I ran my third marathon about a week ago. I and 3 other students from the astronomy department went to an island in Massachusetts called Martha's Vineyard. The race started somewhere in the center of the island and went along the beach for the last 4 miles. I ended up finishing the race in under 3 hours, but about 3 minutes slower than my PR. The training I did for this marathon was mostly during the winter and I had several days where the cold (-10C on below) would cause me to cancel a few runs. Later this year I'll do one more marathon and train for something closer to 2:50:00. With the experience of 3 marathons and warmer weather training, I think that's a reasonable yet still challenging goal.
That's one thing I like about running; it's a sport where you can compete against your own times as a means to improve what you're capable of.
The island itself was nice and quiet and had a lot of exciting Disneyland-esque houses. Most of these are vacation homes and were empty, which added a slightly eerie feel to the town at times.
There was also a nice beach (something I don't think I've seen since I was at Santa Cruz)!
:^)