Navy 2009 - navy2009

Nate
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Navy Girls
Val (gray goes navy), Sarah, Jennie, and Dana

Giles
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Ken and Shawn
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Terry and husband, Mark
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Nicole and her friend
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Brenda and Eric
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Jiho
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May
Hostess with the mostest

Mark and friends
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Runner friends
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Ed
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Phil and Jennie
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David and Glen
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Honorary Navy Teamer Craig
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Coach V
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Tracy
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Sarah
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Jessica and Max
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Jesse
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David and Lauren
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Victoria and Orange Friend Ro
Yes, I am eating pizza for breakfast. For the record, I also ate pizza for lunch and dinner that day.

Victoria and Dana
Best buddies!

Heather and Dana
Wondering if today will be the day they break 4 hours...and it was!!

Ed and Shawn
"The less crowded porta-potties are over there."

Grey Friend Val
Ready for 26.2!

Glen and Giles
First timers who totally rocked the marathon

Sarah and Lauren
Looking ready for the big race!

Giles and Dana
Decorating their shirts with silly stickers to amuse other runners along the way

DJ and Shannon
Pre-race smiles

The Happy Couple
How many efforts can one coach make to humiliate her teammates? Just ask Dana and Giles.

The Two Richards
Congrats to Rich and Rick on sub 4 finishes! Amazing!

Best Coaches Ever
(Especially the female...)

David and Jesse
Congrats to 2 more sub-4 finishers!

Eric and Photographer Wife Hunter
And Kim, smiling in the background!

Sandra and Tracy
The inseparable dynamic duo!

The Elites
I got a headstart on you gusy so I could take a picture of what spectators get to see...the pacing car followed by a her

Runner Envy
They make it look so easy!

My Friend Matt
Matt topped his OBX time, finishing in 2:42 and placing 17th. WOW!

WTF?
This was a totally random dude shouting encouragement. Maybe he thought this was the Patrick Henry Half?

OOPS
It's not that easy to take pictures over your head while running...

Giles and Ed
The over-the-head-while-running shots tend to be blurry

Victoria with the Speedy Navy Runners
Ed ran ahead to snap the shot...like a normal person, not over his head

Shawn keeping the peace amongst fierce rivals
Heather and Dana vowed to beat Nate and finish in under 4. Nate vowed to beat THEM and come in under 4. Almost all goal

The Rivals
Yes, I took this one over my head, too.

Dana and Nate
And this one.

GO NAVY!
If you aren't having fun, then what's the point?

Shawn paces sub-4 hopefuls
Sarah, Jesse, Glen, etc.

Scott and Marti
These two have the brightest attitudes and warmest hearts. Thanks for all your positive energy, guys!

Course-side entertainment
How cool were these guys?

DJ's Game Face
DJ shattered his PR and beat his goal for today's race. Way to go!!

Orange Team's Intrepid Galloway Runner
Congrats to my friend Ro on completing his first marathon. Can I bully him into coming back next year?

Mike B
Hey Mike, next time you have a really big event coming up...remember your deodorant and get to the starting line on time

Shannon and Kim
Back of the pack, but always winners in my book!

Kim, Eric, and Nicole
Looks like they are doing it right and having a great time

Joggler
I wonder if this guy finished?

Joggler
In addition to the joggler, I also saw a barefoot runner.

Blair Just
The Pink Nation coach cowboys up

Don Garber
The Man with the Plans

Forest Hill Fun
Thanks to these young ladies for coming out to support the race!

Giles and Rick
Flying by on the way to the Lee Bridge

Nate Takes the Lead
Dana and Heather decide to conserve energy and work on catching him later

Dana and Heather
Relaxed, confident, and FAST at the halfway point.

The James from the Lee Bridge
Fortunately the river didn't flood out the course. Instead, it provided an extra-scenic back drop.

Look at all those runners!
This part of the course is a real challenge

Kevin Shea
Looking strong on the bridge

Go Jiho!
To the right I spy a former Navy Teamer out to help folks across the bridge

Go Nic!
Battling all kinds of leg pain, Nic meets his goal of completing one (and only one!) marathon

Phil and Jenny
Another happy couple keeping each other company through 26.2 miles and beyond

Ro takes a photo rest
I'm so proud of you!

Jon on Belvidere
Our ultra marathoner hit some snags during the run, but never doubted for a minute that he would finish

Nuff Said
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Kim and Eric coming up Main
I hate this part of the course, but apparently Kim and Eric can handle it.

Tom and Don
They may not finish in record time, but they have record spirit! Nice job, guys!

Shannon, Kim, and Ken
An extra special congrats to Kim on knocking around 30 minutes off her former PR!! That is incredible!

David and Terry Ann
Terry Ann, I have been meaning to tell you that you have some incredible GUNS!

Nic on Northside
Thanks for sharing Mile 23 with me!

Scott and Marti
Enjoying running the farthest distance either has ever run before!

Kim and Eric
Another solid pair of runners and running buddies celebrating mile 24

Mike at 24
Already thinking about the beer at the finish!

Sean bringing it in
Not Navy, but an awesome MTT runner all the same

Nice Job, Nicole!
Nicole runs mile 25 with support from a friend

Last mile, Don and Tom!
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Belinda and Mark
After running OBX last weekend, Belinda did the Richmond Half. Then she kept Mark company as he photographed everyone a

Jennie and Phill
Finished!

Dana
Congrats on your PR and sub 4 finish! You are awesome!

Kim and Scott
Catching up at the Sportsbackers tent

Happy Ending
In so many ways...

So it begins...
The confident runners approach the trailhead a few days before the big July 4th race.

Caution?
The intrepid runner girls are not afraid of a little warning! After all, we run marathons! How hard can it be?

HA!
We laugh in the face of this warning, which is clearly meant for the average day hiker and NOT Navy girls like Dana and

Up we go!
It looks manageable, doesn't it?

Wait a second...
Are we supposed to climb UP this tree's roots? By pulling ourselves up climber-style? Hm...this is not running...

Yes, folks...
that is a look of hysteria on my face. I have succeeded in climbing over the roots, and there is something of a cliff a

Dana looks blurry...
because my hands were shaking with fear when I took this picture! We really thought we were going to plummet off the sid

We decided to turn around...
but going down looks no safer than going up!

Phew!
We made it back down. No, not back down from the summit. Back down from our feeble attempt at the summit.

How dirty do you think her butt is?
We literally slid down this part on our butts.

Quitters!
Just happy to be alive! Amazed that so many people actually participate in this race, when we can't even make it up the

Dirty Girl
my white fleece was gray with dust, and my hands were covered in scrapes and dirt.

There she blows!
Mount Marathon calls to us, and we face her once again.

Mount Marathon, Take Two!
After a day's rest, we decided to try again.

Sort of...
We took the wimpy...I mean scenic...route to the top.

Trail Map
The two vertical trails show the runner up/down routes. Dana and I took the horizontal trail to the right, then crested

Still steep...
but not deadly!

Sour Grapes...
This route is much more scenic, so I'm glad we went this way!

Sissies...
Too afraid to try the runner's route...too much vacation time left to risk injury.

Worth the journey!
The views from the trail were worth the agony of getting there.

Dangers Abound!
Who says the Jeep Route is for sissies? We saw bear scat! We could have been eaten alive!

Half way to the summit
And enjoying every view!

Snow melt in July
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Marathon Bowl
Our original plan was to stop at this point, but of course, we decided to forge on once we got this far.

Treacherous Trail
Hard to even call this a trail, but this is the way we reached the summit.

Hmmm...
We didn't expect to find this treacherous slope on the "easy" side of the mountain.

Nowhere to go but UP!
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Race day supplies
When we saw the helicopter circling the mountain, we assumed they were rescuing some other hikers who got in over their

Go Navy Girls!
We reached the summit in one piece.

3,022 feet above Seward
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What goes up...
must come down!

YIKES!
This is either the stupidest or bravest thing we have ever done...the shale was literally giving way beneath our feet an

Resting halfway down the shale trail.
Smiling like a crazy person, covered in dirt, and drenched in fear.

But seriously...
within the next 24 hours of this experience, 1000 runners would take to this trail.

At the end of the runner's trail!
I didn't take pictures on the part they call The Cliffs, because I was too dirty and concentrating too hard on not falli

Real Runners
These guys helped us down the dangerous sections of the trail. The guy on the left, Paul, finished the race the next da

Kids' Race
The kids' race goes to the bottom of the shale part and then comes back down. This little boy said "It hurts" as he ran

Women's Race
Once all the kids are down, the women take their turn. They are badasses. They range in age from 18 to at least 75.

The route
Below tree line, runners face the cliffs, and above tree line they face the shale trails up and down, which are visible

Runners?
On race day, we were spectators. We actually napped on a stranger's lawn along the course during the women's race becau

July Pride!
A lot of the runners wear red, white, and blue, just like MTT runners on July 4th! This is one intrepid finisher of the

The Cliffs!
Very dangerous.

Men's Race
Here you can see some of the men barrelling down the cliff section, which is the end of the mountain portion. They go o

Scary!
Runners above cause rocks to tumble down on the runners and spectators below. These Alaskans sure are hard core.

Oldest Finisher
This 80-year-old man finished the race in just under TWO hours!

Celebrating at the Yukon Bar
This has nothing to do with Mt. Marathon, I just think it's a great picture of me and my new boyfriend, Tommy.

The winner
This is the winner of the race. He finished in like 48 minutes, which is a little slow, because it was so "hot" this ye

Both Winners
I got to hang otu with Mattias and Cedar at the bar. They even let me drink out of their trophies!