Kiawah Island Marathon (SC), December 13th, 2014

Traveling to Kiawah for a third year in a row it is fun to reflect on how the trip has grown.  In 2012, I traveled to the race on my own.  In 2013, I was lucky to be joined by 5 friends, and in 2014 we had a group of 14 (9 runners and 5 spectators).

Even though it included a marathon PR by 6 minutes (Boston qualifying is getting so close!), this weekend was about more than running my sixth marathon.  I had the chance to…

~Be there for 2 friends’ first halves and another one’s full.  Okay, I was actually still running when they finished, but I celebrated with them afterwards!

~Ask someone if she had seen a banana walk by.  This was postrace and I’m pretty sure she thought I was in that postrace-crazy state.  Then one of my friends walked up in a banana costume (with a carrot not too far behind).  Thanks to friends who came along to cheer and those who chose to do it in costume!

~Share the world’s largest bathroom with only one other person.  We managed to find a house that easily slept 14 of us with 5 bedrooms and 4.5 bathrooms, several of which were the size of my bedroom.

~Go for a postrun walk on the beach (which might have involved a stroll past Tom Hanks’ house)

~Win a hand of Cards Against Humanity with “Gogurt.”

~Enjoy brunch at High Cotton in Charleston.

~Share a bottle of Kiawah wine with travelmates on our one-year Kiawah reunion (said bottle of wine was obtained our first year as an apology for our wireless not working).

We’re already planning and looking forward to next year!