All posts by scottwmoran@gmail.com

FYNE Nature Marathon

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FYNE Nature Marathon

Date: 2012-06-24
Location: Neuchatel, Switzerland
Finish Time: 3:38:03
Official Results
Race Website
Local Brewery

Highlights:

  • Can’t beat running along a trail with Lake Neuchatel on your right, endless hills of vineyards on your left and the Alps in the distance overlooking the whole scene
  • After finishing 27 states, finally checked off continent number two
  • Also, John ate horse

Low-lights:

  • Flew from Newark to Frankfurt, Germany; drove from Frankfurt, Germany to Hunawihr, France; slept for 5 hours; drove from Hunawihr, France to Yverdon-les-Bains, Switzerland; ran a marathon
  • Checked my watch just before the start, it said it was 3:00 am
  • As it turns out, the city of Neuchatel is closed on Sundays

Thanks:

  • John and Peg Paton for putting together an amazing European vacation.
  • The entire Paton family for allowing me to hijack a full day of the aforementioned European vacation so I could run a marathon in Switzerland.
  • Marge and Bill for taking care of Luke while we were away for the week.

Gallery:

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Watchung Trail Marathon (2012)

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Watchung Trail Marathon (2012)

Date: 2012-06-03
Location: Watchung, NJ
Finish Time: 4:26:28
Official Results
Race Website

Highlights:

  • Start/finish 3.7 miles from our house, easily the least amount of travel required of any of my marathons
  • For a 16 month old, Luke’s penmanship is just outstanding
  • My training partner finally got to participate in an actual marathon

Low-lights:

  • Loop 1 = 54 minutes
  • Loop 2 = 56 minutes
  • Loop 3 = 62 minutes
  • Loop 4 = 1 hour and 25 minutes

Thanks:

  • Shannon and Luke for their continued support
  • Eli for coming out of the bullpen to run the last mile with me and get the save
  • NJ Trail Series for providing post race beer

Gallery:

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Boston Marathon

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Boston Marathon

Date: 2012-04-16
Location:  Boston, MA
Finish Time:  3:53:40
Official Results
Race Website

Highlights:

  • Lunch with Alysha and Chris, getting to meet Luke’s future SU classmate Bryce
  • Record marathon spectating turnout from the extended Moran family
  • Completed the race wearing an Eli Manning t-shirt, no serious repercussions

Low-lights:

  • It was hot
  • Being too tired and forgetting to turn around, try to pull up short but ultimately fall butt-first across the finish line
  • For the second time (that I know of) I definitely lost this guy

Thanks:

  • To Marge, Bill, Peg, John, Leigh, Ray, Shannon and Luke for making a weekend out of it, braving the Patriots’ Day craziness and providing much needed support during the marathon

Gallery:

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Land Between the Lakes Marathon

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Land Between the Lakes Marathon

Date: 2012-03-10
Location: Grand Rivers, KY
Finish Time: 3:43:18
Official Results
Race Website

Highlights:

  • Perfect weather, scenic trail through the Land Between the Lakes, large chunks of time running through the wilderness without seeing another human all add up to a thoroughly enjoyable marathon experience
  • Ate a bison burger in front of an actual wild bison with no consequences
  • Caves at Mammoth Caves National Park not surprisingly, quite large

Low-lights:

  • Only made it through 1 and a half beers at Nashville honkey tonk before calling it a night. Blaming it on the Saturday night post-marathon crash, but its possible that I might just be old
  • Everyone in the Nashville airport was very nice but I’d still rather not spend five and a half hours hanging out there
  • Kind of missed that baby of ours

Thanks:

  • To Marge and Bill for babysitting Luke and Eli so Shannon and I could get away by ourselves for a long weekend
  • To Shannon for agreeing that our long weekend away from Luke and Eli could include going to Kentucky for a marathon

Gallery:

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Charleston Marathon

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Charleston Marathon

Date: 2012-01-14
Location: Charleston, SC
Finish Time: 3:09:05
Official Results
Race Website

Highlights:

  • Luke remaining relatively happy throughout his first flight
  • Luke defending Fort Sumter
  • Ran my second fastest marathon time to date

Low-lights:

  • Food poisoning from post-race seafood dinner, the following 24 hours
  • Ghost Walk tour guide a complete disaster
  • Only first three miles of marathon course in downtown Charleston, remaining 23.2 miles less than scenic

Thanks:

  • Marge and Bill for putting this trip together, providing SC airport transportation and babysitting Luke so Shannon and I could get three nights out in Charleston.
  • Peg and John for taking care of Eli and providing NJ airport transportation.
  • Shannon for agreeing to take an 11 month old Luke on his first flight.

Gallery:

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Harrisburg Marathon

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Harrisburg Marathon

Date: 2011-11-13
Location: Harrisburg, PA
Finish Time: 3:26:15
Official Results
Race Website

Highlights:

  • Fall Golf, free room and home-cooked meals the day before the marathon, courtesy of Bill and Marge Moran
  • The miles on City Island, along the Susquehanna River and through that random, hilly park
  • Post-race picnic with Marge, Bill, Shannon, Luke and Eli

Low-lights:

  • Forgetting to get my chip scanned and thus, not ending up in any of the official results
  • The 8 tents along the river that constituted “Occupy Harrisburg”, protesting the 1% in Harrisburg
  • Eli having to watch hundreds of people run, not being able to run himself (I assume this was a low-light for him but there were other dogs and discarded food as well, so who knows)

Thanks:

  • To Bill Moran for the pre-race transportation
  • To Marge and Shannon for the mid-race Luke watching
  • To Marge for the post-race picnic and drive to the YMCA showers

Gallery:

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Mount Desert Island Marathon

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Mount Desert Island Marathon

Date:  2011-10-16
Location:  Bar Harbor, ME
Finish Time:  3:36:52
Official Results
Race Website
Local Brewery

Highlights:

Low-lights:

  • Driving 7.5 hours from NJ to Maine in the pouring rain
  • Luke has had enough of this 7.5 hour drive and is going to let us know about it
  • Miles 20-25 slightly uphill/soul-crushing

Thanks:

  • To Millie, Jason and Hannah for letting us crash at their house on either side of the trip to Bar Harbor
  • To Shannon for agreeing to drive a total of 19 hours over the course of four days with an 8 month old Luke in the backseat

Gallery:

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Lehigh Valley Marathon

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Lehigh Valley Marathon

Date: 2011-09-11
Location: Easton, PA
Finish Time: 3:07:33
Official Results
Race Website

Highlights:

  • Qualifying for Boston on my 31st attempt with a 3:07, one year before the qualifying standard for my age group is dropped to 3:05
  • Shannon thinking that the qualifying standard had already been dropped to 3:05, consoling me for being “so close” after I crossed the finish line
  • Also, beer

Low-lights:

  • Once again, completely ignoring Val’s cheers, encouragement and attempts to take my picture during the race
  • The part where heavy rains washed away portions of the course
  • Old saying, “If at first you don’t succeed. Try, try again” actually off by 28 tries

Thanks:

  • To Marisa Keslica for putting Jon, Val and I up at her house
  • To Dave Pugh for helping me drop the weight necessary to shave 14 minutes off my PR and qualify for Boston
  • To Shannon for making the trip out from New Providence with Luke to watch the finish

Gallery:

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Estes Park Marathon

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Estes Park Marathon

Date: 2011-06-12
Location: Estes Park, CO
Finish Time: 3:51:20
Official Results
Race Website

Highlights:

Low-lights:

  • The part where I threw up in the hotel bathroom after the race
  • The part where I collapsed in the hotel elevator after I threw up in the hotel bathroom
  • General lack of oxygen in the state of Colorado

Thanks:

  • Marge and Bill Moran for staying at our house and baby/dog-sitting Luke and Eli.
  • Peg and John Paton for spelling Marge and Bill when they needed a break from baby/dog-sitting Luke and Eli.
  • Shannon for only calling home two or three times a day during our first couples vacation since becoming parents.

Gallery:

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Walter Childs Memorial Marathon

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Walter Childs Memorial Marathon

Date: 2011-05-01
Location: Holyoke, MA
Finish Time: 3:34:37
Official Results
Race Website

Highlights:

  • Luke’s first marathon trip not a complete disaster
  • Marathon course in and around Mount Tom State Park, much nicer than I was expecting for some reason
  • First marathon as a Dad not that hard; completely agreed upon, non-negotiable 90/10 split of parenting duties really paying off

Low-lights:

  • Something about Luke flipping out for 2 hours during the marathon, I don’t know, I was running
  • May never have another chance to visit here, opportunity lost
  • Couldn’t talk Shannon into spending $30 so I could run into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame and take Luke’s picture in front of the display that I imagine must exist to honor this

Thanks:

  • Shannon for agreeing to go on our first overnight trip with Luke, waking up with him during the night so I could rest and keeping him as happy as possible while I ran…Nice mom-ing.

Gallery:

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