Summer 2016 Marathons
Finally the End of Elevation
In the past couple months I ran three more marathons in hard to reach states. None of them were easy. So I am glad they are over. Here's a quick summary on each one.
FRANK MAIER MARATHON, Juneau, Alaska, 7/30
When traveling to a state like Alaska to do a marathon, the question is: Which is more taxing? Running the race or the travel to get to and from the event? I chose Juneau because it is the closest town in Alaska that has a marathon, thus cutting off up to an hour each way from the flight. Still it was a long haul from Philadelphia to Seattle and then to Juneau. Leaving in the early morning, I got in at 2:30 pm Juneau time, which means 6:30 on the East Coast.
The temperature was around 60 degrees, which is normal for Juneau standards in July. The driver, who took me to the motel, talked about the day it was 80 degrees, as if it had been monumentally hot. Indeed, many people were walking around in shorts and tee-shirts, which was not enough for me.
After getting to the motel, I waited until Ricky Singh came in on a different flight about an hour later. Once we were together, we walked the few blocks to where we could pick up our numbers at a community center. Later we walked down to the harbor and had dinner looking out on the water. Downtown Juneau is pretty small, with the inlet leaving probably less than a half mile of relatively flat land before the mountains pop-up. It was pretty neat seeing the small waterfalls coming off of various spots of the mountains, as the snow on top was still melting.
Going back to the motel, we retired by 8:30 pm. We had to be up early to catch our ride from Steve and Paula Boone, who had agreed to pick us up, thus sparing the need to rent a car. It never did seem to get quite dark that night.
The next morning the Boones picked us up at 5:00 am. We went out to the start onto an island across a bridge and several miles to the South. The road was basically the only main road on the island. When we started, we went up the road from south to north, then veered to the west and somewhat south again, before turning around and returning.
While we were basically at sea level to a couple hundred feet above sea level, I found the constant rolling nature of the course to be taxing. A couple miles from the half-marathon turnaround, we ran past a bay on the other side of the island. Across the bay, I could see a glacier meeting the water. At twelve and a half miles, there was a long uphill segment to the turn. It took a lot out of me. I was running well back down, but at the bottom I had to stop at a portajohn and the necessary stop took over five minutes. When I started running again, all of my motivation was gone because any time goals I had were shot.
After a couple more miles of flat running, when the rolling terrain came again, I did a lot of walking. It just did not matter. There were no age-group awards. My only goal was to finish, which I did in 4:55:27. Ricky had long finished. I had a little bit to eat and changed into dry stuff while waiting for Steve Boone to finish. When he did, he immediately got in the car and drove us back.
After cleaning up, I went out to eat and had a burger and a couple of beers. I spoke with some other runners who had also patronized the same establishment. Then I went back to the motel and gathered my things together for the ride to the airport. Yes, I was leaving the same day. I had figured that if I waited until the next day, the travel would take all day and I would arrive in Philadelphia after 11:00 pm. I figured that I might as well fly overnight and get home during the day and take a nap at home.
Recommendation: I like Juneau. There is enough to do there that a short stay could get you to a ride up a mountain and a whale-watching excursion. The marathon is very small and the local club is having trouble getting people to direct it. I hope it keeps going.
LOGANVIEW "RAIDER RUN" MARATHON, Loganview, NE, 8/20:
In an attempt to fit in a marathon in Nebraska, I choose this one, which was three weeks after the one in Juneau. It was put on by a high school booster club, which also had a 5K, a half marathon and a 50K ultra going. They all occurred on a Saturday evening, starting a 5:00 pm. Still, between all of the events, there were less than 100 participants. At least the marathoners had the 50K people for company.
I flew into Omaha, rented a car, and drove to the town where I had reserved a motel room. Driving outside of Omaha, for over 20 miles the dirt roads in between corn fields were still numbered as if they were a street of Omaha, going all the way up to about 300th Street. I checked in about 1:30 pm and went out and had a meal, before going back to dress for the marathon. Fortunately the weather was cool as a rain front had gone through the Midwest. There was a downpour when I was waiting at O'hare for the Omaha flight. So the temperature stayed below 70 until about the time the marathon started, when it warmed a few degrees.
What a coincidence it was that while I was picking up my number at the school parking lot, I heard a man say he was from Delaware. I came up and said "Guess where I am from". Then I had a conversation with him and his wife, Peggy Strang. She is the marathon runner. He does half marathons. She has also done 47 states. They are from Hockessin and I never knew them, but it turns out that I have been in a number of races with Peggy Strang.
So here I was on a relatively cool evening, with a headlamp for when it got dark in Nebraska. Should be pretty easy, right? Wrong! Nebraska, at least not this part, is not flat. It was rolling terrain. The roads for the most part were gravel, sometimes pretty thick gravel. Then the headlamp, for which I had substituted batteries before I left home to make sure it worked, died after a few minutes. I had to stumble through the dark, mainly by following others who had good lamps, for well over an hour at the end. Although I had started out by passing Peggy a mile into the race, she passed me in the dark and beat me by 15 minutes. My time was over 5:10.
Recommendation: Well this was an experience for me that I won't forget and it fit my schedule. But I would not tell people to do it when Omaha has a marathon.
BOZEMAN MARATHON, Bozeman, MT, 9/11:
Here are a few lasting impressions I have of Montana. As soon as I got off the plane and looked up, I understood immediately why it is called "Big Sky Country", as it was a clear day and a deep blue sky. The colors of the plants seemed "different", kind of giving me the same impression as when I have worn orange lensed sunglasses. The populace I saw was 99% white. I can't remember as uniform group anywhere else I have been in the US. Bozeman houses Montana State University. It sort of reminded me of Newark, DE, but with less traffic. The airport is in Belgrade, 15 miles from Bozeman. I stayed at a motel there. But the highway speed limit is 75 mph and the traffic is very light.
For the marathon, we had to go to the Main St. in Bozeman to catch buses which took us out to the start. The previous day, I had scouted out where the race would end and found a place to park the next street over, right across from a bar, which I would patronize after the race.
The buses stopped along the Gallatin River at a place where there seemed to be a slight pass through the hills. The wind was blowing strongly through there. After getting off the bus to relieve myself, I got back on the bus like everyone else to stay warm. Ten minutes before the start, we all piled off, got rid of our drop bags, and huddled behind the bus to shelter ourselves from the wind until a couple minutes before the start when we finally lined up.
In the early miles we were running with the wind at our backs and slightly downhill. Although we were at more than 5,000 feel altitude, the running seemed relatively easy. But I have been through this scenario before, most specifically when I ran the Revel Rockies Marathon outside of Denver. Going downhill in the beginning was faster than I figured. But by six miles we had bottomed out. We turned directions, and started to go uphill. It was very gradual at first and then a little steeper. Then we turned again and were going into the wind. My time per time rapidly went up. It was all uphill until the half marathon point, at least 600 feet of climbing. While the first six miles took a little over an hour, the next seven took 96 minutes. I was done already.
The half second took 2:55 as I could not run much without becoming breathless in just a few hundred yards. I walked any sort of uphill incline. I talked with a couple young woman - asking them if their slowing was more due to the altitude or the nature of the course. They agreed with my opinion that it was the altitude. Eventually I made my way into Bozeman and the Main Street for the finish in 5:31:34, one of my slower marathons. Oh well! It was done and I did get first in my age-group, netting me a huge belt buckle in the shape of Montana. Yeehaw!
Somewhere along the way, I misplaced my watch, irking me because I am obsessive about recording my mile splits. But I did remember a couple of the splits, so that's the way it goes.
Recommendation: Well, nothing in Montana is going to be at a lesser altitude. Bozeman was OK. This is the place you would fly to in order to go to Yellowstone National Park. So a visit there would be good to link with doing this marathon.
Here are a few lasting impressions I have of Montana. As soon as I got off the plane and looked up, I understood immediately why it is called "Big Sky Country", as it was a clear day and a deep blue sky. The colors of the plants seemed "different", kind of giving me the same impression as when I have worn orange lensed sunglasses. The populace I saw was 99% white. I can't remember as uniform group anywhere else I have been in the US. Bozeman houses Montana State University. It sort of reminded me of Newark, DE, but with less traffic. The airport is in Belgrade, 15 miles from Bozeman. I stayed at a motel there. But the highway speed limit is 75 mph and the traffic is very light.
For the marathon, we had to go to the Main St. in Bozeman to catch buses which took us out to the start. The previous day, I had scouted out where the race would end and found a place to park the next street over, right across from a bar, which I would patronize after the race.
The buses stopped along the Gallatin River at a place where there seemed to be a slight pass through the hills. The wind was blowing strongly through there. After getting off the bus to relieve myself, I got back on the bus like everyone else to stay warm. Ten minutes before the start, we all piled off, got rid of our drop bags, and huddled behind the bus to shelter ourselves from the wind until a couple minutes before the start when we finally lined up.
In the early miles we were running with the wind at our backs and slightly downhill. Although we were at more than 5,000 feel altitude, the running seemed relatively easy. But I have been through this scenario before, most specifically when I ran the Revel Rockies Marathon outside of Denver. Going downhill in the beginning was faster than I figured. But by six miles we had bottomed out. We turned directions, and started to go uphill. It was very gradual at first and then a little steeper. Then we turned again and were going into the wind. My time per time rapidly went up. It was all uphill until the half marathon point, at least 600 feet of climbing. While the first six miles took a little over an hour, the next seven took 96 minutes. I was done already.
The half second took 2:55 as I could not run much without becoming breathless in just a few hundred yards. I walked any sort of uphill incline. I talked with a couple young woman - asking them if their slowing was more due to the altitude or the nature of the course. They agreed with my opinion that it was the altitude. Eventually I made my way into Bozeman and the Main Street for the finish in 5:31:34, one of my slower marathons. Oh well! It was done and I did get first in my age-group, netting me a huge belt buckle in the shape of Montana. Yeehaw!
Somewhere along the way, I misplaced my watch, irking me because I am obsessive about recording my mile splits. But I did remember a couple of the splits, so that's the way it goes.
Recommendation: Well, nothing in Montana is going to be at a lesser altitude. Bozeman was OK. This is the place you would fly to in order to go to Yellowstone National Park. So a visit there would be good to link with doing this marathon.
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