Cowtown

The weekend following Tahoe was the Cowtown Marathon, Half marathon, 10k and 5K. I decided on Friday to run the marathon. I drove up to Sacramento and registered. Linda McFadden from our club was also planning to run it so we could carpool together on Sunday morning.

The weather was cooperating, it was perfect running weather. I didn't really know anything about the course but Linda informed me it was two 13 mile loops. Man, I dislike loops.

The run starts at the beautiful William Land Park next to the Sacramento Zoo. We run through some neighborhoods (with big, beautiful houses), then hit a parkway along side the Delta. The Delta was on our right and the freeway was on our left. It would have been very serene except for the whizzing car sounds!!

We then loop around back into William Land park and repeat the loop. Around mile 5 I caught up with the 3:40 pace group. My friend, Karen Hoffman was the pace group leader so I hung out with her. I haven't seen her since Western States and she filled me in on how her run went. It really made the time fly by. Soon, we were at the start/finish again and Karen handed her pacing duties to a guy named Dean.

Somewhere around mile 22, my left knee started hurting. I'm sure the 72 miles of concrete the weekend before had nothing to do with it??

A half mile from the finish line was a very cute sign that read, "1/2 mile to the barn!"

I crossed the finish line in 3:39:26. Good enough for first in my age group. The medals were cowbells - very original!! I waited for Linda who arrived in 4:25. We packed it up and headed home. Overall, a very nice day for running....