous bridge that you might see in car commericals etc, it looks a lot bigger on tv, as we ran over it, I was disappointed that it was smaller than expected.