14. LAKE WOBEGON - MINNESOTA May 9, 2009

GARRISON KEILLOR would have been so proud. His fictional town of Lake Wobegon where "all the women are strong, all the men are good looking, and all the children are above average," is being put on the map. I was even sure we were running past THE Lake Wobegon, when another runner indicated there was no such thing!

That beautifully level straight trail behind Diane in the first photo was once a railroad that community-minded citizens thoughtfully paved for use as a biking, running, skate-boarding, snow-mobiling trail. It's even handicapped accessible, obviously, since they let intelligence-challenged marathon runners use it, nearly 200 of us at this the Second Annual Lake Wobegon Trail Marathon. One community even built this cute covered bridge on it.

Unfortunately my recent "accident" wiped out several weeks of training and I was inadequately prepared for this race. Diane had dedicated herself to running with her daddy, and we did great until about half-way, when my legs took to seriously complaining about having to run, then they took to complaining about even walking. But we had planned this project to "do a marathon" and we weren't about to quit! So we made it to the finish line, not with a PR to be sure, BUT WE MADE IT! At least my legs had quit complaining. They were just plain numb! It was a couple days later before they returned to more or less normal functioning!

Kevin achieved a PR of 4:34:30, at a pace of 10:28, then after an hour or so of worrying, ran a couple miles back down the trail to see what had happened to us, ultimately doing over 30 miles that day!

Pictured here starting at the left are a fellow from England who came to run his 160th or so marathon, a 72 year old from California just a couple runs from completing "A Marathon in Each of the 50 States" the SECOND time, for a total of some 147 marathons, me - just barely completing my second marathon, a real crazy Minnesotan who has completed the 50 marathons in 50 states thing FOUR TIMES, Kevin who's great at humoring his dad-in-law, my Diane who sacrificed a potential Personal Record to keep dad from becoming a railroad fatality statistic, and Sharon Hobbs who is the very kind and capable race organizer.

Many thanks Sharon. Let it be known that we HIGHLY recommend this marathon as one that is well organized with lots of great volunteers, lots of food and drinks, great medal and shirt and LEVEL like a train track!