Whose stupid idea was that? Oh yeah, mine.

Sunday was the Skopje Marathon and I ran it in 3 hours, 52 minutes, 37 seconds. If you asked me at 3 hours, 53 minutes, I'd say choosing to run the Skopje Marathon was one of the stupidest things I'd ever done. I went out too fast, I started walking in the second half, and the heat was a lot more noticable as I went a second time around the exact same course. However, I can say that I finished in the Top 10--okay, it's true there were only 8 women in the marathon and I came in 6th. And to add insult to injury, if I'd come in 5th place then I would have won 150 Euros. But still, I was the top--well, only--women's marathoner from the U.S. and I had a fantastic group cheering me on. There were about 10 Peace Corps volunteers (most of whom did the half marathon or 5K) cheering me on and another 5 or so language instructors from our training who were rooting for me. I've never had so many people on a race course shouting my name, it was really awesome. I posted some photos from the official photos and from fellow volunteer Kerry on Picasa. Will I do the marathon again next year? No. The half marathon? Maybe.