Surgical Artistry Modesto Marathon

While the marquee marathon this weekend took place in Los Angeles, I opted to run a race in Modesto. It was here in this Northern California town in the central valley that I discovered this little thing called running. I ran my first 5k here in September 2009, and since then, I have run 37 half marathons and 14 full ones. It was only appropriate that I returned to the place that started it all to run my 15th marathon.  There are many sentimental reasons why I chose this race over the more heavily hyped LA Marathon.  Here are some of those reasons:

Mother Nature did not make it easy for me today.  Fortunately, it wasn't as bad as the weather man had predicted. Coming into this race, I had thought that I needed Noah's Ark just to get through the first 16 miles.  However, the rain was minimal.  I can't say the same for the head wind.  The second half of the race was brutal.  The heavy wind dropped my pace and at times it felt like I was walking through ice cold molasses.  Mother Nature's unpredictable mood swings made this race difficult, but at the end of the day, I got the job done.  Marathon #15 is now in the books.

Titanium scoreboard: 8 down, 44 to go!