Tobacco Road Marathon

On March 20, I ran the Tobacco Road Marathon in Cary.  It also crossed into a couple of other counties.  TR is a very flat course and most of the time is spent on the American Tobacco Trail.  Some of the trail is paved and some is dirt, but it's very flat and smooth.  Training in the mountains helped tremendously with the few hills.  This race was pretty uneventful, as much as a marathon can be, anyway.  However, it was very inspiring.  One marathoner wore an army pack and carried a flag.  Another carried 45 pounds of water.  He was raising awareness of the need for clean water in an African country.  Of course, there are always outfits that stand out.  Men and their short shorts...heavens.  I don't even wear stuff that short.  I ran using a run four and walk one approach.  This is a great way to keep your energy level up.  Speaking of energy, my mid-race nutrition consisted of: Butterfinger fun-size bars and cups (like a Reese cup), water, Gatorade, Chex mix and Oreos.  They keep a table full of food at one point on the marathon course.  I mostly ran solo, but started with the five hour group.  Eventually, I caught up with the pace group leaders.  They'd lost the entire group, which is very normal.  This was a cooler race than some, so I wore more clothing than usual.  The mental struggle wasn't too bad since it was the easiest course I've ever done.  That's not to say that some parts didn't drag on a bit.  It also doesn't help when someone says you're almost done and you're not.  I'd either passed 21 or 22 and someone said that.  Really, man? One of my biggest issues was that I kept getting gravel in my shoes.  Nothing major, just kept happening.  One of the mile markers was a (good) surprise.  I think it was 23.  Whatever it was, I didn't realize I'd gone that far.  Sometime after that, we exited the trail.  Heading back to the ballpark, we did have some uphill.  Like I said, mountain training helped a lot.  It was certainly hard work, but not too bad...for a marathon.  I could tell some runner were really struggling.  If I could've seen myself, I'm sure I wouldn't have looked too different.  This was my fourth time at Tobacco Road and the second time running the full marathon there.  It's definitely one I will do again.