Steamtown Marathon Angel

It's been over 3 years since I ran an actual marathon so this really had me on my toes. I didn't really train for this marathon, I was more using this as a long training run for NJ 12 hour. I still wanted to push myself as much as I could 2 weeks post a 12 hour in Philly.

I have ran Steamtown 3 times prior to this with my previous PR of 3:09. Also, the main reason I wanted to run this was for my workplace, Saint Joseph's Center. The previous years I have had a resident at the finish line waiting for me, this year I wore a guardian angel pin above my heart in remembrance.

I thought I could probably go sub 3 but I really thought a 3:15 might be what I may hit since I was still beat up from the ultra.

I started out decently fast, hard not to with so many down hills within the first 8 miles, I hit the half marathon at 1:25:42, which is a 3 minute PR for me in the half, I was 4th female but gaining on the 3rd female, I caught her at 16 miles. I was in 3rd up until 21 miles, my paces went from 6:30s to 6:40s to over 7minutes, I could feel myself fading but I was still in a happy mood and my ultra runner side kicked in with over 7 minute paces and keeping my feet moving as strong and steady as possible. The last few miles there's a couple big hills, going up sunset hill I pretty much checked out of my existence at this point and could careless about the next female passing me, I ran over to the side of the road where St Joseph's children waited for us to climb the hill, I was honestly in a delirious mood but I had to give a few high fives and say hello to the kids I work with....

I felt a little motivation after doing that... I was at mile 25 and new I wouldn't be sub 3 hours, but knew I would PR by minutes, I enjoyed the feeling of accomplishing so much, I felt very proud of myself and touch my angel pin. I crossed the line at 3:02.

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