I said it before, and I’ll say it again: great course, great race, great time! It was a beautiful day for the marathon, with blue skies and warm-but-not-hot sunshine the whole day. The course did not disappoint, hitting all the best sights with time to enjoy them – this was also my first race using kilometers instead of miles, which makes it feel like you’re running much faster than you are, since the distance countdown signs come more frequently (1 mile = 1.6 kms).
The *hardest* part of the marathon came just before the halfway point, at around km 20 – not because of the distance left to go, but rather the fact that the outbound (towards halfway) and inbound (coming back from halfway) runners were running next to each other going opposite ways. Usually during the race, one can only see the backs of the people in front of you; however, when they are running towards you, you can see the fatigue and agony on their faces, which makes you wonder if you look as pained as they do. Certainly not what you want to be thinking about when there are still another 21 km to go…
I finished the race in 3h38m, which was a median between my first two marathon times, and impressive given my training constraints with the fellowship. Afterwards, I enjoyed a quick nap by the Font Magica and a long soak in the hotel pool to get ready for our Swiss adventure.
