This is an incredible marathon where the course goes from one side of the island to the other. It is the toughest marathon I have ran to date. More than 20 miles of the marathon are on trails and it is very hilly with a wonderful steep incline the first 3 miles. What made this marathon especially memorable for Jon and I is it RAINED, REALLY RAINED, the entire marathon. We are not talking a little drizzle, it was a downpour! We were told after the race it is the worst weather they have had in the 25 years of the marathon and the biggest rainstorm on the island in 9 years. We were not prepared gear-wise for the rain, but fortunately my marathon angels were looking out for us and we found some large black hefty type bags that we put over us, and I took my plastic gear bag, that is usually used to drop your after the marathon gear in, and tied it on my head. (Check out the pictures!). This marathon once again showed me the power of our minds. Right away Jon and I set the intention that this would be an awesome, positive experience, wet or not.....and it was. It showed me I can not only run a marathon, but I can run one sopping wet through the mud for 26.2 miles. At mile 20 I just started cracking up, laughing my guts out, it dawned on me that what we were doing was probably crazy and how many people would hate it, and yet here we were making it a great experience. Both our hands had become extremely puffy and swollen by mile 20, we could hardly close them..I started laughing and could hardly say this to Jon, "I don't want to stop at mile 26... I want to keep going to see how big our hands can get!" We did it, we loved it and we are now even more grateful for dry marathons!!!!