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Steamboat Springs — It's called athletic amnesia. It's really the opposite of a hangover.

How else can you explain Wendy Puckett - who preaches running with the core of your body to her pilates students - assuring she'll be back for next year's Boston Marathon after running the final miles without any semblance of feeling in her core?

Or Jennifer Schubert-Akin, who despite the grueling 26.2-mile course, made her 14th straight Boston Marathon appearance Monday and vows to make No. 15 next year?

Or Andy Picking, Steamboat's top finisher in this year's Boston Marathon, who plans to make it back if he can - family takes precedence - but won't miss June's 27th annual Steamboat Marathon?

Certainly there must have been some no-way, no-how, not-ever-again moments after finishing the legendary course earlier this week.

But that's athletic amnesia. The Steamboat trio will more than likely line up again to cruise Routes 135, 16 and 30, pass the halfway point at Wellesley College, tackle Heartbreak Hill and finish at Copley Square next to the Boston Public Library.

Why?

"You remember the pain, you remember the endorphins, the crowd and all the inspirational stories," said Puckett, who made her fifth Boston Marathon appearance. "It's just amazing."

The world's oldest annual marathon - this was its 112th year - featured more than 25,000 participants. Conservative estimates put the crowd size along the route at 750,000. The race is held on Patriots Day to commemorate the start of the Revolutionary War. Three of Boston's four major sports teams - the Red Sox, Celtics and Bruins - played home games within 24 hours of the marathon. Add it all up and it's an endurance race unlike any other.

"You run by a biker bar, a girls college and then you're running through downtown, where it's just stacked with people," said Picking, whose time of 2 hours, 55 minutes and 4 seconds was a little less than three minutes off his personal best in the Boston Marathon. "It's pretty epic. To run a marathon and get someone to cheer you on like that the whole time is pretty cool. That's pretty amazing."

Schubert-Akin "never would have dreamed" running 14 straight Boston Marathons. But after failing in her first attempt to qualify, Schubert-Akin - who finished this year in 3:58:32 - hit the mark by 13 small seconds at a Dallas qualifier in 1995. She's lined up every year since.

"The thing that makes it every year is to qualify for the next year," said Schubert-Akin, who ran to raise money for the Steve Maloney Memorial Fund. Maloney, who either ran in or served as the course director for the Steamboat Marathon each of its first 26 years, died from non-Hodgkin's lymphoma April 4.

"I enjoy every (Boston Marathon) because you never know if it's going to be your last. You could get sick or injured. You definitely never take it for granted," she said.

Picking, also running in his fifth Boston Marathon, said he started to tighten up at the 16-mile mark but was able to stay close enough to his splits to accomplish his goal.

"When you cross (the finish line), it's almost a relief. Not a relief because you're in so much pain or in so much whatever," he said. "A relief because you can stop pushing."

Although Puckett didn't reach her goal of 3:25 - she finished in 3:40:16 - the pure majesty of the race is what it's really about.

From the constant updates of Red Sox scores (the race passes Fenway Park with about a mile to go), the screams from Wellesley College, the smell of keg beer rising at Boston College and seeing a guy with cerebral palsy will himself up a hill in a wheelchair, Puckett said the whole scene is hard to put into words.

"It's almost indescribable," she said. "You get carried away with the adrenaline. The whole thing is just so inspiring. It's not about the run. The whole feeling around the run is so amazing that that's what keeps pulling me back."

.- To reach Luke Graham, call 871-4229 or e-mail lgraham@steamboatpilot.com