Another Photo for the Gallery of Dubious Behavior

This was a memorable marathon - my 19th overall, and my 9th completed in Huntsville on these familiar roads.  The Rocket City Marathon course is one I know intimately, as only one who has suffered and triumphed through these long miles can know.  (And sadly it is the last time the race will be held on this course or hosted at the Holiday Inn.  Race headquarters for 27 years or so will be torn down the day after the race, and the course will change.)

I came very close to canceling this one because the weather forecast had been calling for rain for several days – at one point a startling 100% - and I watched the three or four different weather apps on my iPhone compulsively.  They indeed showed a long weather front – rain in the south and snow in the north – sweeping inexorably across the country, called Winter Storm Electra.  When I went to bed on Friday night it looked like this (the blue dot is Huntsville):

But by race start, the rain had mostly passed by, its cold waters parting miraculously before me overnight like the Red Sea before Moses: 

Light drizzle diminished in the early miles, and I stayed on pace (10-minute miles) for the first half or so, but when we turned north and headed back to downtown Huntsville, the wind was at our back and it warmed up a good bit, and at the same time the nagging pain in my right leg began to tighten up.  I ran when I could and walked when I had to, and was thankful as always to cross the finish line in 5:17:51 – not my slowest time ever, but not the pace at which I had trained.  Still, victory is sweet when the race is difficult.  "The greater the obstacle, the more glory in overcoming it." - Moliere. 

And as all marathon runners know, the first goal is to merely cross the finish line.  And what a great experience along the way!  That same house in the Twickenham Historic District was blaring the Halleluia Chorus from Messiah in the early miles, and Christmas decorations all were displayed all along the way.  One house had everything covered in its front yard:  Frosty, Santa, and the Nativity Scene carefully fenced in with candy canes - separating the sacred from the profane, I suppose.  Every time I needed to see it, I saw a sign or shirt with the words, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me."

This was perhaps the most difficult race I have run.  Do I ever want to run a marathon again?  I have to wait before I can answer this question.  It is easy to trot out that old runners piece of bravado, "You don't stop running marathons because you get old; you get old because you stop running marathons."  But there is more to it than that.  There is the absolute feeling of accomplishment, of glory, of heartfelt praise and thanksgiving when I cross the sweet finish line again in celebration of life and health and fitness and strength.  Amen. 

And so another photo goes on the little Gallery of Dubious Behavior behind the fireplace.