3 hours 49 minutes 53 seconds

On Saturday I ran my first marathon -- the Mayor's Midnight Sun Marathon -- and it went fantabulously. My goal was to run it in four hours or less, and I clocked in with 10 minutes to spare. I placed 36th out of 713 women finishers. And I enjoyed nearly every moment of it (mile 24.5 to mile 25.5, when I could see the finish line but had to circle a big lake, were pretty grueling).

The day was perfectly overcast and the course followed a great route through Anchorage -- part bike trail, part hiking trail, part urban enviornment, part mountain environment. As I passed within a stone's throw from my house, I thought, "wow, I do live in a cool place."

Now I'm qualified for the Crow Pass race. A 24-mile mountain race I've had my sights set on for a while. One of the "qualifiers" for the Crow Pass race is to have run a marathon in four hours or less -- bodaboom, bodabang! That will be next summer. In the meantime, I turn my attention to the Matanuska Peak Challenge -- a 14-mile ascent and descent of two mountains that covers 9,000 feet of elevation gain and loss. Yousers! Just finishing that one will be an accomplishment.