Tunnel Marathon

August 19 - Light at the End of the Tunnel Marathon – North Bend WA

The Light at the End of the Tunnel Marathon is certainly is a fun course with just the size field I like, about 100 runners and self serve aid stations. The course has plenty of scenery and novelty; the run follows a “rail to trail” old railroad bed. The event is named after the 2 mile long tunnel near the start (yes, you’d better bring a flashlight). There is an elevation loss of 2500 feet from start to finish. Many runners look towards this event to run a pace that will qualify them for Boston! The event was well organized and is a lot of fun; I highly recommend it! http://www.littlemarathon.com/Tunnel/default.asp

I was talking with a friend yesterday and she shared with me an observation about some of her Marathon Maniac friends (http://www.marathonmaniacs.com/ ); it occurred to her that when they start stringing marathons together their perspective of what is normal begins to creep. When most of their friends are spending every weekend running marathons (unless they are running an ultra), their view of normal is most likely quite abnormal!

Having pondered that, I am not sure if the Tunnel Marathon is a deceiving run, or if it is actually the easy run I though it would be and my minimal recovery from the Haulin Aspen Marathon the Sunday before skewed my view… nevertheless, I anticipated being able to run with a consistent pace but found myself in a moderate survival mode towards the end.