Oswego YMCA

249 West First Street
Oswego, NY 13126
(315) 343-1981

Sam Familo, Kathy Hatter and myself traveled to Severna Park, MD to run the B&A Trail marathon on March 2. It would be my 95th marathon on my way to 100 or the  Century Marathon to be held October 12, 2008 in Fulton, NY.  We were happy to leave the 8 inches of snow behind with more coming.

It was cool in Maryland but no snow in site.  Our car was the only car with the dirt and salt on the sides.  The day of the marathon was 27 degrees to start and about 40 to finish.   We debated for a very long time about what to wear and decided to wear tights and jackets and were very happy we did.

The course was along an old rail lines and we ran on asphalt.  This was the first time the marathon had met its quota and was closed at 1000 runners which included the full and half marathon.  5 years ago the marathon was canceled because of the 2 foot of snow the area received.The marathon was very well organized with water stops every 3 miles. I had run this one before when I was doing my 50 states and really liked it so was happy to run the marathon again.

Sam had suffered a groin pull earlier in the season and wasn't able to get any training in, so he ended up dropping out at the half way point, which the marathon committee said you could do and be counted for the half marathon.

Kathy and I completed the marathon.  Kathy ran it in 3:49 and I ran a 4:34 which was the fastest I have run in a very long time.  The conditions for the day were great with the cool weather and sunshine.  The course was nice with no traffic to deal with.  I would recommend this marathon to everyone who likes small marathons.  It is the first marathon that I have been to that did pull runners from the course who were wearing headphones.  They had warned us they would do this and they did and then disqualified the runner for wearing the headphones.  The 96th marathon will be in Washington, DC on March 29.

Happy Running,

Ruthie

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