A Glorious Morning For The Bismarck Marathon ( VIDEO )

On this early Saturday morning - September 16 - runners all over Bismarck and Mandan woke up with butterflies in their stomachs...

...and Nike, Adidas, Asics, and New Balance shoes ready for action. Today was the Bismarck Marathon - North Dakota's longest-running marathon ( 42 years ) with a brand new course just waiting to be tested out. Last year was a wet one, with rain taking over most of the morning - today was perfect, except the air quality was not at its best - due to the smoke from the Canadian fires. No wind and temps in the cool high 50s - 7:30 was the scheduled start for the Marathon, Half Marathon, Marathon Relay, and 10k.

As the sun continued to rise, runners at the 4-mile Mark - McKenzie Dr and Bismarck Expressway were all smiles.

They really were. It was here where the Half Marathoners would take a left onto the path, and the runners that had their sights set on 26.2 miles would continue straight. We all cheered on both - this is what it looks like at 8 miles when you still have another 18 to go:

One such Marathoner by the name of Lisa had THIS to look forward to...

Here is the thing, it doesn't matter how fast you run, whether you are trying to beat your personal best OR your only goal is to FINISH, the Bismarck Marathon event is ideal. All the wonderful support from volunteers out on the course, helping direct traffic and cheering on EVERY single runner.

A real compliment goes out to Co-race director Josh Askvig and all the rest who put so much of their heart and soul into this event - made me proud just to be there.