The Self Transcendence Marathon 8/07

Hello all, a little unexpected, but I ran a Marathon today. It was called The Self Transcendence Marathon. It was in Rockland County NY, where I grew up. It was held at Rockland Lake wich is a 3 mile loop around, so you had to circle it almost 9 times.lol.I used to jog around this lake when I was younger, never more than one loop though. I only found out about it a week ago, so I sent a check out and got in just in time. I originally signed on just as a training run for the 50k in Hartford next month, but that has been since cancelled. (So I will be looking for a new event). Anyway, I had no idea what I signed up for, it is a very low key race. It is held by SRI Chinmoy Races. At the beginning of the race everyone ( probably around 800 people) pushed all the way up to the starting line as an old man who could barely walk made his way to a stage. I have no idea who he was, but everyone seemed to be in awe by him. It was so silent that all you could hear was the crickets, and I noticed that some people had there hands together as if they were praying. I immediately wondered what I had gotten involved in, some type of religious cult or something. The old guy started speaking and everybody seemed to understand him but me, Im still not sure if he was speaking a different language or some kind of secret code. Anyway he ended his speach by saying Now Start, and everyone started. I finished in 4:28. I carried my bottle the whole way until the last lap, I dropped it cause it was empty. I took it nice and easy for the first half and actually felt pretty good all the way to around mile 18 or so and then my legs and feet started really feeling all the pounding. I tried to make a conscious effort to shuffle along and not pound so much, but....you know....it still hurts. Around mile 23 the old guy that gave the speach in the begining drove by on a motorized cart surrounded by an entourage of about 8 people. ( I never found out who he was). He was either some religious head, or maybe some type of Yoga Zen Master of some kind.The last lap couple of laps was absolutely all heart pushing me along. I'll tell ya what.....its really hard to run for 4 and a half hours!!My last marathon was just under 4 hours, that extra half hour hurt a lot.