Yay! I did it again!!

Finished the Arizona Rock & Roll Marathon in 3:32:41!

Just barely qualified for the Boston Marathon in my division, but the battle is just beginning. The way sign-up works now, on top of cutting the requirement times to make it harder, they also allow people to sign up in increments. Those who meet their division times by more than a certain number of minutes get to sign up on Day 1, those who beat it by less sign up on Day 2, and I think it drags out for a few days before it's a free-for-all for the rest of the qualifiers. Since I just barely made it, I'll probably be one of the last, if there are still spots open at that point. *sigh* I might consider doing the Seattle Rock & Roll just to try and get under 3:30, but we will cross that bridge when we get there.

On the positive side, my legs are a lot better today already. I'm actually running up and down the stairs, whereas last time i had to shimmy down on my butt for a few days. I definitely think I was more prepared this time, and the course was much flatter, but what I didn't consider was the dry air that I'm not used to. I sounded like a smoker all Sunday after running in that dry heat, although, the temperature was near perfect so I really can't complain.

Similar to the Vegas R&R, people didn't get to the start line on time, but rather than just leaving them, the start time actually got pushed out 30 minutes. Yeah, we waited for them. It was annoying because we were cold standing out there in shorts and such, but I think it was nice of them to wait. People spend a lot of time, effort, money to participate and organizations should definitely take that into consideration.

The bands at this race were awesome! They weren't very attractive, mostly older folks, but they were almost all cover bands. So, each time I ran by one, I recognized the songs and they were good. It was motivating. Another thing that made the time go by were the doggies people had. I noticed that most people had fluffy, beautiful dogs in Arizona, big and small. I saw lots of shitzus and maltese, and some very large fluffy dogs as well. They reminded me of Beezy and kept me going. In contrast, Seattle folks usually have labs and mutts. Nothing wrong with that, just doing a little comparison.

Anyway, I'm very happy with the results and also very grateful for having a wonderful bf to support me and take care of me on these endeavors. <3