Race Report - Sunburst Marathon

The Sunburst Marathon in South Bend, Indiana took place at 6:00 AM on Saturday, May 31st. There were numerous thunderstorms during the day on Friday which continued well into the night. This created a perfect recipe for 100% humidity at race start. The temperature at the start line was 70 degrees, so it was clear it was going to be a tough day for marathoning.

Cons:

• High humidity
• Warm temps
• Breezy
• Cotton T-shirt (same shirt for those doing the 5K, 10K, half marathon and family 5k fitness walk - why did I do the full 26.2? Oh yeah, to get the state of Indiana)
• Tacky medal (even though it was the 25th anniversary)
• Lots of turns on the course and quite a bit of concrete
• Tweaky knee post-race
• Got stuck in terrible traffic going through the city (of Chicago) on the way to my sister's (my hamstrings really appreciated that).

Pros:

• Finished on the 50 yd. line of the Notre Dame football field (really cool)
• Got the state of Indiana (state # 30 for me, marathon # 56)
• Saw a friend who was running (I didn't know he was going to be there) collect state #50
• Received a ride back to the start line (rather than waiting 1 1/2 hours for a shuttle bus) with a fellow marathoner and her husband (thank you Ken & Deb!)
• The above ride was in a brand new Mustang convertible
• Post-race Popsicles (very refreshing)
• Post-race fruit cup (watermelon, red grapes, cantaloupe)
• Drove from South Bend to visit my sister for the weekend
• Went to the Arlington Heights Art Festival on Saturday (beautiful artwork)
• Went to the Botanical Gardens on Sunday (gorgeous)
• Had a delightful swim on Sunday morning in an outdoor lap pool