"I will be back" by J Ring

After the first time here in 2000, I couldn't wait for the 2001 race. Despite the difficulty of this course, which I had heard about for years and was too chicken to try, I had a great run in 2000. It was a perfect day for the run that year, cloudy, cool, threat of rain and I ran very cautiously. The result was a strong finish and a decent time for the first one (4:16). So I had thoughts of breaking 4 hours this year. It turned out to be another example of hubris. The weather was more typical of July this year, and I had the bad judgment to go ahead with it when I was nursing sore legs. Very bad judgment. The quads starting hurting around mile 2, and never let up. It hurt the whole way. It was the most difficult marathon I have done, and I have about 40 in the bank. In this case, the downhills hurt worse than the uphills. If the last 3 miles had been downhill, I would have DNFed. No doubt. But, now that I have had time to recover and forget how bad it felt, I'm glad I did it, because it is still the most beautiful course I have run. I will definitely be back in 2002 looking for redemption.