Flying Monkey Marathon Race Report - Part C

YEAH!! We were finally over the finish line and ready for the finish line party. We got our totally unique, totally one of a kind finishers medals and headed over to the food table. On the way over several other runners we had crossed paths with on the course walked over to congratulate us. Seriously, this was a great group of enthusiastic runners.

Before the race they had advertised Las Paletas popsicles. I've mentioned them on here before, and I love them. I was freezing at the start line and thought "How funny! It's way too cold out here for Popsicles." Wanna know the first thing I headed for? POPSICLES! They had tons of different banana type flavors - I went right for the banana chocolate chip. I think I wet my pants a little, it was SO GOOD! Seriously the best thing I have ever put in my mouth after a marathon! (Oreos and pizza are still a close second, though.) We dropped off our gear at our car, stopped and met the wife of L that we had run with in the early part of the race and hobbled back over asap for the awards ceremony.

I know it was probably a pain for the winners (who had finished two hours earlier!) to wait around (esp in the cold, cold day), but I think that was really cool. It was nice to have lots of people in the finishers area when we finished. Prizes were for top 3 guys and gals, reg and masters. First place was a Wizard of Oz book, second was a monkey slingshot and third a barrel of monkeys. And EVERYONE got a door prize! Brent got a cool shirt about monkeys (I made him pick that) and I got monkey socks. They had lots of other really nice tech stuff (shorts, gloves, watches) as well but I wanted something monkey specific!

Then, I was ready to get my pig on. There was SO much food! Most of it home baked by the volunteers. (There were about 100 volunteers there - a one to one runner/volunteer ratio. Awesome!!) All of the volunteers were stuffing us like turkeys and making sure we were taken care of in every way imaginable. There was coffee, cookies, sausage balls, granola, and so many home baked goodies. I ate it ALL!! We ran into our local running friend J and talked with her for a while. So much fun!! It's strange that neither one of us was hurting that bad, I think my body is starting to get used to this insanity. Around 6 hours a few more people were finishing, and the crowd was starting to thin out. Everyone ran over to the finishing line to make sure these people had a great reception. Around 6:15 or so we were starting to be really chilled so we headed home, with a few extra Popsicles for the road!

Seriously, I would give this race an A++. It was a race dreamed up by locals and embraced by the locals and - really evident in the support of all 3 local running stores and the massive number of volunteers. People came from all over the US to run it, too. Would I do it again? In a heartbeat. All the months of painful hill training were worth it. I wouldn't trade Sunday's experience for the world. We could certainly have had a faster time if we hadn't stopped for pictures or had conversations with volunteers or spectators, but would they have known how much we appreciated them??

So, WILL I do it again? I dunno. There's already a huge amount of interest for next year's race locally (and across the US, I'm sure). You can even be emailed when registration opens again! I was planning to volunteer next year and have a nice hill break, but now a new discussion thread has really peaked my interest. People are talking about a Double Monkey. Running the trails of PWP in an organized fashion is strictly prohibited as the trails are really for hikers. But, what if some people got together and ran the trails for an unorganized 26.2 miles on Saturday and then ran the Monkey on Sunday? Interesting. That would be quite the challenge... Anyone wanna come and run it with us? Brent already told me if I'm in he's in. He's the best husband ever.

I promise to take a pic of the medal and personalized finisher shirt and get it up here soon since several of you have asked! They are both really cool! I took my finishers medal to work today because so many people have asked about it.

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone celebrating Thanksgiving tomorrow! And good luck to everyone doing Turkey Trots tomorrow and throughout the weekend!! I am ready to get back to running myself! We've had one work feast after another this week and I am feeling pudgy!

Have a great one!

Rachel