Thumbs Up on the Salt Lake City Marathon:

I'm so glad I ran this race; it was such a great experience. The whole atmosphere was so supportive and celebratory. Spectators lined the course and cheered us on the whole way. It felt like the whole Salt Lake community was involved.

I'm happy with my own results. My time was 3:31.51, a new personal best (it's funny - the last personal best I set was a 10.85 in the 100 meter speedskating...) I placed 20th overall among the women, and 4th in my age group. Yes, it hurt really bad, but not until Mile 20.

There really was a taco stand on State Street, around the 24th mile, and people standing on that corner must have thought I was becoming delirious from the heat, because I couldn't help laughing out loud about it.

I ran into another speedskater along the way -- Ron Macky was running the marathon, too. We passed each other, back and forth, a few times. Wanna know who was faster in the end? I'm not going to tell. You'll have to look it up.

My friend who was so scared of running the 5K ended up spending the weekend in a state of giddy euphoria, having realized that she'd actually enjoyed participating in a competitive athletic event for the first time in 10 years.

Ralph, the bloody blister, came back with a vengeance and exploded all over my shoe. I'm glad I didn't look down until after the race was over.

I really did listen to the Offspring the whole way. I can think of worse ways of spending a Saturday morning than trotting around for 3 and a half hours listening to all my favorite songs.