State number 18 for the third round, a typical towpath/rail trail marathon along the Lehigh River and canal system from Allentown to Easton, Pennsylvania. Some slight hills, just to move you from one part of the towpath trail to another, on a cool, endlessly drizzling day. Met new friend, Kevin Abraszek by way of Karen Vollan closed in on the finish to hear someone calling my name, Vincent Ma, of course it was Vincent Ma, why would he not be 2500 miles from home at a random marathon in Pennsylvania? Anyway despite all the rain making the course rather muddy, and going out too fast, I eked out a finish about a minute faster than Reykjavík. I should’ve known I was going to go out to fast, the rental car told me so. Fun fact: Yocco’s, a regionally famous hot dog chain got its name when Pennsylvania Dutch (German) immigrant residents had difficulty pronouncing founder Theodore Iacocca’s Italian name. If you recognize the name, his nephew Lee would go on to be the President of Ford, and Chairman of Chrysler.
Semi-retired Coworker Deb only kind of looking like I’m holding her hostage. She was kind enough to put me up for the race.
One of the Packer Mansions in Jim Thorpe.
Pump house operating the blast furnaces as near as I can tell
Oh to be a relayer…
So I tried to take a picture…
One of the small number of bridges that we did not cross.
Some the beauty of the canal area in Allentown
Steelstacks at Bethlehem
One of the 17 bridges we crossed on the course
So I was trying to take a picture of the mule barn, and my phone was not cooperating because rain, anyway I wound up having to look back to take picture and this caused some consternation with the girl. So yeah, that happened.
More of the canals. The running surface got a little soggy. Not sure why anyone would bother wearing a trash bag 16 miles in, but he probably wondered why I wore a camelbak on a supported course. Marathon Guide reviews were not kind to this race.
Charlie Brown’s Ice House. Not a sign of hypocrisy in this ice house, nothing but sincerity as far as the eye can see.
The arch distributes the weight. See mom, that engineering education didn’t go to waste so I could push papers and babysit grown adults.
I was able to snap a photo of Vincent Ma, but he magically disappeared before I could get to them at the finish.
Some of the warehouse buildings along the trail
Back of the race shirt. Did I mention their bridges here? Because there are a lot of freaking bridges.
