This year, it proved to be the ultimate challenge to run two full marathons only two weeks apart. To run two marathons back to back, has always been a goal of mine since starting in 2013, however I was unsure of how runners accomplished such things, until eleven years later here in 2024 reaching new limits. I do not recommend trying this at home, two full marathons in a formal race setting is very challenging. Finishing both of my full marathons, in Maine and here in Upstate New York, felt as if to be inexplicable magic. There is a feeling of significant gratification with joy to be in this great sport, achieving a career long dream while fundraising to encourage health, happiness and living lively, that is truly magical.

The Maine Marathon 2024

October 2013, was my first time running 26.2 miles, when you’re eighteen and you run that far it feels pretty significant.  I really really wanted to run the Maine Marathon ten years later in 2023, but it just did not work out so here it happened for my eleven yearaversary!  At twenty-nine here in 2024, my ten year victory lap marathon happened eleven years deep into the career.  Running is truly my passion in life, and I just love being in Maine having been up there for all of college plus many trail adventures, chasing coastal miles.  The feeling of running my event for over ten years in one of my favorite places in the world is too special to express in words.  

After a long car ride from Upstate NY, we checked into our lovely Maine hotel and ventured off to Portland for the Maine Marathon Expo.  The Maine Marathon logo photo backsplash is so fun, eye-catching, exciting to see whilst walking into all the thrill of a big race expo. The shirts were a very cool design, of the Maine Track Club.  Being social, buying merchandise, my new Maine Marathon glass, gave me all the joy to kick off race weekend.  Wearing all my running attire, sneakers and new race top, we went to one of my favorite Portland spots, the lobster company.  I dreamed of sipping on my pumpkin smashed Shipyard beer, with a delicious buttery lobster roll while listening to a loud live band right on the ocean, such a perfect pre-marathon evening under the stars.   

Before my marathon, I ate several mini snickers bars with my electrolyte gel.  Sugar with all the candy is all I ever want for running all the miles.  During the race, I had a gel every five miles, until the end when I had one every two miles and drank all the water and Gatorade without strategy.  Always have a strategy until the time comes to just stuff your face.   

During the national anthem, I put my hand over my heart, feeling all the power from the crowd.  Then, the gun went off, my Skullcandy headphones popped in blasting Queen and my feet were flying too fast with the surging crowd along the glorious coast of gorgeous Maine.   

It’s funny, my first time in the Maine Marathon we weren’t allowed to go over the bridge just along the water, as it had been under construction.  My second time, my senior year of college, I don't even remember if we did the bridge.  This year, it was a pleasure to stride across the bridge two times, very fun.   

Positive affirmations in poetry or life, which I think of during long runs under pressure may be, 'Hold infinity in the palm of your hand and eternity in an hour’ or ‘you’re running for god’ or ‘just do it’.  In all seriousness or gigglyness, every athlete has positive affirmations during those tough spots.  ‘The Climb’ is still one of my favorite running songs, for Maine Marathons especially.  Chasing the long miles is difficult eleven years later in different ways than my first time; is knowing what to expect better than being surprised?  In running, you grow and adapt through the years to be built together the necessary way to achieve the feat, those tendons and bones work with the muscles to take the runner places.  For instance, at eighteen my flesh felt as if it were tearing from the bones twenty miles deep and I had to run anyway, where now my legs have adapted to intense high mileage, so they keep springing fluidly in my stride with a more relaxed feeling enabling sarcastic yet real life kicks in speed that last fifty meters to the finish.  Running may be more of a state of mind if the runner is not injured.   

Several miles deep, the crowd separated, no one was shoulder to shoulder running through the course.  To see half marathon runners turning the corner, while the full marathon runners keep going another direction, is intimidating as if to be lapped.  Nevertheless, those legs keep springing, one mile to the next, not knowing where you’ll place in the mix of re-layers, half-marathon runner's, plus extraneous categories.  Too many layers of definition to placement in running to think about on the actual run, but I just focus on the mile I’m running before planning the next.  

Some things about the marathon still feel unnatural, like inevitable chafing after twenty miles, my thighs were so bloody it was embarrassing and painful, but nothing to stop the race for.  I wish, I had the Vaseline packets from my summer camp med kit in my bra, the med station gave me some luckily.  On merry way past twenty miles, my mantra was ‘keep springing’.  Sometimes, I would just stare at my thighs maybe hoping to put a spell on them to keep on moving and grooving, shimmying on down to the finish line.  Strategy balanced with pain and thirst happens in those last three miles, while you still feel competitive as if to be running shoulder to shoulder in a track meet.   

Loud music, with my disciplined springing legs took me to the familiar final stretch, with my increased speed making me feel powerful as I crossed the finish line, quickly switching from super serious to a smile of pure joy before holding my glamorous Maine Marathon Medal shaped as the actual state.   

Soon after, came my celebratory drive to Old Orchard Beach, then going to the beach in bear feet being taken over by the salty ocean waves, after stripping into just my run-buns and sports-bra, very glamorous medal around my neck, as if it were still my college days being wild and free.   

 The Maine Marathon, had been everything I ever wanted it to be.   

The Great NYS Marathon 2024

Two weeks following the Maine Marathon, I did the Great New York State Marathon here in Syracuse New York.  I have run the Empire Marathon and Great New York State Marathon.  Originally, the course started in the baseball stadium, then went through Onondaga Park.  In recent years, it is a loop of the lake course.  In 2022, starting on the fairgrounds then going to Baldwinsville and back along the lake, and the past two years ‘23 & ’24 just starting in the amphitheater and running around the lake two times.  Last year, the weather had been brutal with rain, this time the sun was shining for us all.  

Procrastinating, I picked my race bib up the morning of the run for the first time ever in a marathon.   

Then, I reached into my pocket to discover my earbuds were not in the case.  In my younger marathon years, at nineteen, I did the Empire Marathon without earbuds which was fine.  In MDI, I love not running with headphones because there is so much scenic nature to embrace on the course where being technology free is a luxury.  However, in this year's event in Syracuse, as the miles went on along the shores of Onondaga Lake or the mall, fans could find me playing Brittany Spears on my phone being old school.   

The marathon started before the national anthem and thrilling beginning for the full marathon runners, with an encouraging and inspirational speech from the race organizers.  I always like focusing on what is ahead in the journey of a full marathon, running with purpose and strategy is a vitality for toeing the starting line.   

I love the way the sun hits the water on Onondaga Lake on marathon mornings just at the start.  The bridge on the Creek Walk Trail is so pretty, and then it feels cool to be running around the mall by train tracks feeling small compared to Lord & Taylor.  Footing on the main roads leading to the Onondaga Park entrance is hard for gravitating, while maintaining a certain pace.   

All of the Lights on the Lake Lights, my favorite thing in the world, were set up throughout the entire park.  This kept me going especially on the second lap.  Am I the luckiest girl in the world to run through all the lights on the lake twice in one day? The volunteers were incredible cheering us all on on and giving us water, I am really grateful.

Coming to a close of the first lap, which was 13.1 miles, a running friend gave me a bracelet that said, ‘keep running’.  It just was a moment of such seriousness mixed with almost a humor where I was about to re-run the entire route.  My legs were not heavy until eighteen miles in, a time my brain and body felt like ‘oh yeah this is the second marathon of the past two weeks’.  In training, I have run twenty miles back to back in one weekend, but never 26.2 with 26.2 in a real race under pressure two weeks apart.  It was like really hard.  The thing that made this really really hard, had been the water station 22 miles in, being dry and abandoned.  So, if a runner feels thirsty it’s too late, which is the reason I had to walk.  Playing it safe in my strategy, I thought, ‘walk until water’.  Then, a couple miles later, with water, came the disastrous gross bloody chafing legs from the race two weeks prior as I took stride again.  With the grace of God, my legs brought me to the amphitheater for the final stretch of 26.2 miles.  I found it deep within myself to spring into form and run through the finish, raising my hand to high-five my buddy announcing how amazingly I have run this event THREE years in a row, before crossing the finish line.   

I love my Great New York State Marathon Medal.  My third Great NYS Marathon within three years, and second full marathon for Autumn 2024.   

In celebration, my family treated me to beautiful pink roses with a pumpkin roll for dessert.  On my fireplace, I have my 2013 Medal from the Maine Marathon, my last two Great NYS Marathon Medals, and my Maine Marathon Medal from this year.  I would wear all my medals with my favorite pair of shoes all day every day forever...