Surfside Beach Marathon

I ran laps at the track with Leah Koester Friday morning before heading for Surfide Beach (south of Galveston) for the marathon today. This was my 6th straight year for running this race. This marathon is entirely on the beach. The sand was not as hard-packed as it usually is. However, the temperature was in the 70's with a nice breeze. Overcast skies. I felt like I ran well and never walked between aid stations, but my finish time of 6:30:47 is slower than I expected. My previous PR for this race was 6:04 and my PW (personal worst) was 6:27. In any case, Surfside was my 15th marathon or longer this season (Oct. 10 - Apr. 10), with 5 more to go to achieve my goal of 20.