All American Marathon

I drove down to Fayetteville, North Carolina on Saturday morning to meet up Cara, Miles, Daisy and Declan.  On Friday night we had decided it was easier to just meet outside of the expo instead of driving to Daisy and then back to the expo since Cara and Miles were flying into Raleigh-Durham which was an hour away.

The expo was being held at the DoubleTree in downtown Fayetteville, and the expo was in one small conference room and they had two long lines, one line for pre-registered and the other one for day before registration.  There was no vendor to sell you anything if you need (i.e gels, body glide socks) they also ran out of safety pins for your bibs, and men large shirts.  There was four packet pickup in around Fort Bragg prior to Saturday.   

Since everyone was a bit hungry we headed over to Buffalo Wild Wings.  We were seated immediately placed our order and then we had one of the longest wait for our order.  Shortly after talking with the Assistant Manager we finally received our order. 

I decided that to call it night around 9:15 since Cara said she wanted to leave the house by 5:15 to have enough time to relax at the start.  Daisy drove us over to Festival Park where the race was going to start.  As we were walking down to the entrance to the park we ran into a couple of Maniacs who informed us that there was going to be a picture at 6:15 in front of the Starting Line.  After the picture we headed over to the porta-potty line which at this point was moving pretty quickly to be so close to the 6:30 start time. 

All American Start Line

Cara and I before the Maniac Picture

Maniacs Picture before the start

Slowly making our way into our corral

Moving towards the start

It took us a while to make it into the corral since they were right next to Festival Park Entrance.  After we crossed the starting line we said we would run to the eight mile marker and see how were feeling before we started doing a run/walk interval of 4:1.  What we didn’t count on was the temperature being so warm and after  3 miles and before the steady climb we decided we would start the 4:1 interval.

After leaving downtown and the nice neighborhoods we turned onto the All American Freeway for four miles before entering Fort Bragg.  Cara and I ran with Marathon Man (Trent) and Jessica for a couple of miles before we stopped at our special marker (8 miles).  This is special to us because we met last year during the Tacoma City Marathon at mile 8 and ended up running the rest of the marathon together and from that race we promised each other that if we are ever at the same race we would start and finish together no matter the situation.

Cara and Marathon Man (Trent from Australia)

The lonely All American Way that leads you into Fort Bragg

 Mile 8 was where we meet last year during the Tacoma City Marathon

Beginning of the Blue Mile

More of the Blue Mile. 

                                     

Welcome Fort Bragg

Cara talking to a very nice Sergeant

Cara announcing 3 marathons/3 states/9 days

Dedication Mile to Sara (MRTT Vienna)

 Cara having fun jumping over cone.

 So happy to see Daisy and Declan.  She made us Peanut Butter sandwiches.  Thank You Daisy!

his our new thing to do at marathon lay down and proclaim you are so over the marathon.

 Iron Mike

The All American Marathon was a 100 percent turn around for me.  Last week break down during the second half of the Oklahoma City Marathon.  Overall I enjoyed the marathon, the long stretches on Fort Bragg became a little less motivating as the course made its way back to the Main Post Parade Field.  

They announced that the race will be held on March 22, 2015 for next and the coming years.