On August 28, I ran the Sioux Falls Marathon. I signed up for this race after I found out Steven Yee was running it. Steven Yee was one of the founders of Marathon Maniacs. He’s run hundreds of marathons, but he hasn’t run marathons in every state yet. This year, he decided to run marathons in the last three states he was missing: North Dakota, South Dakota, and Michigan.
I haven’t seen Steven at
a race in years, so I wanted to join him for at least one race this year. I couldn’t join him in Fargo last May, and I
won’t be able to join him for his 50 states finish in Detroit, but I was able
to fit the Sioux Falls Marathon into my schedule.
I drove to Sioux Falls
Saturday morning. Including stops, the
drive time was four hours. I encountered
quite a bit of rain during the drive, but the rain stopped by the time I got to
Sioux Falls.
I got to Sioux Falls
around lunch time. It was too early to
check into my hotel, so I stopped for lunch at a restaurant that was close to the
freeway. After lunch, I drove to the
Sanford Pentagon, where the expo was held.
I didn’t realize it when
I signed up, but this race was also a quarterly reunion for the 50 States
Marathon Club. After picking up my race
packet, I checked in at their booth.
After the expo, I drove
to my hotel, which was across the river from downtown Sioux Falls. They didn’t have a room ready when I arrived,
but I didn’t have to wait too long.
In the afternoon, I
attended the reunion meeting for the 50 States Marathon Club. They started out by recognizing everyone who
has recently finished running marathons in every state. Later, everyone in attendance got to say a
little about themselves.
Later, I had dinner with
a group of Marathon Maniacs. I wasn’t
the only one who came to this race largely because Steven Yee was here.
The marathon started at 6:30
on a street alongside Howard Wood Field, where the race would eventually
finish. It’s basically a single loop,
which is my favorite type of course. I
like starting and finishing in the same place.
Getting to the race was a
bit of an adventure. I kept encountering
streets that were blocked for the race.
I’ve done enough marathons that I should’ve considered that possibility. It was a bit frustrating, but I still got to Howard
Wood Field with plenty of time to spare.
This was my first
marathon in five weeks. During that
time, I did very little running. Every
four or five days, I do a few miles. On
the other days, I walk for exercise, but only at a casual pace. I’m trying to do just enough running to keep
from getting too out of shape, while resting enough to heal from a high hamstring
injury. I fully expected to struggle
today.
I’ve found that it’s
easier on my leg if I take really short strides. That’s easier said than done. It’s not a stride that feels natural. The only way I can keep from slipping into a
more natural stride is to maintain a fast cadence. If my cadence is fast enough, it forces me to
take small steps. I’ve been doing that
in short training runs, and I did it in a 10K race a couple weeks ago. I didn’t know if I could maintain a fast cadence
for a marathon. When you’re not used to
it, it gets tiring after just a few miles.
I wanted to run with Steven
Yee, but I didn’t know what pace he was going to run. Before the race, he said he was going to try
to keep up with Patti, and Patti was planning to run with the 4:30 pace group. I had doubts about whether I could sustain that
pace, but I decided to give it a try.
Two other friends, Pascal and Dan, also started at that pace.
This was a relatively
small race. There were about 400 runners
in the marathon. Of those, 77 were
members of the 50 States Marathon Club.
In a race of this size, it doesn’t take long to get into your desired
pace.
As we started running, I
felt a little bit of soreness in my injured hamstring tendon. I forced myself into the same short stride
and rapid cadence that I’ve been doing in my training runs. Then I felt more comfortable.
I stayed close to Steven
and Patti, and they stayed close to the leader of the pace group. As we settled into our pace, I quickly got
comfortable with it. It seemed like the
pace would be sustainable, and I found a stride that was reasonably
comfortable.
I currently have a few
dietary restrictions. Among other
things, I’m not supposed to drink any red or purple beverages. When we reached an aid station, I was
disappointed to see that the Powerade was blue.
That’s close enough to purple, that I figured I should avoid it. I usually count on getting all my calories
from sports drinks. I drank water and
crossed my fingers that they would have other flavors of Powerade at some of
the other aid stations.
After a couple miles, we
started running in front of the 4:30 group.
I was fine with that, as long as we didn’t get too far ahead of
them. In the third mile, we started
running downhill. As we approached the
downtown area, we were descending into the river valley. We started running a little faster, but we
weren’t putting any extra effort into it.
I kept my feet moving fast. In
the early miles, my cadence was about 200 strides per minute.
As we continued running
downhill, I started talking to Dan. I
realized I was getting ahead of Steven and Patti, but we were having an
interesting conversation. After five
miles, we reached Falls Park. I decided
to stop and take pictures of the falls and give Steven and Patti a chance to
catch up to me.
I underestimated how
quickly Steven and Patti would catch up.
They went by me while I was taking pictures. We went up a small hill after crossing the
river, and I had to work hard to catch up to them.
After that one small
hill, we came back down to the river level.
For the next few miles, we ran alongside the Big Sioux River. I didn't realize it at the time, but we ran right past my hotel.
I’ve run this race
before, but it was several years ago. I think
the course is different now. I remember
running by the river, but I remember it being much later in the race. I also don’t remember the course having so
many miles along greenways. There were a
few residential neighborhoods, but we were mostly running next to the river.
After about six miles,
two volunteers on bicycles told us to make room for the half marathon runners
on the left. Their race started 30
minutes after ours. We saw the leader of
the half marathon run by. It was a long
time before we saw the next runner in that race. I only remember seeing two half marathon
runners. Then our course diverged from
theirs.
The aid stations all
seemed to have the same blue Powerade, so I kept drinking water. Finally, in the eighth mile, we reached an
aid station with Gu. I wanted to have a
Gu packet, but the flavor I saw was some type of berry. I didn’t know if it would have red or purple
food coloring, so I just drank water.
After about nine miles, I
left the river and ran a few miles through residential neighborhoods. As we moved away from the river, there was
some uphill running. I was still able to
keep up with my friends, but it didn’t seem as easy now.
Patti and I were still
just a short distance ahead of the 4:30 pace leader. Steven was running with Pascal, and they were
starting to get ahead of us.
At about 12 miles, we
crossed a bridge. The bridge was a
noticeable hill. I commented to Patti
that I thought that might be the high elevation of the course. I was wrong.
About a mile later, we started a hill that was more than a mile long.
Patti and I reached the
halfway mark in 2:14. We were a minute
ahead of the pace for a 4:30 finish, but the pace still felt sustainable.
Before we reached the end
of that hill, Patti needed to take a walking break. If I was smart, I would’ve walked too. I should’ve waited for the 4:30 group to
catch up to us. Instead, I kept running
and tried to catch up to Pascal and Steven.
They were going a little faster, but they were only about half a block
ahead of me.
For the next mile, I picked
up my effort in an attempt to catch Pascal and Steven. I was going as fast as I could without
causing discomfort in my left leg, but I wasn’t gaining any ground on them.
There was a place where
we crossed a bridge and then turned to go underneath the same bridge. As I made that turn, I looked back to see if I could spot the 4:45 group. I saw them on the bridge. Then I saw Patti a short distance behind them. She was running again.
In the 16th mile, I
doubled down on my effort to catch up to Pascal and Steven. I was working hard, but I didn’t feel like I
was going any faster. Pascal and Steven
continued to pull away from me. At
times, they would disappear around a corner and I would lose sight of them.
At about 16 miles, I
reached another aid station with Gu.
They had a variety of flavors. I
ate a vanilla bean Gu. It was the first
calories I took in since the start of the race.
In the next mile, I
caught sight of Pascal and Steven again.
They were no longer running together.
Now Pascal was pulling away. I
wondered if Steven would slow down enough for me to catch him. Before long, I saw him walking.
I ran until I caught up
with Steven, and then I walked with him.
I told him where I last saw Patti.
While we were walking, the 4:30 group passed us. We expected to see Patti soon, but she was
nowhere in sight.
We resumed running, but
Steven immediately started to cramp up.
He had to switch back to walking.
We walked across a bridge. From
the bridge, we could see a long distance back along the course. We still couldn’t see Patti.
After crossing the
bridge, Steven tried to run again. We
shuffled slowly for about 30 seconds, but then he had to walk again. He told me to go ahead. He was planning to walk the rest of the race. He didn’t care how long it took. He just wanted to finish.
I resumed running, but I
couldn’t run as fast as before. With
nobody else setting the pace, I had to find a pace that was sustainable and a
stride that wouldn’t bother my injured left leg. It took a few minutes, but I found a comfortable
gait.
I didn’t know how fast I
was running until I ran a complete mile that didn’t include any walking. That was my 19th mile. My new pace was about a minute slower than my
previous pace. The 4:30 group was long
gone, but I was still on pace to stay ahead of the 4:45 group for the rest of
the race. That became my new goal.
It was a hot day. It was 69 degrees at the start, and it had
already warmed into the upper 70s. We
had cloud cover, and that was the only thing that kept it from feeling oppressive.
I was running along the
west bank of the river, but I could see runners on the east bank going in the
opposite direction. Eventually, I
reached Durham Park and crossed the river.
I immediately felt a cool breeze.
I had been running with the wind at my back, so the wind didn’t have any
cooling effect. Now that I was running
into it, it helped with the heat.
I followed the east bank of
the river for almost two miles and then crossed another bridge. I assumed after crossing the bridge, I would
turn right and continue running in the same direction. I didn’t even notice the chalk arrows
pointing to the left. I turned right,
and two volunteers started shouting emphatically that I needed to go the other
way. If nobody had said anything, I
could’ve gone a long way before realizing I was off course.
After turning around and
heading in the right direction, I realized I no longer had a headwind. I felt hot again. As I was getting to the 23 mile mark, I felt
the heat of the sun. When it was cloudy,
I only felt a little bit hot. Now that
the heat of the sun was bearing down on me, I felt much hotter.
The last three miles were
grizzly. It was all I could do to keep
moving. With two and a half miles to go,
I wanted to start taking walking breaks.
Walking for a minute or two each mile would’ve been reasonable. I was afraid if I started walking, I’d have
trouble forcing myself to run again. I
was still on pace to break 4:45. I didn’t
want to get passed by another pace group.
In May, I started having
an imbalance in my stride that caused my left shoe to graze the inside of my
right ankle. It hasn’t been a problem in
the last month, but it resurfaced today.
In the last few miles of the race, it happened several times. My ankle was starting to bleed, but that wasn’t
my biggest concern. My immediate concern
was getting to the finish line.
With a mile and a half to
go, I ran under a bridge. Then I had to
go up a small hill. I walked up the
hill, but then I forced myself to resume running.
Shortly after that, I
heard a few shouts in the distance. I
wondered if it was people cheering at the finish line. Then I heard an occasional PA announcement. I couldn’t see the finish yet, but I could
hear it.
With just over a mile to
go, I turned away from the river. As I came
around a sharp turn, I looked back to see if I could see the 4:45 pace
group. I couldn’t see them coming.
Now I was running through
the neighborhood between the river and the stadium where we would finish. With just under a mile to go, I realized I
could walk about half of the remaining distance and still break 4:45. I started talking walking breaks.
I would walk a block or
two. Then I would run a block or two. Running was starting to get me out of breath,
but I didn’t really notice it until I took a walking break. Then I’d be gasping to catch my breath. I was right on the threshold of heat stress.
The finish was on a track. We had to run past the stadium before we
entered it. I didn’t want to have to
walk going around the track, so I decided to walk until I got there. I had time.
When I got to the 26 mile mark, I was pleasantly surprised to see that I
had only slowed down by about a minute and a half, even with the walking.
I resumed running. As I turned onto the track, I was told I had
300 meters to go. I could run that far,
but it was hard work. I couldn’t speed
up at all. I finished in 4:44:07.
At first glance, I
thought the finisher medal looked kind of plain. Then I noticed it was in the shape of South
Dakota.
They had some good
post-race food, but I was mostly thirsty.
I had some chocolate milk, an ice cream bar, and some water. I had to sit down in the stadium seats while
I finished my ice cream bar. Standing
was too tiring.
I made a bathroom stop
and then headed to the beer tent. We had
a choice of a Belgian wit or a hard seltzer.
I went with the Belgian wit. Then
I had to sit down again while I drank it.
After sitting long enough for my sweat to evaporate, I finally walked to
my car.
Immediately after the
race, I didn’t have any soreness in my left leg. That changed when I sat down in the car. Fortunately, the drive back to the hotel took
less than 10 minutes.
Later in the day, I found out Steven finished the race in 5:12. He must have recovered enough to do some running, because walking the last 9 miles would've taken much longer. Patti finished in 5:19. She's normally much faster than that, so she obviously had a tough race.
I didn’t pace myself well
in this race. It was a mistake to try to
catch up to my friends. Had I stayed
with the 4:30 group, I probably could’ve kept up that pace much longer. I probably wouldn’t have stayed with them for
the whole race. I think the heat would’ve
still broken me in the last few miles.
For now, it seems like my leg held up OK. The real test will be how it feels tonight and tomorrow. Tomorrow, I’ll have to drive home. Nothing bothers my leg more than sitting in a car for a long time.
Looks like you're on pace for a full recovery.
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