Thanks for the Fall First-Persons

We put out a call last month for people's fall marathon stories, and were delighted with what we got: Binghamton grad student Steve Darrow gives us lots of local color as he encourages running partner Jenny Stevens of Newark Valley to place among the top 50 women at Steamtown during her second marathon outing… Cornell sophomore Brett Bovee tells us about doing Steamtown just to have a good time and winding up with a great time, less than 20 seconds shy of qualifying for Boston…. Nancy Kleinrock hears shofars in the rain as she snags a PR at the Portland marathon… and David Weiss proves that he's no Bavarian cream-puff at the Biberttal half-marathon.

Congratulations to everyone else who finished their first marathon, broke the 4-hour mark, qualified for Boston, or ran a personal best. The marathon season is off and running, with more to come -- please continue to send us your stories of bliss and blisters. If you ran it-- we'd love to run it!

-- Betsy Martens and Diane Sherrer