Preferred Care Rochester Marathon
Rochester, New York
Sunday, September 14, 2008

Sunday, September 14, 2008 saw me race walk the Preferred Care Rochester Marathon in Rochester, New York. The race started at 7:30 AM and the temperature was already 75 degrees. It was supposed to be windy with rain and much cooler; however, the weather moved into Canada and missed Rochester. The remnants of Hurricane Ike were to arrive and create a cloudy day with 20 to 30 mph wind. Some how that did not happen either and the race turned out to be almost windless, sunny, and hot. The normal temperature should have been between 50 and 65 instead of 75 and 84. There were plenty of water stations, volunteers and police to control traffic. Electrolyte drinks were in short supply and caused me to decide to go slow. The course was well designed with 9 miles of streets followed by 5 miles of trail along the Erie Canal which was mud and gravel (I had to stop twice and remove gravel from my shoes). Next came 7 miles of bike path along the Erie Canal followed by 3 miles along the river. The rest of the course was through city streets.
I now have done marathons in 45 states and DC. Logistically this marathon was a little more complicated. Because of the danger predicted by Hurricane Ike to Key West, I evacuated to Atlanta and flew round trip to Rochester from there.