4 hours….we don’t need no stinking four hours!

In fact take those four hours and return 25 seconds of them back to their original owners. That’s how confident I feel about this transaction.

Yeah confident….sore but confident as I not only set a PR on a course I had no business PR’ing on but also managed to see something that I never thought I’d see in my running “career”. As I crossed the finish line at the 2008 Frederick Marathon, my watch read 3hr, 59 min, and 35 sec. So not only did I break my PR set last month in DC by about 5 min but I broke through the 4 hour marathon window (barely!).

The course was very tough, especially the back end. If you care to look, here’s the elevation chart and my version of the course from Gmap Pedometer. The front half of the race is fairly flat and scenic, rolling through small neighborhoods and historic homes before coming back to the Fairgrounds. The second half however went out to the more industrial section of town and then down a long stretch of highway where we hit the two “Monster” hills before returning back to a newer neighborhood up on the ridge.

The people were great but none greater then the mighty Boigs who came out to support me (even if they missed me at 15), feed me the night before, and even give me a lift home. Thanks for the support. And thanks to Mrs. Bloggerman for getting stuck in CA and not being able to attend. For those of you keeping score at home, she’s missed the last 2 marathons and I’ve set PR’s at each!

I think I’m taking the summer “off” and just running for fun until the fall comes around. We have Baltimore in October and will hear about entry in to NYC (November) in mid June. If I don’t get in there I may do Marine Corps (late October), San Antonio (November) or Las Vegas (early December) as my fourth this year….we’ll see.