Race Report - Whistle Stop Marathon

No suspense today. I did not run great but I ran good and finished in 3:55:47. A Sub 4!

I woke up at 5:00 AM to after a restless night. I get that a lot the night before a marathon. I guess I am just excited about the race all the time. Anyways, I looked outside and saw that the snow was flying. As you can see from the picture, it was blowing pretty good as well.

After a big bowl of oatmeal, I left at about 6 to drive to Ashland. The drive was a little nervous as the snow was blowing pretty good, it was still dark out so in the lights of the car, it made it a little difficult to see. Add to that the roads were not dry, a touch icy, and it made for a slower drive in. I get to Ashland safely and board the bus to go to the start line.

At the starting area, there is about an inch of snow on the ground and it was (I am guessing) 28F out. A bunch of us are in a lodge house waiting for the start and one guy really made the mood light by saying to another runner "So, are you running this race barefoot?" That cracked us all up.

Out at the start line, about 2 minutes before the start as everyone is lined up, a gust of wind blows a bunch of the snow from the trees down on us. That woke everyone else up who could possibly been sleepy still. The race started on time at 9:00AM and off we all went. The first 1.75 miles was on a road going to the trail we would run for most of the race. At times, it was icy and we all had to be cautious not to slip and fall. I didn't see anyone fall so that was good.

I get to the trail and discover that there is snow on it but at least a little packed down since there are a bunch of runners ahead of me. The trail is pretty soft though, it is like running on a soft cinder track. This caused a few problems during the race as the little pebbles were flying and quite a few got into my shoes while running. I saw many people stop to remove their shoes to get the pebbles out, but of all the pebbles I had in my shoes, it never quite got to the point of me stopping to do so.

My ultimate goal in this race was to run a time of 3:45 but after about 10 miles, I knew that 3:45 was not going to happen. I had a tendon in my leg that was a little sore but not bad. My quads were a little tired as well but not enough to slow down yet. I went through 10 at 1:26:55 and now it was time for the 13 miles of downhill. Let me tell you, it never seemed like we were ever going downhill. I think the soft surface took any advantage of a slight downhill away.

By mile 18, I was still going all miles sub 9 pace but now it when I usually have trouble. I was still relaxed but the pace went from sub 9's to 9:00 to 9:35 through mile 23. On my pace band I made, I also wrote down at what points all the aid stations were and this helped because I forced myself to NOT do any walk breaks when there wasn't an aid station. Just at the Garmin beeped Mile 23, there was an aid station, and there also was one at 23.9 so I had a very slow mile there with 2 breaks (10:32).

Now I was getting worried about not being able to break 4 hours if I had a meltdown. I really didn't want ANOTHER meltdown. I started to attempt to do some math in my head as to what pace I needed to run to still break 4. I knew it was a little over 10 minute miles and that my last mile was slow so I tried to focus more and pick up the pace and it started to work.

At 24.5 miles, we leave the cinder trail and start on a paved trail going into Ashland. All day it was quite windy out but even with the wind primarily going the direction the race was going, it didn't factor at all since the entire race up until here was all protected from the trees. But at 24.5, the trail opened up and the wind felt great on our backs. This helped even more and I started passing people. Mile 25 was back down to 9:03 and I decided to just skip the aid station at mile 25 and pour it on. While it hurt at this point, I knew the finish was minutes away. I continued passing people which helped a lot until the finish line.

After the race, it was cold, no, I take that back, it was @#$% cold. The winds were blowing hard and the temperature was in the low 30's so that combined with the sweat I built up made lots of shivering until I could warm up inside. After a warm shower and some hot chocolate, it was time for the long 6+ hour drive home. I was able to get home by 8:45.

Here are some of my thoughts about the race (not my race). This was a nice smaller marathon. I think there was just under 900 finishers. While I can't fault them at all for the weather and snow, it was a small factor in the race. The race is run for 22+ miles on a cinder trail that is quite wide but very soft and not ideal for a fast running time. It does drop 500 or so feet from miles 9 to 23, but I could not feel this at all. The soft cinder trail did cause issues with a lot of runner I saw and not just being slow. Lots of little pebbles made it into shoes and that was a problem. The course did prove to be quite beautiful running through all the trees and forests and over quite a few trestles. There were not many people cheering on the runners as there were not too many places they could get to. The trail is just too far off the roads. The last 1/4 mile of the course was a bit ridiculous though. I think there was 6 turns in the last 1/4 mile so you did not see the finish line until about 50 meters before it. I would prefer a longer straight away to the finish line. The participants in the race were fun to run with. Some were talkative and encouraging as we went along. The aid stations were nice for the size of the race and they really braved it out in the cold. Thanks for being there! It was so cold that at the first 2 water stops, my water cup had a very thin layer of ice. The volunteers were great!

The start area was small and because it was so cold, there wasn't much room to stay warm in the lodge. There was plenty of portolets at the start area, a line that looked long at first moved very fast before the race. If you are looking for a nice expo, this is not the race to come to. An area to buy some running apparel and one other marathon advertising. the pre-race pasta and fish boil dinner was good though. I had a nice sized plate of spaghetti which was quite tasty.

Overall I would say that this is a nice race but not a great race. I am not sure I will be coming back but it is possible. I do like trying new races though.

I am happy with my time. It would be hard to complain since I hadn't broken 4 hours in my last 9 marathons though I still believe I should be able to run about 3:40 to 3:45. Maybe the next one!

The race expo and pasta dinner was held in a hockey arena on the board covered ice rink. Now that is what northern Wisconsin is all about.

As you can see, the car had some snow on it before I left in the morning.

Running Tomorrow

I am sitting here in my hotel room in Ironwood, MI right now about to go to sleep before tomorrow's marathon. I feel I ma ready to run a good time. Let's hope I can run smart. According to Weather.com, it is suppose to be 30F and light snow at 8:00 AM but at 9:00 when the race starts, it should be 33 and mostly sunny. Then at Noon, it says windy, 20 mph, but from the WSW. We run mostly to the east so that is OK with me.

I find myself during race week, looking at the forecast often. I guess I just want to prepare myself as best as I can. I am sure a lot of you do the same even though there is nothing we can do about it, interesting, huh.

So I drove the 6 1/2 hours up here this morning and afternoon. I stopped in Oshkosh and visited with my former college coach for awhile and gave him a donation to the program. then a leisurely drive 'up nort'. The colors of the trees up here is Ironwood & Ashland seem to be past peak but on the way up, particularly in Stevens Point and Wausau were outstanding. I will try to get some pics on the way home. Hopefully the sun will come out allowing better pictures.

I went to the Expo and pasta dinner and just got back to the room. The Expo and dinner was held on an Ice Hockey Rink! They had the boards down but it was kind of crazy being on the rink. The pasta dinner was really good but I ate alone. Kind of hard to meet people so I sat at a table alone and hoped someone would join me, no luck. Oh well, maybe next time.

Time for some rest now. Wish me some luck tomorrow and I wish all others running this weekend the best of luck, Have great races!

Controversy at The Lakefront Marathon

I west on my final run before the WhistleStop Marathon today. 3 miles and it felt so easy so I hope that is a good sign for Saturday. We will see.

So the Lakefront Marathon was last Sunday here in Milwaukee and it went well, except if you were one of the leading women in the race. Most of what I say here is only what I have heard has happened so please don't take this as truth's, but as what I have heard it to be. But here is the story so far.

Cassie Pellar won the race on Sunday in a time of just over 3 hours. BUT, she was disqualified after the race. It seems she took water from a kid along the course as well as "took a sip" of water from her family who jumped out of a car along the course and gave it to her. The ruling is that she accepted aid along the course and thus should be DQ'd. This cause some uproar here in Milwaukee and even was on talk radio. A lot of people thought this was unfair as it is stated on the Lakefront website, well, I can't put it here because I just went to the site and the rule are now changed. Basically it said, until yesterday that is, that you can only take water from a designated aid station OR family and friends "adjacent" to an aid station. Now it is easy for me to see that getting water in a mile from an aid station would not qualify as adjacent, but then why say you CAN take water from family of friend at all.

The Lakefront Marathon is the USATF Wisconsin Marathon Championships and $500 goes to the winner, but to me, this is a ridiculous ruling. The spirit of the rule was not to disqualify people in a smaller marathon like Lakefront, but keep rules for the larger major marathons and Championships.

The disqualifications do not end there. This morning I read that now the 2nd place woman, Jennifer Goebel, was also DQ'd because she used her iPod from miles 19 to 21. he reason she was found to be using this is that there was a picture taken of her wearing (but not ear buds in and listening) her iPod. The rules here specifically say that a person going for a USATF championship CANNOT wear listening devises. This one seems more cut and dry to me but yet also seems to be off the point as to the spirit of the rule. I would not have DQ's her but I can understand why they did. So now the 3rd place woman is now the official winner. Crazy!

A side note I just remembered. As I looked at the name "Jennifer Goebel" and it is who I thought it was. She is from Lombard, IL and when I ran the Grand Rapids Marathon in 2007, she was one of the pacers in the group I ran with. She was an awesome pacer and got me to my goal. She was very friendly and we even talked quite a bit along the course. Now I feel even worse for her since I know how nice she really is.

Let's hope that this is the end of the trouble at Lakefront.

Good Luck to all of you running in Chicago this weekend and all the other races around the country. A special good luck to Melanie returning to marathoning this weekend in Chicago.

4 Days To Go

I am trying to get extra sleep this week. Normally during the week, I get somewheres between 6 and 7 hours, but this week I really should get 8+ so I will try to get to bed early tonight.

Am I ready for the marathon this weekend? I sure hope so. I know I can run 26.2 miles. I know I can run it in under 4 hours. But knowing and doing are 2 entirely different things. I have proven that the last 8 or so marathons I have run. Each time I knew I could break 4 hours and each time I didn't. There were a variety of reasons as to why it did not happen but it all comes down to the fact that I just didn't get it done. I have trained hard this summer. Not as hard as I could have, but hard none-the-less. I will try to run smart to take my breaks where needed and not go out too fast.

The weather looks quite interesting as of now for Ashland, Wisconsin on Saturday. The low the night before is forecasted at 30F (Brrrrrrr) and a high of only 42F. I am not upset about this because if you have read my blog in the past, you will remember that I like it cold. It get interesting because the forecast also calls for some rain (and maybe snow) and 15 mph winds. Good news, the wind is suppose to come FROM the West and the race is a point to point course going mostly FROM the West to the East. I am not going to dwell on this forecast too much as we are still quite a ways away from Saturday and this WILL change. But I will be prepared for the worst.

I leave Friday morning for the 6 1/2 hour drive. One more run planned for tomorrow, an easy 3 miler or so. I ran 4 yesterday and it felt very easy so I hope that is a good sign though the legs feel a little tired. 4 days to rest them up.

Cutting It As Close As You Can!

Today was the Lakefront Marathon in Milwaukee. I had a few friends that were running and were going for some hefty goals. Chaz wanted to break 2:50 and Chris wanted to break 3:00. Both run on the InStep Running Team. I have run with Chaz for years and I met Chris about a year ago and have run with him a few times, most recently a 20 miler around Lake Geneva.

I was unable to be there at the start as 2 of my princesses were singing in Church at 8:00, exactly when the race started. After getting them to where they needed to be, I stepped outside and called Cherylynn, Chaz's wife to get the exact start of the race on my stop watch. I got it and then went to church for a little over 1 hour. Then I raced downtown, changed clothes, and proceeded along the course in my car to find out where the guys were.

I finally saw Chaz at about 18 miles, turned around, drove a bit, then got out, ran up the course some and cheered on Chaz for about a 1/4 mile seeing how he was doing. So far right on pace. Then I went back and found Chris, he was being paced by his friend (and mine I suppose) Dana. He was right on pace as well. The temps were almost perfect for a marathon. It was about 50F, cloudy and winds from the west (they run mostly South).

I ended up driving along the course and stopping a few times to cheer on the guys again and then to the finish area to see them finish. I stayed at the 25 1/2 mile mark and found Chaz about 2 minutes off pace now. I cheered him on and tried to get him a little faster. It seemed to help but as he turned the last turn for the final 1/3 mile finish straightaway, the winds were fierce. He ended up running 2:51:44, not a sub 2:50, but a PR for him none-the-less and a 20th place finish out of 2750 signed up. Not too shabby.

I went back the the 25 1/2 mile mark and found Chris and Dana running just about on pace but Chris looked tired. (No kidding, he just ran 25 1/2 miles). Dana was really trying his best to keep Chris on pace and I cheered them on doing my best to keep him motivated for the final 4 minutes of running. I warned Dana about the winds for the final 1/3 mile so maybe he could have Chris draft off him. As they cam down the final chute, I was yelling as loud as I could to get Chris to pick it up. They passed me at 2:59:30 and still had a bit to go. Finally, I saw Chris finish in a time of 2:59:58! He did it! And only a second to spare. Dana let Chris have the glory of his sub 3:00 finish and came across at 2:59:59. Both good for 43rd & 44th place and the last 2 under 3 hours. Was that ever exciting to watch.

I still needed to get my weekend run in, so I ran the course backwards for 3 miles and then back along the course with the runners to get in 6 miles. That with the miles I ran with the guys makes it 8 for the day. Watching the race got me hyped up for next weekend. Also it was fun encouraging all the runners in their final 3 miles knowing exactly what most of them were going through. I stopped to help a guy at just past 24 miles who was flat on the ground with 2 cramped calves. I think I helped him, not sure.

Congratulations to Chaz and Chris for awesome runs today and now it is 6 days to go!

Totally Bummed!

I was having a pretty good day today. It was busy at work, I was working hard and the day was flying along. All was well. That is until about 11:15AM when I checked the news. CHICAGO OUT IN FIRST ROUND

I am a huge Olympics fan. In 1996, I travelled down to Atlanta to the Olympics and had an absolutely awesome time. It was one of the best experiences I have ever had. I saw people from all over the world together to cheer on their country in all sorts of events. Most of the time I saw Track & Field events but I did get to see the Men's Indoor Volleyball Semifinals. I saw people partying in the streets and partying in the parks. For the most part, the city was buzzing and most everyone was happy and having a good time. I was able to see the women's marathon start and finish from Olympic Stadium as well. I think I was even on TV in Japan as they filmed a whole bunch of Japanese fans surrounding us as a Japanese woman took the silver.

I was able to see Haile Gebresalassie win the 10,000 and Micheal Johnson win the 400 and break the world record in the 200. Like I said, it was awesome.

Chicago was up as a final 4 city for the 2016 Olympics and if chosen, the Olympics would be in my backyard practically. I can drive to Chicago in under 1 and a half hours and some of the events would have even taken place in Wisconsin. But alas, my hopes were dashed in an instant as Rio de Janeiro was named the host city. Will Rio be a good choice in the end? I don't know. They have A LOT of work to do down there.

Maybe my hopes are not all gone. Maybe, just maybe, Chicago can regroup and try again for the 2020 Olympics. I know that is a very small chance, but it at least makes me feel slightly better.

Oh well, at least on Sunday I will go and watch another marathon.

Random Marathon Thoughts

Mike and I did a little 6 miler yesterday. We did a 2 mile loop around Waterford 3 times. I wonder if anyone saw us going past so many times and thought we were nuts or something. Not sure, but it was a good run at about 8:40 pace and some good conversation. Actually some good steam blowing off from Mike after a tough day at work and I get to be the brunt of the steam flow.

I finally signed up for the WhistleStop marathon. What? I hadn't signed up yet??? Yeah, I know. If I don't need to sign up for a race quickly, I usually wait until as late as I can. Why is this? Well, I think it is because I have an out if anything goes wrong. Is is not like I wanted an out to not run the marathon, I always have wanted to, it is just that if an injury or a more important obligation came up, I could easily change my race to another one. This isn't like Chicago where you need to sign up 6 months in advance because it will fill up. Besides, there are many marathons all over the upper Midwest in the fall so if I needed to delay it a week or 2 or move it up the same, I would have no problem. I have also twice signed up for a marathon about 45 minutes before it started. Now that is major league procrastination! Not many marathons will allow you to do that.

I have already signed up for the Icebreaker Marathon's Gold Medal Challenge a month or so ago and that race is not until January, but they only allow 40 people to enter that and I was not sure how quickly it would fill up. So this got me to thinking. Have you ever been signed up for 2 or marathons at one time? I know some of you have and I know some of you are currently as well. I am now signed up for WhistleStop and Icebreaker. My record is once I was signed up for 3 marathons at one time. Talk about commitment!

If you are like me, getting this close to a marathon and I star thinking "What is the weather going to be like?" The weather can affect my plans a lot not only with the temperatures (Chicago 1997 HOT!), but also wind (Surfside TX 2009 WINDY!) and rain (Twin Cities 2008, WET!). Well, it looks really good for the Lakefront Marathon in Milwaukee this weekend. Lows of 43 and high of 59 partly sunny, 10 MPH winds from the west. The course runs mainly to the south. Sounds awesome to me. The 10 day forecast for Chicago shows some nice cooler temps staying until Sunday the 11th. Not sure about rain, too far out to tell but at least not hot like the last 2 years. And for the Whistlestop, 10 days out though, Weather.com says low of 36, High of 54 with rain. Well, I don't like the rain but the temps sound great! Things can change so quickly so we will all take what is given to us, but it is nice to prepare for what will be there.

Good Luck to my friends Chaz and Chris running this weekend in the Lakefront Marathon in Milwaukee. Chaz's goal is to run sub 2:50 (I know, totally insane!) and Chris wants to break 3:00 for the first time. I know he is ready to do it.