The Maine Marathon - Portland, ME
I had been/visited 49 of the US states and DC. I decided to enter Maine to get my states-visited count to 50. I also entered New Hampshire Marathon for the day before (but because of airline difficulties the Friday before, I missed NH….oh well, that left Maine). I opted for race morning bib pick-up. I got there early as they did allow an early start and I had broken my left foot pinky two 10 days earlier so I was a bit concerned. But after I got my bib, I decided to just stay in the official start time. The crowd was a bit larger than I expected but still easy to find a spot. I saw a few pacers – from 3+ hours to 5+ hours. I decided to stand next to a 4:45 pacer but never latched on or ran with that pacer. The gun went off and we started running. As usual, it was a bit crowded at the start and it took me a bit of time to cross the starting mat. We ran along the shore. Weather was cool – but very comfortable (actually, almost perfect running weather for me). First part of the cour...