A cold, hilly marathon

One of our highlights during our trip was the marathon we ran. Here is the lasagna that Barb cooked the night before for our carbo-load dinner. 

Here we are at the start. It was 35 degrees out. Amie and I had been training in weather 70 degrees warmer! We were freezing.

I ran the whole, while Amie ran in a relay team with Jenny, Cassie and Barb. The relay team didn't really follow the rules, and in the end their mileage equaled almost two complete marathons.
Cassie and Amie ran the first 13 before passing the baton off to Jenny. (Cassie then added on a few miles to complete her 15 mile training-run for a marathon in January).

Jenny ran her designated 8 miles and handed the baton off to Barb.  With that, Jenny decided to keep running.   Having not trained at all, she decided to check off her list her goal of running a Half Marathon.  Runners ARE notoriously crazy.

Chilly Lucy was a spectator with Far-far, Marmie and Di-daddy and Scout.

The course was incredibly hilly (as in NO flat sections), and my training on the flat Delhi roads didn't quite provide the strength my legs needed. They started to give out at mile 15, despite my feeling great during 20 mile training runs in Delhi!  After running the first half, Amie was waiting for me at mile 21, and upon seeing the pain in my face, she joined me for the last 5 miles (finishing 18 miles, after pledging to do only 13). She was just the kick in the pants I needed to finish the run.  My time of 3:48 was slower than I was hoping, but given how tough the course was, I am happy I finished. It has been a goal of mine for a long time. I look forward to running more, but perhaps on flatter courses and warmer days...