"Avenue of the Giants"
Marathon Report
By Jennifer Martin

Well, I ran this race, the Avenue of the Giants Marathon, 20 years ago, and remembered it as being flat and shady the whole way...Never trust your memory!

The course IS spectacularly beautiful - the giant redwoods are amazing. It is NOT flat and shady the whole way however! There were rolling hills pretty much the whole way, especially in the second half, and LOTS of open stretches where the sun was beating down. It was a lot like Boston, I think- REALLY hot, about 82 degrees, even in the shade, and a HOT wind blowing. I had a really tough race and ran my worst marathon time ever - 4:25, but I finished and I am really proud of myself.

The best news is that my ankle felt fine the whole way, even if my legs and my stomach didn't! I did fine until mile 20 when I just totally fell apart - I basically walked/ran the last six - I reached 20 miles at 3 hours 4 minutes and then the end at 4:35, so that tells you how bad it was!

My legs were completely cramping up and I felt really nauseous. I felt really sick for about three hours after the race too. I think I was very dehydrated and definitely had not eaten enough. It was probably a bad idea to travel the day before. It is really impossible to eat normally with the time change and flying...

Oh well, I DID IT! If I had run a sub-4 (which was my goal)I may have been able to say, ok, I am done with marathoning; now I have to run another one!

Anyway, we are at our beach house now and about to go on a long beach walk to stretch these sore legs!

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