My wife Rebecca had the maniacal desire to run 30 miles for her 30th birthday so she sneakily used the credit card and signed us both up for the m-thon in Huntsville. The funny part is that we stayed in Huntsville when we ventured to Groveton to run the Davy Crockett Bear Chase and we didn't remember. Rebecca recognized the places and I was like... "Ummm no we've never been here." Indeed we had. The race was just up the road in Huntsville National Park. We had to pay $5 to get in. We were complaining about how they were charging us to get in and how it should have been part of the registration or we should have gotten a Military discount. Then when we went to get our race packets they told us there was $5 in there to reimburse the park entry fee. Foot in mouth... The madness began with our 2 mile warm up... A completely ridiculous notion for anyone running a marathon. It was pretty chill there. The temp and conditions could honestly not have been more perfect. It was overcast and mid-fifties with low humidity. The trail was firm (thankfully). Neither of us had run a trail marathon so it was going to be a new experience. We started out in the middle of the field and the Rebecca-dubbed "Soul Train" caused a pretty slow start. Later on I felt that this is what helped us to feel so good throughout the race. We hit our goal pace in the race and I think the forced slow start made a big difference. At about 4 miles or so it started to thin out but we just kept moving along picking people off. A lot of the halfers were ahead but we knew we wouldn't see them after the turnaround. The trail was frightening at times and it took it's toll on Rebecca. I was just glad she didn't hurt herself on her 5 dives. She just got up and started running again. She's a tough cookie. We were pretty motivated at the half. Our pace picked up to about 8:30 and we felt super good. Through mile 16-20 we were moving along pretty good. At one point were holding sub 8 for a bit. Mile 25 was the longest mile of my life. I probably looked at my watch about 125 times... In that mile. We had passed Number 1 somehow and he was keeping pace behind us for a long time. Then at the last mile we passed him and he was gone forever. We kept a very strong pace through the last mile and finished. It felt great. Then when all the adrenaline had diminished we went and ran 2 miles. Worst 2 miles of my life. It was actually 1.93 miles because the marathon had been 26.07. During the race I told Rebecca I would laugh if she won first overall in women. She did and I laughed. She almost beat the men too... She beat me. Results don't lie. Splits: 9:18, 9:01, 8:46, 8:21, 8:14, 8:41, 8:54, 8:46, 8:37, 8:41, 9:34, 9:00, 8:44, 8:27, 8:34, 8:41, 8:24, 8:26, 8:42, 9:34, 8:45, 8:52,8:31, 9:33, 9:41, 8:24, 0:33 Total Ascent: 1846 Total Descent: 1830 | 