Race Report: 2026 Tobacco Road Marathon

On March 15, I ran the Tobacco Road Marathon in Cary, NC, which is in the Raleigh/Durham area.  This race is held on the American Tobacco Trail, which is a trail built on a former railroad line.

I ran this race once before.  That was 15 years ago, when I was in the best shape of my life.  Back then, I ran this race in 3:07:18, which is an average pace of 7:09 per mile.  Now, I can’t even run that fast in a 5K race.  I wasn’t looking forward to seeing how much I’ve slowed down in the last 15 years.

I had all sorts of drama with flights.  I was originally scheduled to fly to Raleigh on Saturday, on a direct flight.  Delta changed their flight schedule, and they rebooked me on a flight that wouldn’t get me to Raleigh until after packet pickup had ended.  To get there on time for packet pickup, I had to make connections in Atlanta, and my flight to Atlanta would’ve left at 5:15 AM.  So far, this was just like my recent trip to San Antonio, but it didn’t end there.

On Friday, I got a notification that my flight might be affected by a winter storm, and I had the option of changing my flight at no cost.  As far as I knew, the storm wasn’t supposed to arrive until Saturday afternoon, but I wasn’t taking any chances.

I called Delta, and I was able to switch to a direct flight that left Friday afternoon and would get me to Raleigh around 6:00 PM.  By the time I made that change, I barely had time to pack a few last-minute things and drive to the airport.

When I got to the airport, I found out that my flight was delayed by about an hour.  That wasn’t the worst possible news.  I no longer had to stress about getting through security in time.  It also gave me time to make a few phone calls.  I had to change my hotel and rental car reservations.

I arrived in Raleigh around 7:00 Friday evening.  My hotel was close to the airport, so it didn’t take long to get there.  I’m not used to arriving so late in the day, so I got to bed later than usual.  Thankfully, both the hotel and the rental car company were able to accommodate me.

One nice thing about arriving on Friday is that I didn’t have to get up early to catch a flight Saturday morning.  I was able to sleep as late as I could and enjoy breakfast at the hotel.

Packet pickup was at the USA Baseball National Baseball Complex, which is also where the race started and finished.  While I was there, I could see people setting up the start/finish area for the race.

The day before a race is normally a rest day.  I never had time to go for a run on Friday, so went for a run on Saturday instead.  I used my run as an opportunity to refamiliarize myself with the American Tobacco Trail.  I drove to a parking area at the northern end of the marathon course.  I ran south along the trail for a few miles and then turned around and came back.

My recollection is that the trail was gravel, so I was surprised to see that this section was paved.

I had an early dinner at a pizza place just a few miles from my hotel.  Then I relaxed at my hotel and turned in early.

From the forecast I saw on Saturday, I was expecting it to be in the upper 40s at the start, but warm up into the upper 50s.  My legs don’t respond well to cold temperatures, so I was planning to wear tights and hope I wouldn’t get too warm later in the race.

When I got up Sunday morning, it was 54 degrees.  The hourly forecast still showed the temperature dropping into the 40s before warming up again, so I stuck with my decision to wear tights.  I decided to also bring a pair of shorts, in case I wanted to change my mind after I got to the race.

The race started and finished at USA Baseball.  Parking there is limited.  Those who registered early enough could buy a parking permit.  If you didn’t have a parking permit, you had to park at a remote parking lot and take a bus.  I was lucky enough to get a parking permit, which made my morning much easier.  I didn’t have to get up as early, and I didn’t need to bother with the gear check.  I was able to leave my extra layers in the car when I went to line up for the start.

An hour before the race, the temperature was still 54 degrees.  The hourly forecast had been updated.  Now, it wasn’t going to cool off any more.  I knew I would likely get too warm in tights, but I apparently forgot to bring my shorts with me.  They weren’t in the bag with my other race gear.  I was now committed to wearing tights.

As I was in the bathroom line, I heard people commenting about the humidity.  I didn’t feel it yet, but this was another ominous sign that I was probably overdressed.

I set a goal of 3:50.  The last time I ran that fast was last October, in Chicago.  This year, I’ve struggled just to break four hours.  I’d like to think I just haven’t had the right course under the right conditions.  This is a relatively flat course, so I decided to go for it, even if the conditions weren’t ideal.  I wanted to test myself.

They had pace groups, and one of the groups was a 3:50 group.  I met one of the 3:50 pacers in the start area, and I looked for him in the start corral.  As it turns out, the other 3:50 pacer is a runner I’ve met before.

Although we would mostly be running on the American Tobacco Trail, we had to run on city streets for just over two miles to get to the trail.  This part of the course has some hills.

The first mile is always chaotic, because it’s congested, and people are starting at different paces.  Sometimes that causes a pace group to take the first mile a little slow.  These two pace leaders got up to speed quickly.  I did my best to stay right behind them.  The pace felt fast, but I challenged myself to stay with them.

As we started climbing a hill, I found myself unable to keep up with the pace group.  I kept them in sight, but I couldn’t catch up until we turned a corner and started running downhill.  Even then, I had to work hard to catch up.

When we finished that mile, it confirmed my impression that we were starting fast.  Our target pace was 8:46, but we ran the first mile in 8:27.

I was hopeful that we would ease up in the second mile.  We did ease up a little, but not as much as I hoped.  That mile was 8:33, which is still fast.

I started the race with gloves, but I took them off just before we reached an aid station.  I knew I wouldn’t need them for the whole race, and I didn’t want to risk getting Gatorade on them.

Early in the third mile, we reached the trail.  Runners doing the half marathon turned left to do a long out-and-back on the southern section of the trail.  Those of us doing the marathon turned right to do a long out-and-back on the northern section.  Without the half marathon runners, the course wasn’t as crowded.  Now, it was easier to see who was in our pace group.

The first section of trail was gravel, but it wasn’t loose.  It probably had a lot of clay, because it was very firm.

Shortly after we got onto the trail, I started to notice a cool breeze.  My hands quickly got cold.  I expected to get hot later, so I wasn’t too worried about it.  The longer my hands felt cold, the better.

In mile three, we sped up slightly.  Through three miles, we were averaging 8:30 per mile.  The fast pace was taking a toll on me.  I still felt like I was working hard to keep up with the group.

After about a mile on the trail, the surface changed to pavement, but there was still a strip on one side that was gravel.  I ran on the pavement, but some runners chose to move over to the side that was gravel.

Over the next several miles, our pace moderated slightly, but it was still fast.  I was getting mile splits ranging from 8:28 to 8:40.  Some miles were faster than others, but we never had a slow mile.  The pacers didn’t seem too concerned that we were running fast, but I was working much harder than I should be this early in a race.

At times, one of the pacers would comment that we were on a hill.  If there were hills, they were very gradual.  It always looked and felt flat to me.

Just past the eight-mile mark, we reached the northern turnaround.  I briefly fell behind at an aid station and had to work hard to catch up.  I didn’t know how much longer I could do that.

We were almost to 12 miles when I began losing contact with the group.  I could see the handwriting on the wall.  The work it would take to stay with the group would break me.  As it is, I probably waited much too long to abandon the pace.

I never noticed what my time was for mile 13, but I reached the halfway point a minute ahead of schedule.  I could barely see the pace group by now, so they may have been as much as two minutes ahead of schedule.

I was still on pace for 3:50, but I knew that wouldn’t last much longer.  I was hoping I could still break four hours, but I worried that the wheels were coming off.

My pace for mile 14 was 9:25.  I knew I was slowing down, but I was surprised to have slowed down that much already.  With 12 miles to go, I tried to figure out what pace I would need the rest of the way to finish in four hours.  My best guess was something in the low 8:30s.

The trail was well-shaded, but soon we came into a clearing.  For the first time I felt the sun.  I started to feel hot, but only until we got back into shade.  I no longer had cold hands.

Soon, we crossed the street where we had turned onto the trail.  Then we continued onto the southern part of the course to begin another long out-and-back.  Runners doing the half marathon were already on their way back.

I worked harder to keep up with the runners around me.  In mile 15, I sped up slightly to 9:21.  Then, in mile 16, I sped up to 8:50.  After running fast for one mile, I settled back into my previous pace in the next one.

The northern part of the course always seemed flat.  The southern part definitely had uphill sections and downhill sections.  I could barely see the difference, but I could definitely feel it.  Mile 16 was evidently a downhill mile.  Mile 18 was an uphill mile.  I slowed to 9:50 in that mile.  I took solace in knowing that mile was balanced by the 8:50 I ran in mile 16.  On average, my pace in recent miles was in the 9:20s.

The 19-mile mark came just after the turnaround at the southern end of the course.  In that mile, I sped up to 9:10.  Right after the turn, I realized I had been running downhill.  Coming back, it was uphill, and it drained the life from me.  I slowed down to 10:00 in that mile.

I was starting to have serious doubts about breaking four hours.  The next mile was downhill.  It should have been a fast mile.  Instead, it was 8:32.  That was about what I needed to average.  What would happen in miles that were level or uphill?  I didn’t have to wait long to find out.

Mile 22 seemed fairly level, but it took me 9:49.  There was no question I was slowing down.  Mile 23 was uphill, and I ran it in 10:34.

When I reached the 10-mile sign for the half marathon, I had 3.1 miles to go.  I did a quick calculation that confirmed that I no longer had any realistic chance of breaking four hours.

I still had one more goal worth fighting for.  I was still on pace to break 4:05, and that would be a Boston qualifier for my age group.

In the next mile, we left the trail and turned back onto city streets.  We needed to retrace our route back to the start/finish area at USA Baseball.  This section has rolling hills.

For the rest of the race, there wasn’t much shade.  The temperature was much warmer than it had been at the start of the race, and now I could feel the sun on me.  It’s likely that my deterioration over the previous four miles was caused, in part, by the rising temperatures and the humidity.  Direct sunlight only made it tougher.

My time for mile 24 was 10:25.  I was on pace to break 4:05, but if I slowed down any more, I might be cutting it close.

Mile 25 was rolling.  It was more up than down, so I was encouraged when I kept my pace under 10 minutes.  I knew mile 26 would have a nice downhill section, but first I had to run uphill.

I struggled going up a hill, turned a corner, and saw it was still uphill.  I grabbed a cup of water at the last aid station and walked while I drank it.  I couldn’t drink while running up a hill.

I regained my composure on a brief downhill section, but then there was one more hill.  I struggled with this one.  I needed to limit the damage.  I couldn’t walk or slow down too much.

Finally, I made the last major turn, and I started down a hill.  This is the same hill where I fell behind my group in mile one while running up the hill.  From here to the finish, it was much easier.

When my watch gave me a split for mile 26, it was under 10 minutes.  My watch was consistently giving me splits prematurely, so I knew I was still well short of 26 miles.  I couldn’t even see the “26” sign yet.

I had to get past the “26” sign before the finish line came into sight.  My friends, Julie and Miles, were watching for me near the finish line.  I heard Julie yell my name, and I looked just in time to see her.

I finished in 4:02:29.  For the third time this year, I got a Boston qualifier, but failed to break four hours.

How much slower was I now compared to 15 years ago?  Then, my average pace was 7:09.  This year, it was 9:15.  I’ve slowed down by more than two minutes per mile.

I felt hot in the last two miles, and the heat was probably affecting me much earlier.  I didn’t realize how hot I was until after I finished.  Then I felt hot and sweaty.

Finisher medals have been getting larger in recent years.  This medal was definitely a part of that trend.  It had a railroad theme, which was appropriate.

There were volunteers offing water bottles, but I didn’t take one.  I already had water in my car.

Anyone who qualified for Boston could get an extra T-shirt.  I didn’t ask for one.  I already have too many T-shirts.  I also didn’t eat any of the post-race food.  Instead, I saved room for lunch.

After I had time to go back to my hotel and get cleaned up, I joined Julie and Miles for a late lunch.  We had a nice visit.

I spent the rest of the day resting at the hotel.  I didn’t go out again.  I had dinner at the hotel’s restaurant.

I don’t need to fly home until Monday.  That’s just as well, because Minnesota is getting hit with a major winter storm.  Hopefully, the storm will be done before my flight home.  The drama with flights might not be done yet.

Race statistics:

Distance:  26.2 miles

Time:  4:02:29

Average Pace:  9:15 per mile

First Half:  1:53:59

Second Half:  2:08:30

Marathons/Ultras in 2026:  7

Lifetime Marathons/Ultras:  579

Boston Qualifiers in 2026:  4

Lifetime Boston Qualifiers:  191

Race Report: Run the Alamo 26.2

On March 1, I ran the Run the Alamo Marathon in San Antonio, TX.  I’ve never been to San Antonio before, so this was a chance to not only experience a new race but also see a new city.

I flew to San Antonio on Saturday.  I had originally booked a direct flight, but Delta changed their flight schedule, eliminating the only direct flight that would get me there in time for packet pickup.  I was able to rebook on flights that would get me there in the early afternoon, but I had to leave Minneapolis at 5:15 AM.  That meant getting up way too early.

I was at the airport at 3:45.  After I got through security, I found out my flight to Atlanta was delayed.  They had to get a new plane, and the new departure time was 7:15.  I had a two-hour connection in Atlanta, so a two-hour delay meant I had no chance of making my connection.

I was able to get on a different flight to Atlanta, but it only left 15 minutes earlier.  That gave me a very tight connection, but at least I had a chance.  Just in case I missed it, they also reserved a seat for me on the next flight from Atlanta to San Antonio.  As I was waiting to board my 7:00 flight, I really regretted waking up so early.

After that, my luck got better.  My flight to Atlanta arrived early, and my next flight departed from the same concourse, allowing me to get to the gate while they were still boarding.  Despite all the drama, I arrived in San Antonio by 12:30.

The host hotel for the race was the Menger Hotel, which is one of the closest hotels to The Alamo.  I’m sure it’s a fine hotel, but I chose to stay a few blocks away at Hilton Palacio del Rio.  This hotel was closer to where the race started and finished.  It was also right on the San Antonio Riverwalk.

I needed to take a taxi from the airport to the hotel, but after that I could walk to everything, so I didn’t need to rent a car.

My first order of business after checking in at the hotel was to pick up my race packet.  Packet pickup was at the Intercontinental San Antonio Riverwalk.  That was about a 15-minute walk from my hotel.

If there’s one thing you need to see in San Antonio, it’s The Alamo.  That was my next stop after dropping off my race packet at the hotel.  You need a ticket, but it doesn’t cost anything.  You just need to go online and book it.

When you see pictures of The Alamo, the building usually pictured is the church, which was originally a Spanish mission.  This was my first stop.

After touring the church, I visited the Long Barrack and the various monuments and battlements around Alamo Plaza.  Other sections were closed for a private event.

I had been up early, and I never had lunch.  By the time I got back from The Alamo, I was starving.  I ate an early dinner.  Then I did my best to catch up on sleep.  It was best I slept before a race in months.

The race started at sunrise, which was at 6:59.  I was dressed and ready an hour before that.  I couldn’t figure out the fancy coffee maker in my room, so I went down to a Starbucks in the hotel lobby to get a cup of tea and a muffin.

The start/finish area was in the plaza in front of the Henry B. Gonzales Convention Center.  It was basically across the street from my hotel, so it didn’t take long to get there.  In particular, I didn’t have to bother with port-o-potty lines.  My hotel was close enough that I didn’t need to make any additional bathroom stops after leaving the hotel.

The weather was on the warm side.  It was 66 degrees at the start.  The forecast high was in the 80s, but I only expected it to get into the low 70s by the time I finished.  I started out with a goal of four hours.  I expected to be comfortable with that pace in the first half.  I had to wait and see how the heat affected me in the second half.

The race started with a cannon blast.  I was lined up with the 4:00 pace group.  As the people in front of me started moving, I had to pay close attention to keep from getting separated from the leaders of the pace group.

The first few miles were through the downtown area.  There were several turns, and it was congested.  I had to keep an eye on the pace leaders, while also watching my footing.  In the early miles, we ran on a variety of surfaces, including cobblestones.  I also had to watch out for reflectors on the lane lines.

In the downtown area, we were running between tall buildings.  That always causes GPS watches to give misleading distances.  Often, our watches didn’t have a direct line of sight to the GPS satellites.  The signals would reflect off the buildings.

There were mile markers, but they were small.  The pace leaders were able to spot them, but I didn’t see the first few.  I just followed the group and trusted them to keep us on the right pace.

For the first mile or two, we were going a little faster than our target pace.  When the pace leaders noticed that, they eased up.  I had to ease up too, to make sure I didn’t get too far ahead of them.

Although the pace felt easy, I was already feeling the humidity.  I had doubts about how realistic this pace would be as it started to warm up.

I was frequently talking to two other runners in the group.  We were often running in front of the group, so we kept an eye on each other, and we’d occasionally look back to see where the pace leaders were.

When we got out of the downtown area, we started running through the river valley.  Early, the course had been fairly flat, but now it was rolling.  A lot of the course was out-and-back near the river, but occasionally, we would turn onto a shorter out-and-back segment before returning to the river.

Near the river, we were sometimes on sidewalks, and it wasn’t really wide enough for a large pace group.

At about nine miles, the marathon and half marathon courses diverged.  Without all the half marathon runners, the course was no longer congested.

About this same time, we started a long downhill segment before crossing a bridge over the river.  I asked one of the pacers when we would have to go back up that hill.  He said we’d reach that hill in mile 22.

There were a few sections where we took a different route going out than we did coming back.  One such section was running through Mission San Jose around mile 12.

Our watches were all giving us different distances, and nobody’s watch agreed with the mile markers.  My watch seemed to consistently read lower than anyone else’s watch.  By my watch, we were a little bit behind schedule at the halfway point.  Others felt we were on schedule or ahead of schedule.

From 14 to 16 miles, we were running along one side of the river.  We had a slight headwind, which helped offset the heat and humidity.  From 16 to 18 miles, we were on the opposite side of the river, and we had a tailwind.  The tailwind did nothing to help cool us down.  I immediately noticed the difference after we crossed the river.

Up until now, I had no trouble keeping up with the group, but I had to work harder on the uphill segments.  Without the cooling effect of the breeze, I had serious doubts about whether I could stay on pace for the rest of the race.  If I couldn’t, my backup goal was 4:05.  That would still be a Boston qualifier.

Most of the aid stations had water and Gatorade.  I was drinking whichever was easier to grab from a volunteer.  A few aid stations had pickle juice, and a few had Coke.  At one of the aid stations, I accidentally grabbed a cup of pickle juice, thinking it was Gatorade.  I immediately followed it with a cup of Coke.

There were a few people in our group running their first marathon.  At 17 miles, one of them told us he would need to drop back and continue at his own pace.  We all gave him advice and words of encouragement.  I considered dropping back to stay with him, but I still felt like I had a good chance of breaking 4:05.  Two other first-timers were still with the group, so I stayed with the group too.

We were almost to 19 miles when the sun came out.  Up until then, we had cloud cover.  I had been hoping it wouldn’t get sunny until after I finished.  Now that I could feel the sun, I found the heat more challenging.  Soon, I began to fall behind the group.

We reached an aid station, and that gave me a chance to catch up.  While everyone else was walking through the aid station, I drank my water on the run.  That allowed me to not only catch up back actually get ahead of them.  It was only a matter of time, though, before I fell behind again.

In mile 20, I was on my own, but I was still running at a pace that would bring me in under 4:05. Then, I started to feel pressure building in my intestines.  At first, it forced me to slow down, so I could hold it in.  As I continued, it became apparent that I would need a bathroom stop.

As I started up a small hill, I saw a picnic area at the top.  I walked up the hill, hoping I could make a bathroom stop, but there were no bathrooms there.

After cresting the hill, I resumed running.  Then I saw an aid station at the top of the next hill.  I walked this hill as well.  When I reached the aid station, I asked a volunteer if there were any bathrooms there.  He said there were, but they were somewhat off the course at the top of a hill.  I detoured off the course and walked up the hill to reach a set of port-o-potties.

When I was done with my bathroom stop, I felt much better.  I ran back down the hill to the aid station, where I drank a cup of Coke and a cup of Gatorade.

Shortly after the aid station, my watch gave me a split for mile 21.  It was more than three minutes slower than the previous mile.  At this point, I no longer had a realistic chance of breaking 4:05.

The next mile had the long hill that we had run down much earlier in the race.  I ran most of it, but I had to walk the steepest section.  There was no longer any point in fighting for a faster pace.  Now, I just wanted to keep moving and eventually finish.

I ran that mile and the next one in 11 minutes each.  I felt like the heat had broken me.  At this slower pace, I would break 4:15, but not by much.

Then I spotted another runner who had dropped back from the pace group.  His name was Aaron, and he was one of the runners doing his first marathon.  I ran with Aaron for the rest of the race, so he wouldn’t have to do the toughest miles by himself.  I knew those miles would be slow, but I had a renewed sense of purpose now.

Aaron was having leg cramps, but he soldiered on.  He ran when he could and walked when he had to.  I stayed with him at whatever pace he could manage.

As we came back into the downtown area, we ran on the San Antonio Riverwalk, right alongside the water.  In the last mile, we left the Riverwalk and made multiple turns on streets I didn’t recognize.  I could recognize some of the buildings, including my hotel, but I didn’t know all the turns.

It wasn’t until the last turn that we could see the finish line.  Aaron sprinted for the line.  I didn’t have a faster gear, so I followed at the best pace I could manage.  I finished in 4:16:11.

The finisher medal was huge.  It’s shaped like a stagecoach, and it flips open to reveal additional artwork.

After I got my medal, I turned around to look for Melissa.  She was another runner who had been with the 4:00 group for at least half of the race before falling behind.  I spotted her on a short out-and-back segment with about three miles to go, so I knew she wasn’t too far behind us.

Melissa finished in 4:17.  Her previous best was 4:30, so this was a massive PR for her, in spite of tough conditions.

Besides the medal, there was also a finisher jacket.  That’s in addition to the T-shirt I got when I picked up my race packet.  The jacket was a light gray windbreaker with a hood.

After getting my jacket, I picked up a basket of post-race food and sat down to talk to a few other runners while I ate.  Then I got my post-race beer and sat down with a few members of the pacing team while I finished my beer.  I was within sight of my hotel, so I didn’t feel any need to rush back to the hotel.

When I finally got back to my room, I took a warm bath and tried to stretch.  My Achilles tendons were too tight.  They didn’t bother me during the race, but they both tightened up by the time I got back to the hotel.

Having had pastries and fruit after the race, I didn’t feel any need to eat lunch.  I relaxed at the hotel until it was time for dinner.  Then I went to one of the restaurants behind the hotel, next to the Riverwalk.

I didn’t fly home until Monday afternoon, which gave me the whole morning to explore more of the San Antonio Riverwalk.

Race statistics:

Distance:  26.2 miles

Time:  4:16:11

Average Pace:  9:46 per mile

First Half:  2:00:18

Second Half:  2:15:53

Marathons/Ultras in 2026:  6

Lifetime Marathons/Ultras:  578