Check it off, Fargo (North Dakota) is in the books -that's something like 56 marathons and I think 29 states, guess I better tally them up. I can say this, I'm done marathons 'trained', under trained, and woefully unprepared. 'Trained' is best...yeah there's thins thing called 'effort' that you have to put forth, 'time' you have to make and honestly if you're not willing to do those 2 things, find another way to expend your energy. Under trained is possible but not particularly smart, 'woefully unprepared' is just plain stupid...PEOPLE, learn from my mistakes! I just wish I wasn't such a good 'educator' sometimes...Uff da! Although my time was slow, mostly because this one fell in the 'woefully unprepared' category, the marathon exceeded all expectations. It's not necessarily a 'do-over' for a variety of reasons, but it was fun. We stayed downtown and were really glad we did, everything on the outskirts was a 'chain' and downtown they had some fun places to go, terrific places to eat, and a local running store. The course is flat, flat, flat, flat flat!!!! First off we had to fly through Minneapolis to get there, not bad - then a short drive to the hotel. Really only 2 to stay in right downtown, the Radisson and the Hotel Donaldson. Radisson was nice, but we kind of hung out at the Donaldson...cooler bar. We found JL Beers with a bunch of craft beers and terrific hamburgers...that's it. No chicken, wine, bourbon or Cobb salad....it stayed packed...hmm, post race?? We prepared for the weather - 80% chance of rain and thunder storms, high of mid-60's and dang if I wasn't back in Birmingham! It got to 70 degrees, 80% humidity and not a drop of rain! P.S. of all the tings we CAN control, training, diet, pace...weather is one thing we can't, so need in worrying. We prepared for rain, there was none, rock on! It starts at the FargoDome, like the BJCC, and then finishes inside the 'dome' which was pretty cool. The course was flat with 2,511 turns...I knew where I was, but I had no IDEA where I was! Lots of bands and entertainment on the course, but with no rhyme or reason. In one mile there might be 3 or 4 bands then nothing for 2 miles! Though many of them were funny, some of the spectators were pretty crude (and coming from me that's saying something). The funniest (to me) thing was a guy standing just before the mile 26 marker dressed as the grim reaper (remember, according to some we were only hours away from the apocalypse) with a scythe and a sign that said, "The End is Near" (get it? Mile 26...apocalypse... the 'end' is near? Yeah, well I guess you had to be there). I tried to get Micki to hurry back to the room for one last, um one last hurrah! Kind of wanted to go out with a smile on my face; you know, just in case the real 'end' was near. She must be a communist! Post race was okay, so we hung out (cause she wouldn't put out) and then made our way back to town. Not the hotel mind you, but town...specifically...yup, yup! (as they say) JL Beers. We talked to a few locals when they asked about the marathons, had a few beers, a few laughs and then when we asked for our check the bartender, said, "Nope, an anonymous benefactor treated y'all" Okay, he didn't say 'y'all'....He then winked at us and said, "Speak well of Fargo" and so I shall! I will say this, I loved the downtown area and the volunteers and locals we interacted with were some incredibly nice people. The race is pretty darn good, (You're darn tootin'!), but it's the people of Fargo that make it special. By the way Uff da! Is kind of their way, of saying, well, if Charlie Brown were Norwegian he'd say, "Uff da!" instead of "Good grief"...sort of 'Good grief', 'AY yi yi' and 'Oy vey' rolled into one...