Marathon Fever

By Brian French
Posted Friday, May 30, 2008

I ran in the local marathon this past weekend and I must say it was extremely exhilarating. I ran the last leg 5.6 miles on a relay team with some friends. What an incredible event the city of Burlington puts on. There were over 7200 runners and 30,000 spectators experiencing the event. The weather was great, a balmy 70 plus degrees sunny, and not to hot to run with a slight breeze. I have run the last leg a number of times before helping friends complete the full marathon but this was my first time to actually participate in the event. It was hard not to get caught up in the emotion of it all. My first mile was pretty quick for me at 7.33 minutes so I knew I had to try to slow it down a bit in order to not over due it before I got to the finish line. Our final time for the event was 4 hours exactly. Not bad for a few old farts. Our team name was the Phat 40's so you can figure it out from there. We finished a little bit better than 50% for our age group with a mixed relay team. It was truly gratifying as I approached the finish line and they were counting down to the four hour mark I had to sprint to the finish to try to get there at fours or less and I just made it. Lots of fun for a great group of friends.