Christy Hammerstrom ran a marathon in Belize and she wrote up her race report to tell us about it.

There were 43 people who ran the marathon.  So, with a field that small...i actually placed in my age group.  First time, ever.  Pretty low key, our start line was a speed bump by the football field in the middle of the village.

It wasn't a  chipped timed marathon. I didn't realize that until I picked my packet. We did meet the race director.  He has a vacation home in Placencia and spends about 6 weeks a year there. He works with his Rotary to raise money to send the village kids to high school (after 8th grade, they have to pay for school). This year he send 70 kids to high between rotary raising money and thos race.

The sun came up sooner than I anticipated. I only had about 45 minutes in the dark.  Had to navigate pot holes in the village, volunteers held flashlights on them. There were water stops every mile handing out anything from homemade Gatorade to coconut water to beer. You ran through the airport...literally. They had a cross arm that they would raise as you went around the airstrip.  Since they didn't have timing mats and it was an open course, each waterstop had a list of everyone running and their bib number. They'd mark you off the list and call you by name when you came through the waterstop. Just a very friendly race.

I wasn't hoping for a record time since this was the 3rd marathon this year. But, I finished feeling good about the race. Probably, the best mentally I've felt after a marathon in a while. I felt pretty defeated after Grandma's and almost didn't sign up for this.