Now I can say I've run the Fools Marathon!!
I heard of the Fools Marathon in 2006 when I first did the 12 Mile Creek Trail Half in St. Catharines. Fools Marathon is the winter version of this half, only we run 2 loops instead of one. The course is hilly and 'features' a monster hill once per loop up the Escarpment to the Brock University campus. The race is a BYOB (bring your own bottle/banana)
and it's based on the honour system for timing.
About 10 of us lined up at 8:00 AM yesterday morning, but only 8 finished the 2 full loops. Some stopped after the first loop and another group joined us at 10:00, doing the half. The weather was ok, -10 at the start warming to something like -6 with some wind along the river and on the Escarpment. The trails were in nasty condition on a few sections where the December warm-up and rain melted and re-froze, then got covered with a dust of snow. Felt like running on frozen rocky/gravel road. People ahead of me looked drunk, running in all directions trying to pick a smoother tire groove or path on the road section. Some sections were better, packed snow, almost no ice. I wore my screw shoes which offered great traction. Did I mention I love screw shoes?
My race went relatively ok. I took 2 advils at the start, to keep my backbaconacher quiet. Thankfully it is on the mend, so as I'm typing this, there's little pain and I haven't touched a Robax pill since Wednesday.
I ran a steady pace, ran half the Escarpment hill on my first loop and then walked it on the second loop. I made a 5-6 minute stop to refuel before heading out on the second loop and lost 2 min. in the bushes. I was chasing guys throughout the whole race, including the viking and some local dudes, but ran mostly alone. I finished first woman with a time of 4:30:55, almost 1 hour behind the winning male, who finished in something like 3:36. 
It was a bit freezing after the race, so we stayed in the car and waited for the 2 other women to finish and greeted them with hot cider. We all went to the local runners' hangout, the St. Catharines Racquet Club, where we had a hot shower, snacks, drinks and went home happy that there is a winter marathon to feed our madness.
