2011 Old Farts Marathon Results (or How to Roll Your Own Ultra)

4:25:33 (but I ran 29.5 miles, see below)
10/69 overall
4th age

This race is billed as the ‘toughest race east of the Mississippi’, and while I agree, it is tough, I have run harder races on this side, notably the Larry Yaegle trail marathon in Louisiana. It would end up being tougher for me because of my poor attention, but still a fun race.
This race was only a 1.5 hour drive from my house so again I got to sleep in my own bed, a recent change of my marathon racing policy. When my alarm went off at 4:25 am, I woke up wondering why it was going off that early on a Saturday morning. It took me a few seconds to remember that I had a marathon that day. I chuckled at myself (out loud) once I remembered that.

It was three weeks after my Burning River run and one week after another small local marathon, and my body has been sore, so I decided to take the week completely off from running. While I was not 100% today, I was a solid 85%. Taking the week off helped, making it so I was not cursing myself for even running the race.

Being a small town trail race, the race organizers had no time limit (usually 6-7 hours for most major races) and so there were quite a few more ‘experienced’ runners. (translation very slow runners who would finish in >9 hours) of which I met several before the start of the race. Many of them have completed the 50 state circuit (some more than once) a few members of the 100 marathon club (a goal I will accomplish in a few more years) and a few Marathon Maniacs. We chatted about standard stuff (favorite races, costs of traveling to races, etc) and about 2 minutes before the race start, we all headed to the start line.

Race conditions were near perfect. The temperature was in the low 60s’ and would reach the low 70s before the end. The trail was mostly single track and in some cases looked like it was made mere days before with some guy driving through grass with a mover. There was one large grass area (with two foot high grass) that we zig-zagged through 6 times. Challenging, but not super tough. There were a few hills we went down that ropes had been put up so you could hang on to them going down the hill to prevent you from falling. I only fell one time, running on flat trail, stumbling on a rock. The course was VERY well marked, and I really appreciated it, except for one very critical part, which is why I ran an ultra marathon this day instead of a marathon.

All three races (5K, half marathon and full marathon) started all at same time. About 1 mile into the race, we turned left off a dirt road onto trail heading back towards the start line (to drop off the 5K finishers) then the half and full marathoners continued out onto another section of brutal hills, eventually coming back to the start line to drop of the half marathoners. I crossed the half marathon point in 1:50, which is a fine time considering the brutality of the course and I was firmly in 4th place.

So 1 mile past the halfway mark, I came to that spot that ~13 miles before I turned left onto the trail heading back to the start. There was just one sign and it said ‘All runners’ and had an arrow but said the words ‘loop 1’. I turned down the path and got about 50m before my brain said ‘hang on, is this right?’ I went back and inspected the sign again and it was certainly not clear. I stood there stopped for a good 30 seconds waiting for the 5th place runner to come up and help me figure out where to go. I finally decided to head down that trail, even though it didn’t feel quite right. I said to myself, what’s the worst case scenario? I add ~3 miles to the distance. Well worst case scenario happened.

I make it back to the start line (visibly upset) and I ask the race director where I went wrong. Turns out just 20 meters past that #$^@ing cone at mile 1 was another cone (smaller, on other side of road) with a sign that clearly pointed down the dirt road to the RIGHT. So I thanked them and left the start line. Again.
When I got to that cone, the race director was just pulling up in his car (making sure the cone was there) and he asked me how many ‘additional’ miles I had added. I told him a little over 3 and so he actually offered to drive me a ways down the course. I told him no, but thanks anyways and I trudged down the course, cursing myself for my stupidity.

Now that I had gotten back on track and given my competitors a roughly 26 min head start, I actually started passing people. In that last 12 miles of the race I think I passed at least 10 people. The second half was also trail but also a ~3 mile section of long rolling hills on back roads. The run was quite pleasant, just tough. When i crossed the finish line it seemed everyone near the finish area was cheering. Great ‘crowd support’ to go with the great feel of this race.


The schwag from this race was awesome. The entry fee for the race was $60 (not too bad) but for that I received a cotton t-shirt, a cotton sweatshirt, a finishers pair of sweatpants, a finishers beach towel, a nice finishers medal and a nice 4th place-in-age trophy. Hauling all that back to my car after my 29.5 mile run removed all the angst I had over my mistake. The spread of post-race food was also quite impressive. That hot dog tasted goooood.

While it was not the toughest marathon east of the Mississippi, it was a lot of fun and I will definitely be back next year to run this low-key-friendly-neighborhood-style marathon. And don’t worry, I will NOT miss that turn next time.

Lucky 13 (x2= 26) RUT Fat Ass Results

4:24 (ugh)
1st place (16 people did 2 loops, I was the first one who finished, I think)


Timing is everything, really. Just two weeks ago I tore my body up bad running the Burning River 100 and had not recovered yet. A local running shop (Running Fit) is a huge sponsor of running related things, organizing races, training, etc. They have started doing Fat Ass (= no entry fee, no frills, potluck style races) runs, and this one was only an hour away. I just could not say no.

This run was organized by Farra (guru to Running Fit’s Ultra Team) as a training run for people getting ready for the Run Woodstock series of races (including a few ultra distances) in September. It is a nice little ~13.5 mile loop (hence the race title ‘Lucky 13’) in the Island Lake Recreation Area near Brighton, MI. The idea was people could sign up to do as many loops as they wanted, with most people signing up for 1-4 loops. Since it was advertised, over 50 people showed up (spread over all distances, not sure how many did 2+) and we even got race shirts, I am counting this as a marathon race for my 100 in 1 quest. I can do that since it is my idea. :)

Burning River kicked my butt and I took I seriously dialed back my mileage these last two weeks. I took the three days before this race off hoping my body would be at least 80% recovered by then. I was wrong. The course was not all that well marked and I had never runs these trails before, so I got in behind a speedster (a nice Running Fit employee named Trevor) who is a 2:50 marathoner who was doing only one loop. I figured I would follow him for the first loop and then do the second loop alone. The trail is almost all single track with small hills, but tree branches and grass growing over the trail. No way of getting into anything like a stable running pace, but that’s what you get when you do a trail race. Trevor and I were doing a decent 8:15 pace which is not slow for that trail. At about mile 11, I was starting to get seriously fatigued and my legs were started to protest, so I let Trevor go figuring by this point, the trail was self explanatory (it was).

There was a light drizzle for most of the day and the trail was wet, but not bad. My shirt got soaked from wet branches, but my shoes and feet stayed reasonably dry. As I was coming into the start/finish area, (1:55 into the race) I was seriously considering stopping after 1 loop. I felt awful, I was wet and cold and the night before our power went out, and Mistique was home alone still with no power. I couldn’t come up with a reason to go back out. But I changed my shirt, grabbed a cookie and went out anyways. I have run several marathons where the full marathoners run right by the finish line for the half-marathoners at the halfway point and considered dropping down to the half distance that day (usually allowed) but I never have done it. I guess this was just another case of ‘Get out there and finish the marathon, darnit’. Those other times, I was not still sore from a previous race, unlike this time where I felt rolled hard and put away wet.

The second loop was harsh. Frequent speed-walking sections and sore legs every step in addition to the same wet trail conditions (did I mention the mosquitoes were terrible?) made for a just not so fun run. But, since I am bull headed and I always finish what I start, albeit slower than I want, I finished. Once I hot the end, I spend only a few minutes chatting with others and eating some of the large amount of food brought by the kind souls of the race before the bugs got to me and I wanted to get home to my power-less home.
A fun little local marathon, which is exactly what I am looking for with my new 100 in 1 goal. Sleep in my own bed, wake up, run a marathon, and be home for dinner. I love that part.

100 in 1

So finally, I near the end of a 5+ year quest, to run a marathon in 50 states in under 4 hours. I have known this goal is getting close for a while, and I wanted to make sure I had something ‘in the pipe’ before I got there. I have many friends who have grand running goals that when they hit them (many after several years) they burn out since they have achieved what they set their heart out to do. I have seen runnerswho devoutly run marathons 1-2 a weekend stop stone cold after achieving some ‘goal’. I did not want that to happen to me.

I have been thinking hard about what to do next. In 2010, I started doing some ultras, with a 24 hour race (>100 miles) in April and a 100 mile race in July. I did quite well in both and thought that maybe that was going to be my next step, becoming one of those crazy 100 mile ultra people. Then Burning River 2011 happened. Without going into detail, it was really really rough on me physically and mentally. While I was good at 100 mile racing (9th and 10th in the 2010 and 2011 national championships) the actual running is rough for several reasons:
- Training 120-130 miles/week is a part time job that takes away from family time, no matter how well I schedule it
- Race costs are steep, >$200 for a cheap one.
- To do it right, you need a crew. I don’t like asking for help, so this is a big one. I have a great friend Ryan who has crewed for me in two of my 100 milers and he does an awesome job, but I can’t rely on him every time. Mistique is supportive of my racing, and will crew for me if I ask her, but it is a lot to ask of her.
- Recovery time is so damn long. 100 miles take a lot out of you. My most recent 100 miler took more than 2 weeks before I was back to normal. That’s just rough.

I didn’t start running to be a freak, I started running to get healthy. The racing is just fun and gives me an extra special bonus to reward me for getting out every day and slogging some miles. So after a long torturous time of self reflection, I decided to step back from the 100 mile thing for a while. So that left me hanging, I still need a new goal, something to keep me occupied for a few years. Many ideas have been given to me by friends which include repeating the states (too expensive, more time away from family) or doing 7 continents (WAY too expensive). I needed something that took me 5-7 years, is cheap, and minimizes time away from my family. 100 in 1 was born.

100 marathons in 1 state, that is my new goal. You might think that it will take me forever since it has taken me 6 years to run 64 marathons as of right now, but you would be wrong. There are over 15 marathons (or shorter ultras, under 35 miles) each year within a 3 hour drive of my house. That means I can sleep in my own bed (no hotel!), wake up early, drive to a race (no plane ticket!), run the race and be home before dinner. I am gone from my family less than 12 hours each time. It satisfies all my new desires, cheap, will take a few years, and less impact on my family.

In trying to save time in my 50 states quest, I have only done 6 marathons in the state of Michigan so far, so I am starting almost from scratch. But, if all goes to plan, I will be at 10 by the end of 2010. Whatever it takes to keep me out of trouble

2011 Burning River 100 miler and USATF National Championship Results

20:42:32
15/150 overall (~300 starters)
10th USATF National Championship

I have been focused on this race for many many months, running literally thousands of miles. I decided to try my hand at ultras a year or so ago as a ‘next goal’ after completing the whole 50 states thing. Months and months of 100-120 mile weeks (even a 140) and I felt totally awesome, like I could take on the world. Because I am lazy though, they were almost all long slow miles with little hill work. Just like I hate doing anything resembling ‘speed’ work, I hate hill work too, so I didn’t do it. ooops.

Friday night, I got to the packet pickup and did my thing, getting my race sweatshirt (the long sleeve technical shirt from 2010 was better) and sat down to eat some so-so pasta. I actually sat down with a large group of Michigan based ultra runners, all great people whom I was facebook friends with within just a few days. I also (finally) got to meet Laurie, who is a fellow ultrarunner (winning female division in last February’s Beast of Burden) who lives ~25 min from the BR race start. Her and I have become friends since BoB and she offered up her house for me to crash at, so of course I accepted. Her husband was doing BR as his first 100 miler and she was crewing and pacing him. He finished but had a rough time. Heck, we all did. On the way back to their house after dinner, we chatted about ultra running, about North Coast 24, about dream races, etc. Wonderful and pleasant conversation.
Everyone was in bed by about 7:30 since we were getting up at 3. I was pleased that I slept as well as I did, considering how focused I was on this race. Normally, I would toss and turn all night before big ones, but not this time. Maybe it’s because I knew I would not be running that hard.

We got to the race start about 4:30, just 30 min before the start. I left Laurie and company, thanking them and wishing them well, and was off to collect my thoughts. While waiting for the race to begin, I was wearing a throw away Jackson Community College t-shirt. A guy came up and asked me “Hey, do you work at JCC?” turns out it was John Yohe, fellow JCC professor (He is in the English department) whom I have been meaning to meet for a while (he said the same thing, tee hee) who was running BR as his first 100 miler, just like me in 2010. He asked me a bunch of questions and I could tell he was a little nervous. He is a barefoot runner, but this day he was wearing his vibram five fingers to protect his feet a little bit on the trail. This course was rough and the weather also took many prisoners, John among them. While he did not succeed in his goal, he vowed to conquer the 100 mile distance. I have high hopes for him, and I might even help him a future race as a pacer.

5 am and we were off, and I was in the first 7 people from the beginning, a group that contained the real big dogs, including Badwater course record holder (and 2010 BoB winner to my 2nd place) Valmir Nunes. Amazingly, his English is still pretty bad, so we didn’t talk much. The first 10 miles are on road, so we were clipping along pretty fast, somewhere in the high 7’s. Way too fast, but I’m just dumb that way. A quick aid station stop at mile 4ish and right back on the road.

At mile 10ish I hit the second aid station, and the first with crew access, and I saw for the first time this day, Ryan, my wonder crew. Regular readers of this blog know Ryan, my awesome crew/pacer from the BoB and race director of the Jan 1 Get Off Your Hungover Fat Ass and Run 26.2 marathon. He had been at a friends wedding back in Michigan until midnight the night before, then drove down and crewed for me all day on no sleep at all. He is a monster. He didn’t know until about a week before hand if he was going to be able to crew for me at all, so I prepared ‘drop bags’ for the course. Eight green plastic containers with spare socks, shoes, some candy, and my powder rocket fuel. Having run a few ultras, I knew that I had a hard time eating any solid food, so I needed some high calorie liquid fuel source. For few months I tested a solution that was 1 scoop gatorade (for flavor) 2 scoops carbo-pro (for calories) and 2 tiny scoops endurolyte powder (for electrolytes). Pour the powder into a 16 oz water bottle and fill. All told, about 300 calories and I had about 12 of them during the race. Saved my butt for sure.

I talked with Ryan for only a few minutes and I was back on the course, no finally on trail. I was in the top 10 and feeling pretty darn good. I would be passed by several people, finishing 15th overall, but ~8 people in front of me would drop, including Valmir. Aid stations came and went, changed socks at mile 18 (shoes wet from dew drenched grass), changed shoes at mile 33, drank my rocket fuel, ate some candy. Ho-hum right along as the sky remained overcast so the conditions were not that bad. Even the hills those first 40 miles weren’t that bad, as I walked up most of them.

Just before the mile 49.1 aid station, I noticed how hard it was to get running again after a walk break. I knew that point would come, but had hoped it would not be until way later in the race. The next section was ~4 miles and the first part was flat trail, so I ran that part which was just over a mile. It was the last complete mile I would run for the entire race. It was about here, that my emotional train wreck began. Not being about to run for any reasonable amount of time with ~50 miles to go meant I was going to be out here for a long long time. Coming into aid stations, I would jog just to show some semblance of confidence, but soon after I left an aid station, I was back to my walking ways. I know it sounds silly, but I had trained for this part, power walking when tired. I was still doing 15 min miles. I was tired, and mentally drained, but I knew I could pound out 15 min miles until the cows came home. Since I never sat down and rested (ever!) I still managed a good finish time. 10th place in the 100 mile national championship and I walked roughly half the course. What does THAT say?


The emotional train wreck came about because I knew I was not going to do as well as I wanted and I had worked hard for this race. When you know 12 hours before the end that you are not going to do as well as you wanted, you have a lot of time to ponder your fate. I was thinking really hard about my running career, and in the end, I decided that this might be my last 100 for a while.

I was getting blisters in new and interesting places on my feet, but none of them were debilitating. At one point it started hurting with every step, especially when ‘running’ so I just stuck to walking as fast as possible. The downhills eventually became the worst parts. With tough race conditions, the course would have a 50% casualty rate, which is high for even an ultra. At no point did I think I would drop from the race, but I knew it would not be that fast (this was my slowest 100 miler by far) since I am a unrelenting stick-in-the-mud when it comes to racing. I might not finish fast, but damnit, I am finishing.

The aid stations were as awesome as they were last year. Nice people, getting you want you need and loaded with food choices, most of which I ignored. I ate my fair share of grapes and a few cups of ramen noodles. I have never been good and keeping solid food down but this year I tried to eat fruit wherever possible as that seemed to sit ok with me. Ryan did a great job keeping me hydrated with plenty of electrolytes which kept me alive, for sure. My favorite aid station memory was at mile ~70. I walked up to the table and saw a 1 gallon ziploc filled with fresh-picked-that-morning blueberries. I said “Blueberries!!” and stuck both hands into the bag and scooped up a double handful of blueberries and stuffed them in my face in one motion. Only after did I realize what I did. All’s fair in love, war, and ultras. Leave your ego at the start.

This race was harsh and brutal and by far the toughest race I have ever run. with an attrition rate of close to 50%, the race course won this battle. Turns out some people even dropped at the mile 96 aid station. An elite (who was in 4th place at one point in the race) dropped at mile 93 in front of me. I think the fact I never sat down all day (except to change shoes) made a big difference. Had I sat down, I doubt I would have gotten up and it would been all over.

After the race Ryan and I (slowly) headed to our cars and back to the hotel for a quick (ha!) shower and some sleep at about 3am roughly 24 hours since I woke up. My feet were so bad and my legs so sore that I never really slept as I could not get comfortable even though I was dead tired. At about 8 am we headed to Bob Evans for a good meal and then I sent Ryan on his way home. I headed down to the finish line getting there about 30 minutes before the 30 hour cutoff. Saw the last finishers come in, some looking ok, most looking like death. I had pleasant conversation with John about his DNF, and with some other runners, some who finished, so who did not. Turns out everyone had a rotten day, just like me.
A boring awards ceremony, a medal for my 10th place USATF National Championship and I was on my way home alone to ponder my future. I stopped 5 times on the 3 hour drive because I was falling asleep and so I needed food and caffeine. It never really helped so I got home and crashed trying to sleep and failing again. It would be three days before I was able to sleep completely through the night. A memorable race, for a whole bunch of bad reasons. This race will be a turning point in my running career, for sure.

2011 Concord Classic 5K Results (or My 1st Wedding Anniversary Run)

18:37.2
17/219 Overall
4/13 Age


Last year, the day after I was wed to Mistique we both entered the Concord Classic. That was an awesome day wearing our ‘Bride’ and ‘Groom’ t-shirts. We decided then that we would try to run this race every subsequent year to celebrate our anniversary. We entered it again and decided to wear the shirts we wore last year. Friends at the race remembered that this was our anniversary race and congratulated us (again). That was nice. I am going to like this tradition.

The Concord Classic is a notoriously fast course which is why so many people show up for it. This was no different. Lots of speedy high school cross country runners as well as many of my fast local running old folks. Traveling all over the country running marathons is fun, but it is also nice to run a race where you know 20+ other competitors running it.

Again, I don’t do anything resembling ‘training’ for this distance. I am a ultra-marathoner doing 100+ mile weeks week in - week out, and avoid (like the plague) 400m repeats or 3 mile tempo runs. Ick. What I do have is a train load of endurance. That seems to be enough, as I can still run a sub 19 5K just walking up and running. My first mile was ~5:50 as was my second mile, which is about a minute and half faster than any run I have done since April. It felt a little weird.

As with last year, after I finished I ran the course backwards and caught up with Mistique and walked with her through the finish. She is so cute when she exercises

2011 Fargo Marathon Results (or I Got ‘Paid’ to Run A Marathon!)

3:39:34 (right on schedule!)

State 49 ranks as one of my absolute favorite races and trips of any of them. You wouldn’t think North Dakota would be that much fun, but you would be wrong.

I have tried to save money as I have knocked off states these last few years, so as often as possible, I drive to reasonable-distance-away races, usually defined as less than 16 hours total drive time (one way) North Dakota fit that bill especially since my parent live in Southern Wisconsin, almost halfway there. The race was on Saturday, so I left southern Michigan on Thursday afternoon. 2 hours down the road, the trip got really interesting…
Back in April in knocking off Missouri, I ran with the 3:10 official ‘pacer’ for 15 miles and also talked the night before with a running friend Rob (fellow Mother Road finisher) who was the 3:50 pacer. After chatting with them, I decided to try to become an official pacer as something to do in my future running career. After that race, I emailed the head of this particular pacing team (www.marathonpacing.com) and detailed my credentials and I was entered in as a potential pacer. Cool.

Two weeks before the Fargo marathon, I emailed the pacing director and told him that i was already signed up for Fargo and would be there, and that I was ‘available’ to pace. He responded that he was ‘all set’ but that I should have my cell phone handy, just in case as he occasionally gets last minute scratches. Three days before the race, as I was packing, I sent him just one more email asking if he would need me. Again he said no, he was fine, but bring my cell phone, so I did.

Thursday at 7pm (37 hours before race start, 150 miles down the road) I get a call from him. Sure enough, he had an injury and he asked me how I was feeling. I asked him which pace times he needed. He chuckled and asked me again how I was feeling. I detailed my last few months of training and racing and he then told me that i could have the 3:20 group or the 3:40 group. I was 98% sure I could run a 3:20, but I though for a first time as an official pacer I should go a little slower to focus on being a good pacer and not worrying about hitting 3:20. As a pacer, your job is to run dead even pace, mile in, mile out. So after some discussion, I became the official 3:40 pacer for the 2011 Fargo Marathon.

Then everything changed. First was my lodging as I now had a (free!) place to crash. I had lined up a hotel a few months before, but turns out I clicked on the wrong Super 8 Motel. The one I reserved was 300+ miles away from Fargo. I didn’t figure that out until 4 days before the race. Of course, Fargo being not that big and the marathon/half being huge, there were no reasonably cheap hotels within an hours drive. I decided to get a campsite for the night and just sleep in my car (not too bad) and so I had reserved a site at a State Park 15 min away. Well, within 8 hours of getting that i was calling them back and cancelling that reservation.
I got to Fargo and headed to the expo, which was big and cool. I stopped by the official pacer booth, and pulled a short shift talking to runners with questions about the pace team. Jim (head pacer honcho) also gave me my free schwag (consider it payment for pacing) which varies from race to race, but this race was a serous score. A free pair of running shoes, a pair of shorts, and a new tech shirt (says ‘Pace Team’ on it, to be worn during the race) Had I stayed for dinner or been there for lunch, I would have gotten those for free. Oh, and I got my race entry reimbursed too. :)

This was also an official ‘reunion run for the 50 states Marathon people and they even had a meeting with >60 people in attendance. Being in a room full of crazies was kindof fun. This was my first 50 states reunion and it felt special, it being my 49th state.

My best friend in Graduate School was Chopper (that’s his nickname, his students even call him that) who is now a Chemistry Professor at Concordia College in Moorehead, MN (just the other side of river from Fargo. We actually ran through the Concordia College campus during the race) I had not seen him in years, so I contacted him a few weeks before the race reminding him I would be in the area. Luckily, he and his family were free for dinner and they fed me some wonderful porkchops. We reminisced, talking about educational philosophy, a little politics, about college professor who abuse their privileges, etc. It was really fun. Chopper and his wife look exactly the same as they did 13 years ago. We all seem to be aging well.
After dinner, I headed back to the expo arena (The Fargo Dome, known simply as ‘The Dome’ to the locals) for the official pacer team pre-race meeting. I met the fellow pacers (~11 of them) of which 2 others were first-time-pacers. Predictable stuff, run even pace, even through water stations, talk with your runners, keep them motivated, etc. No real surprises there. Afterwards (about 8:30pm) we all went back to the dorm (where we all got our free rooms) and sat around had some pizza and beer and swapping running stories, including stories of previous pacing gigs. They were all great people and a lot of fun to hang out with. We did get busted because technically, the campus is ‘dry’ and were were drinking (and being loud) but we were let off with a warning.

Race morning came like it always did with a shower, mocha and some fruit. about 25 minutes before the start, the pacer team walk to the start line, which took us all of about 30 seconds (the dorms were right next to the start) and we lined up in our approximate locations. With 15 minutes to go until race start, I already had quite the crowd ready to run with me. I chatted with many of them, learning about their running history, goals (besides running 3:40) By the time the race began, I had 60-70 people ready to roll. I gave them a little speech about my responsibilities (and credentials, so they would trust me that I would hit 3:40) and we were off.

I tried to keep my group motivated and upbeat, giving words of encouragement, and even the occasional joke. As were were running, more questions came at me about training, my running history, etc. The ensuing conversations (no preaching!) were nice and of course made the miles go by. I hit the first mile marker within 3 seconds of when I supposed to. At each mile I checked my GPS watch to make sure were were ok. At my WORST I was 40 seconds under the total target time I was supposed to be at. I spend most of the race 15-25 seconds under total time target at each mile. I rarely run at 8:23 pace in training so it was a little hard in the beginning, pulling back on purpose. After 5 or so miles I was in my rhythm.

The course was ok, I guess. It went in and around lots of different Fargo neighborhoods (I thought at one point the local Real Estate Agents group might be a sponsor) and we saw evidence of recent seasonal flooding. It was so bad that they waited until a few days before the race before they finally decided which course to run.

I started with 60-70 people in my entourage, which thinned to 40-50 at mile 5 and 20-25 at mile 10, none of which was a surprise. We met up with (crashed into?) the half marathoners at ~15, which caused congestion, as a that point the half marathoners were almost all walkers. There were 7000 half marathoners, so we were slaloming all over the place for the last 1/3 of the race. Aid stations were rough.

Things I saw this day I have never seen on a race course: Irish folk band playing a Foreigner song. A group of accordion players (maybe 12 of them, average age about 75). An aid station (unofficial I think) with 4 people holding boxes of Kleenex (that’s it, no water, just Kleenex). I could not figure that one out. I know I don;t get a runny nose when i race, but who knows.
At mile 20 I still had had about 6-8 people with me, and a few of them started to take off, feeling good. In the end, I only had 1 person right behind me as I crossed the finish line, but I can say that at least 7 people met their goal using me as a pacer. I did my job well. :)

I was ‘paid’ for running finishing a marathon within a 30 second window (3:39:30-3:40:00) and I did that. It being my first time officially pacing, I tried REALLY hard to run even pace. It seemed to have worked out well :)

After short congratulations conversations with a few of my runners, I went back, took a quick shower and got back on the road heading home, again stopping at my parents house for the night on the way back. It was a LOOOONG drive, but the memories were so worth the effort. It looks like I will be pacing again in October in Milwaukee. I am looking forward to that!

2011 Chicagoland Spring Marathon Results (or why I hate running in Illinois, pt 2)

3:18:05
18/237 Overall 2/19 Age

     As I near the precious 50 states goal, I needed to go back and re-run 2 states to get official sub-4 finishes so I can knock off 50 sub 4 at the same time I knock off 50. I re-ran Virginia last March, and this was a re-run of Illinois. I attempted the 50 mile ultra back in that first year of running. Horrible sickness meant I had to bail at mile ~34 and get credit for a 50k finish. I have disliked that memory of Illinois for a long time, which is why I waited so long to cancel it out.

    My wife and I only get the occasional weekend ‘alone’ (known as ‘honeymoon weekends’) and since this race was close, she decided to do the road trip with me.The race was Sunday morning but we left Friday night and overshot Chicago to Madison to spend the night at my parents house. My brother, Michael wad flying into town for a special occasion, the Eagle Scout project of our nephew, Michael James. Me and my two brothers are all Eagle Scouts, so it meant a lot to us to help on on the project of our nephew. The work was on Saturday morning and Mistique and I helped out as long as we could and had to bug out at about 2pm so we could get to packet picket-up before it closed. This being an inaugural race (which I usually try to avoid) the packet pickup was inside a running store. Nice long sleeve technical shirt, no muss no fuss, off to dinner at Applebee’s, of course... I try hard not to get cocky with marathons, but there are some things I still screw up. The week before the race, it had gotten up to 90 degrees in Michigan, so I only glanced at the forecast when I was packing for the race. Oooooops. When I show up to race start with 25-30 mph winds and mid 40’s for temperature in my short sleeve shirt and shorts, I am not doing good. While waiting for the race to start I find a large garbage bag discarded in a trash can. Yeah! I put it on as a poncho (its previous owner had done the same, there were holes in all the right places) and that helped a little. Actually, it helped a lot. Back when I re-ran Virginia, it was so windy (and there I did not have enough clothes either, darnit) that i ran with a plastic bag over my torso for the first 3 miles until I had warmed up enough to remove it. This day it was rainy and windy and damn cold so I kept that darn plastic bag over my upper body until mile 25.8 or so. I looked like a dork, but I did not care. Right before the last stretch (when they might be taking pictures) I finally torn off my plastic bag. I ran across the finish line and Misty and I walked to the car (quickly). I hit the half marathon mark at 1:35 (common) and I slowed down the back half (common) but what was uncommon is how much I dropped off. I was cold, for sure, but I was also tired. As my next big race is the 100 mile national championship in late July, the month of May was slated to be high mileage. For example, in the 14 days immediately previous to this race, I had logged 206 miles. I have been rough after many a race, but this one was pretty bad. Just walking was a struggle and my legs felt like they had just done a 100 miles, not a 26.2 miler. Turns out it was just the cold. By the time Misty and I got back to the hotel room, I had warmed up enough such that I was not too bad. Crappy conditions, bad packing. Ugh. I have no good memories of this darn state.