Marathon number two for me was held on 11 May 2003. Mother's Day again - the Alcatel National Capitol Marathon is always on Mother's Day, actually. It's supposed to resonate with the Breast Cancer fund raising.

At 0800, the air horn sounded and I joined 2667 other runners, most of whom shuffled towards the starting line. Over the next six hours and forty-three minutes 2578 of us crossed the finish line, of which I was 2265th, clawing my way out of the back of the pack by a bit more than five minutes. And I did it without injuring myself this year, at least during the race. There were a few minor issues during training.

My chip time (actual start line to finish line) was 4:45:19.2, missing my goal time by 19.2s. I am not, repeat not, disappointed to miss the target by one tenth of one percent. It's kind of like running 100m in 9.99s instead of 10.00s (although I'm pretty sure that I can't run 100m in either of those times). Not the exact number I was looking for, but hard to tell the difference.

And not many marathoners can say that they bettered their time by more than three quarters of an hour in one go. I plan to shave a few more minutes off in the fall.

Photos now available.

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