Today was the final day of the Summer Camp Series. Since I also ran the last race of the Heartland Series, it was my sixth consecutive day running a marathon.
Our race venue was Quarry
Park and Nature Preserve in Waite Park, MN.
I’ve run at least 14 marathons in this park. There’s a network of gravel trails in the
park, and Mainly Marathons experimented with at least six different routes
before settling on the current route.
This route was the most popular, mostly because it’s the least
hilly. It also has the most changes in
scenery.
Today was by far the
coolest day of the series. It was 55
degrees at the start, and it was about 70 when I finished.
The last day of this
series is the day Mainly Marathons recognizes people who have achieved “Loony
Legend” status during the past year. To
become a Loony Legend, you need to do at least 100 Mainly Marathon long races
(half marathon, marathon, or 50K), and you need to do every complete series at
least once. Today there were three new
Loony Legends, in addition to several people who reached other lifetime
milestones.
With so many people
reaching milestones, the pre-race announcements took about 30 minutes. Not realizing how long we would be standing around,
I had taken off my warm-up layers before the announcements started. By the time we were ready to start running,
my legs were getting cold.
The length of our
out-and-back route was the same as yesterday.
To complete a marathon, I needed to run 14 laps. This was at least my fifth marathon on this
route, so it’s quite familiar to me.
The start finish area was
in the southeast corner of the parking lot.
From there, we ran past the main entrance to the park and continued past
a picnic shelter to enter a trail from the eastern end of the parking lot.
This trail took us
through the woods and over a small berm I call the “speed bump.” On the way out, it’s about a five-foot
rise. Coming back, it’s a ten-foot rise,
and I usually walked it.
This trail brought us
into a clearing, where there’s a floating bridge over a marsh.
The water was higher than
usual, so the bridge was a bit bouncy.
If you were the only one crossing it, it was somewhat stable. When several people were on it at the same
time, you could feel the sections rising and falling. I always had to slow down on the bridge.
After crossing the
bridge, we got back onto the trail, which brought us up to Quarry #4. This is one of the old granite quarries that
has been transformed into a swimming hole. At one end, there’s a dock and a picnic shelter. At the opposite end, people dive in off the
cliffs.
On the opposite side of
the trail, there’s a pond where people can fish for trout.
We continued past the
quarry until we were almost to the eastern edge of the park. Then we turned and headed south along the
east side of the park.
Just before the
turnaround, we went around a slight bend and up a small hill. Then we turned around and came back.
In the first lap, I
needed to do continuous running, so my legs could warm up. That gave me an opportunity to talk with
Chris, who was usually one of the faster runners. I waited until my second lap to take
pictures.
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| photo credit: Kevin Brosi |
In my second lap, I was stopping frequently to take pictures with my phone. Between pictures, I tried to run fast enough take make up for the lost time. I didn’t want to carry my phone for the whole race, so after that lap, I made a detour to my car so I could put my phone away. Since I was stopping already, I also used the bathroom.
In my third lap, I had to
slow down a little. I wasn’t starting any
faster than I did on other days, but the pace was already getting to be tiring.
The last day of a series
is hot dog day. There were a few
different kinds of hot dogs at the aid station.
They were cut in half to make the portions manageable for eating during
the race. Often, I’ll wait until after
the race to eat solid food, and then they’ll be out. Today, I didn’t wait. After my third lap, I paused at the aid station
long enough to have a hot dog that had wild rice in it.
For the next few laps, I
was running everywhere except the “speed bump,” but my pace was much slower
than it was the other days. After six
laps, I realized that I would need to run the next lap in 20 minutes to reach
the halfway point on pace for a five-hour finish.
In the next lap, I tried
hard to pick up the pace, but I couldn’t do it.
After seven laps, I was already more than a minute behind schedule. To break five hours, I would need to be more
than two minutes faster in the second half.
That wasn’t going to happen. I couldn’t
even sustain my current effort. I was
running out of gas. I reluctantly gave
up on my goal of breaking five hours.
Before leaving the aid station, I had another hot dog. This one had cheddar cheese.
For the next lap or two,
I eased up in my effort. I was still
running everywhere except the “speed bump,” but my pace was now about a minute
per mile slower. After that, even my
slower pace was starting to take quite a bit of effort. I was going slower, but it was still too tiring.
I was slowing down, but
most of the other runners were starting to do a substantial amount of walking. The only runner who wasn’t slowing down was
Tom.
Halfway through the race,
I commented to Tom that he was running strong.
He said he was only going to keep up that pace for the first three
hours. Later, when I was in my 9th lap,
I saw that Tom was still running. He was
on his way back as I was still on my way out.
As we passed, I said, “No pressure, but you’re winning the race.” Then I looked at my watch. It was just past the three-hour mark, which
was when Tom was going to slow down.
In my next lap, I didn’t
get as far before I saw Tom. His lead
was bigger now. He was about 10 minutes
ahead of me.
For one lap, I tried hard
to pick up my pace. I wanted to see if I
could cut into Tom’s lead. I did manage
to speed up, but I didn’t gain any ground.
With three laps to go, I realized there was no way I could catch Tom by
the end of the race, so I stopped trying.
Besides hot dogs, the aid
station also had brats. Before starting my
12th lap, I had a brat.
I couldn’t go very fast,
but I was still running everywhere except the “speed bump,” which always forced
me to slow to a walk. I was tired, but I
wanted to get done.
In lap 13, I was almost
to the turnaround, when I saw Chris coming back from the turn. He asked me where I was (i.e. which lap I was
in). I told him I had one more to
go. Chris was still in his 12th lap.
When I finished that lap,
Chris was still in the start/finish area.
I told him I wanted to run together for the next lap. He was planning to take walking breaks, but I
was fine with that. It was only one lap,
and I no longer had any goals other than finishing.
I ran that lap with
Chris, and I eventually finished in 5:12:43.
For the entire second half of the race, I was discouraged with my
pace. I’ve run this same course several
times, and it’s never taken me five hours to finish – not even on the last day
of a 20-day series.
This course is somewhat more
tiring than the other ones, but it’s not that much more tiring. The problem today was that I ran way too fast
yesterday, and I had nothing left in the tank.
Do you know how it feels when you hit the wall with six miles to go? I felt that way with more than 10 miles to
go. I was struggling just to keep moving.
By the time I finished,
Tom had already left. I came in second, but
it was a distant second. It was the
fourth straight day that I had a second-place finish.
Today’s medal was a loon,
which is Minnesota’s state bird. The
loon is also the logo of Mainly Marathons.
In addition to this medal, I received an additional medal for competing
the entire Summer Camp Series.
Here’s what the entire
chain looks like, with the addition of today’s medals.
The race is over, but
there are still post-race festivities tonight.
Mainly Marathons always holds their annual party after the last race of
the Summer Camp Series.
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