North Olympic Marathon

Yesterday Betsy and I ran the North Olympic Discovery Marathon. We had both been training for this to be our Boston Qualifer, and both felt confident in our abilities.

Well… More precisely, Betsy felt confident in herself and I felt confident in her as well. My results were totally in question, since I don’t exactly have a training schedule per se, but rather just go out and run when I have time to.

Two bottles of wine awaited us at the finish line — a cheap zinfandel and a ridiculously expensive Grand Cru from Saint Emilion, the disposition of which depended upon our performances.

The results? Here’s the raw data:

122 Hagen, Matt Seattle, WA 37 M 46 41 10 3:30:14.6
294 Rogers, Betsy Seattle, WA 44 F 165 51 5 4:15:31.2

Translation: With a time of 3 hours, 30 minutes and 14.6 seconds, I missed my goal time by 15 minutes and change. Betsy’s 4 hour 15 minute and 31.2 second finish also missed her goal by 15 minutes and change. She was fifth in her age group and I was tenth in mine. Most importantly, for the first time ever, we both made it onto the first page of results, being 46th and 165th overall!

However, the cheap wine tasted great, especially since we were able to share it with my best friend Mary and my godson Giacomo, who surprised us at the finish with shirts on that said “Go Matt” and “Go Betsy.” (Actually, Giacomo had milk and crackers, but we drank his share of the wine.)

But there was one more high point. We met the race director for the Yakima Canyon Marathon, who began running at the age of 51 and who now has 426 marathons under his belt. Talk about showing us all up! His bib number was his age (78) and he won his age class, of which there were about three people.

78 Dolphin, Bob Renton, WA 78 M 309 175 1 5:35:17.4

A good time was had overall, despite the missed goals, and now we still have something to shoot for, just as soon as we can walk again.