Race Report: 2023 Coeur d'Alene Marathon

On May 28, I ran the Coeur d’Alene Marathon in northern Idaho.  When I ran this race in 2017, I started to have unusual pains on the left side of my chest.  It turned out to be a nerve impingement from a herniated disk.  That injury required surgery.  It took a long time to heal, but I eventually made a full recovery.  I didn’t have any problems this year.

Most of my recent trips have been longer trips that included sightseeing.  This was a quick trip.  I was just there to run the marathon.

The closest major airport to Coeur d’Alene is in Spokane, WA.  I was able to get a direct flight to Spokane.  From there, it’s a 40-mile drive to Coeur d’Alene.  I flew to Spokane on Saturday and arrived at my hotel in Coeur d’Alene in the early afternoon.

Packet pickup was at McEuen Park, which is on the shore of Lake Coeur d’Alene.  This park is also where the race starts and finishes.  They had a small expo set up in the park.

The race T-shirt had a design in the shape of Idaho.  I was surprised that it said, “Finisher,” because we got the shirt at packet pickup.

I wanted to get to bed early, so I had an early dinner.  I found a brick oven pizza place that I could walk to from my hotel.  They opened at 4:00, and I was there when they opened.  After dinner, I walked to a brewery that was about a mile from the pizza place.

I always pay close attention to weather forecasts for race day, but I often forget to check the forecast for the day before or the day after.  The last time I looked, there wasn’t any rain in the forecast for Saturday evening.  Apparently, that forecast was out of date.

As I was walking from the pizzeria to the brewery, I felt a little bit of light drizzle.  It was more like a mist.  I wasn’t wearing a jacket, so I quickened my pace.  I assumed, naively, that it would be done before I walked back to the hotel.

I had a beer flight and started talking to the bartender and two other guys at the bar.  When I left, it was sprinkling.

I ducked back inside to check my weather app.  I wondered if the rain would stop soon if I waited a little longer.  My app said a thunderstorm was going to start in 16 minutes.  I looked at radar, and it was obvious that it was only going to get worse if I waited.

I started walking to the hotel, but at a brisk pace.  Then the sky opened up.  It rained so hard that there were rivers of rainwater flowing through the streets.  It was still more than a mile to my hotel, so I started running.  There’s a limit to how fast you can run when you’re wearing wet street clothes, and you have a phone in your pocket.  By the time I got back to the hotel, my clothes and shoes were soaked.  Fortunately, they weren’t the same shoes I was planning to wear for the race.

I still managed to get to bed early, but I only slept for half the night.  Then I was awake for three or four hours before finally falling asleep again.

I needed to leave the hotel before they started their breakfast.  I don’t usually eat much before a race, but I wanted to eat something.  I bought a small package of cookies from the hotel pantry and made a cup of hot cocoa.

The race started at 6:30.  There’s a large parking lot at McEuen Park, but I didn’t know how easy it would be to find a parking spot that was close to the race.  When I was there for the expo, the parking lot was full.

To make sure I could get a close parking spot, I arrived more than an hour early.  That was excessive.  When the race started, there were still plenty of close parking spaces available.  I could’ve arrived at the last minute.

The temperature at the start was in the mid-50s.  I find that to be ideal for running a marathon.  It was warm enough that I could wear shorts without worrying about my legs getting cold.  I expected it to warm up about 10 degrees by the time I finished.  Some people might find that to be too hot, but I’m not bothered by temperatures in the low 60s.

While I was driving to the race, it was raining lightly.  When I got to McEuen Park, the rain had stopped, but I still felt a fine mist in the air.  That ended before the race started.

The grass was wet, so it was impossible to walk to one of the port-o-potties without getting your shoes wet.  Then I discovered that the building where they held packet pickup had bathrooms, and they were open.  Hardly anyone seemed to know about these bathrooms.  There wasn’t any line to use them.

When I ran this race before, the course was a double loop.  Each loop included a long out-and-back section.  The course only had one big hill, but it was on this out-and-back section, so I had to run it four times (twice in each direction).

The course has been changed since then.  The new course has two different out-and-back sections, each starting and finishing at McEuen Park.  The first out-and-back includes the same big hill I remembered.  I had to run it twice (once from each side).  The second out-and-back just has one big hill.  It’s uphill as you climb out of a river valley.  The top of the hill is at the turnaround point.  Then it’s downhill coming back.  The rest of the course isn’t flat, but there aren’t any other hills big enough for me to worry about them.

Four weeks ago, I broke four hours on a course that was mostly flat, except for a bridge that we crossed twice.  I wanted to see if I could break four hours on this course, which is more challenging.

Two weeks ago, I ran a course with gentle rolling hills, and I found it to be tiring.  Since then, I’ve worked larger hills into my training whenever I could.  I’ve worked hard to be able to take steep hills without slowing down, often pushing myself into oxygen debt.  I came into this race confident that I would be prepared for the hills.

I had two goals for this race.  The first was to beat 3:59:21.  That was my previous best time this year.  My second goal was to run negative splits.

They had pace groups, but I didn’t see anyone holding a 4:00 sign.  I asked the 4:15 pacer if there was a 4:00 group.  He said there was supposed to be one, but the 4:00 pacer didn’t show up.  Then I saw he was carrying both the 4:00 and 4:15 signs.  He was originally going to pace the 4:15 group, but he made a last-minute decision to lead the 4:00 group instead.  That meant there wasn’t a 4:15 group.  He was assuming there would be more people interested in running a 4:00 pace.

When I found out he was going to be pacing for 4:00, I asked him how he was planning to handle pacing over the big hills.  He said he was planning to start at a 9:00 per mile pace.  That’s a little bit faster than the 9:09 pace you need to finish in four hours, but it would allow us to give back about a minute on each of the three big hills.  That’s exactly how I would’ve paced it if I had to set my own pace, so I started with him and just followed him until we reached the first big hill.

As we started running, the pace felt a little tiring, but I stuck with it.  The first block or two may have been slightly uphill.  Soon, we reached a downhill stretch, and the pace suddenly felt much easier.

We started a little faster than a 9:00 pace.  For the first five miles, every mile was 8:55 or faster.  Our pacer wasn’t too worried about that, as he planned to give back the time on the hills.

As we got out of town, we were running on the Northern Idaho Centennial Trail.  This was a paved trail that followed the shore of Coeur d’Alene Lake.  We usually had a nice cool breeze off the lake.

Although there are only three big hills, the rest of the course isn’t completely flat.  There are lots of smaller undulations.  Most of the time, I found our pace to be comfortable, but occasionally it felt slightly tiring on an uphill section.

In the sixth mile, we reached the first big hill.  We didn’t worry about staying on pace.  We just took it at a pace that felt manageable.  I found this hill to be tiring, but I ran a pace that wouldn’t break me.  We could be as slow as 10 minutes in this mile and still be on pace.  We ended up running it in 9:11.

The next mile was downhill.  Without trying at all to speed up, I ran it in 8:36.  So far, we were averaging better than nine minutes, even including the first big hill.

The aid stations usually had bottles of water and cups filled with Gatorade.  I always drank the Gatorade.  At seven miles, we reached an aid station that only had bottles of water.  I decided to skip that aid station and wait for the next one.  As it turned out, the next aid station was this same one on the way back.

The turnaround for the first out-and-back was at about eight miles.  Just before the turnaround, we had to go up a hill.  It was steep enough that it forced me to slow down.  Fortunately, it wasn’t very long.  After turning around, we went back down the hill.  To run comfortably down that hill, I had to shorten my stride.

When we got back to the aid station that just had water, I decided I couldn’t afford to skip it again.  I took a bottle of water and slowed to a walk while drinking as much as I could.  I didn’t want to carry it with me, so I discarded the rest of the bottle.  I hate to waste water, but this was the only aid station where I had to do that.  The rest all had Gatorade in cups.

This aid station had a port-o-potty that wasn’t occupied, so our pace leader handed his sign to one of the other runners and told us he would catch up to us as soon as he could.  We were about to start up the second big hill, so he had to work hard to catch up.

Approaching the hill from this direction, it was longer, but more gradual.  Before the hill, our average pace was under nine minutes per mile.  The hill started in mile nine and continued into mile ten.  We ran those miles in 9:13 and 9:15, respectively.  By then, our pace leader had rejoined the group.

Without trying, I picked up my pace on the downhill side, but I didn’t run excessively fast.  I simply ran a little bit fast while feeling like I was getting a rest break.

After about 11 miles, I was talking to another runner, and the two of us were getting out in front of the group.  At times, the pace felt tiring.  I wanted to slow down, but I was enjoying our conversation.  More than once, I told him I would have to slow down.  Then he slowed down too.  It was never long, though, before we were going too fast again.  We were running a pace in the low 8:50s.

At halfway, I was on pace to finish in about 3:55.  At this point, I was pretty confident about beating 3:59:21, but I thought I had sabotaged my chances of running negative splits by running the first half too fast.

As we got back into town, we were on city streets for a couple miles.  We knew we were way ahead of the 4:00 group, so we took a short walking break on a small hill.  In the next mile, there was a steeper hill.  I walked most of the hill, and then noticed the guy I was talking to earlier had fallen behind and never caught up, even though I was walking.

When I reached the top of that hill, I was running by myself, so I decided to see if I could get back to my previous pace.  Now that I was well into the second half of the race, I was more willing to put some effort into my pace.  I had not yet given up on running negative splits, although it seemed optimistic.

Coming back through McEuen Park, I picked up my pace.  Miles 15 and 16 had taken 9:23 and 9:08 respectively.  Now I wanted to see if I could gradually make up the lost time and get my average pace back into the 8:50s.

I ran mile 17 in 8:44.  If I could keep up that pace, I would run negative splits, but I still had nine miles to go.  I took it one mile at a time and kept pushing.

I was now on the second out-and-back, which was on the west side of town.  I was back on the Northern Idaho Centennial Trail, but now the trail was following the Spokane River.

A few miles earlier, the sun was peeking through the clouds.  I wondered if the second half of the race would get hot if the sun came out completely.  That never happened.  There was a nice cool breeze blowing through the river valley, and it gradually got cloudy again.  I didn’t feel any warmer in the second half than I did in the first half.  I always felt comfortable.

I kept up my effort in mile 18, but slowed slightly.  I ran that mile in 8:46.  That was still fast enough.  That gave me enough confidence, that I sped up to 8:34 in the next mile.  That was my fastest mile so far.  It was faster than I had run earlier in a downhill mile.

After that, it got tougher.  In mile 20, I slowed to 8:44 again.  I felt like I was working just as hard, so it was a bit discouraging to be 10 seconds slower than the previous mile.  It turns out there was a good reason for that.

I knew at some point we would start going uphill, but I didn’t study the elevation profile closely enough to know exactly where the hill would start.  I knew the turnaround for this out-and-back was somewhere close to 21 miles.  That was only a mile away, so I expected the hill to start at any time.

When I saw the 3:45 pace group coming back, I knew I was getting closer.  I couldn’t have been more than seven minutes from the turnaround.

Before I knew it, my watch recorded a split for mile 21.  It was 9:01.  It was really discouraging to slow down to nine minutes before even reaching the hill.  Then I looked ahead and saw the turnaround.  I was almost done with the hill.  It was so gradual that I never noticed when I started running uphill.

After making the turn, I could immediately feel the difference.  The grade was gradual, but I was definitely going downhill now.  I was able to speed up substantially.

I started looking for the 4:00 group.  When we passed each other, the 4:00 pacer told me I was on my way to 3:55.  That’s the time I needed to beat if I was going to run negative splits.  Now that I was running downhill, I was confident I could do it.

I must’ve been running uphill without realizing it for a long time.  Now I had a gradual downgrade for a long time.  I ran mile 22 in 8:17.  About halfway through the next mile, I saw the river in front of me.  I had never noticed when the trail turned away from the river valley.  Climbing out of the valley, it was all uphill, and returning it was all downhill.

Even after making the turn and following the river again, there seemed to be a slight downhill trend.  I was following the river downstream towards the lake.

For the rest of the race, my pace was in the 8:30s.  I could afford to slow down a little, but I didn’t want to let up.  To maintain my effort, I started to focus on reeling in and passing the runners in front of me.

The breeze through the valley was stronger now.  The temperature was probably in the 60s by now, but I felt cooler than at any time during the race.

In the last mile, the course went through a park and had lots of turns.  I remembered going through this park in the opposite direction.  Wherever two sections of sidewalk weren’t flush with each other, it was marked with red paint.  Most of those spots didn’t strike me as trip hazards, but I appreciated the warning to pay attention to my footing.

As I came back into McEuen Park, I saw the pavilion.  I knew where the finish line was, but I had to go past the pavilion and approach the finish from the other side.  At 26 miles, I still couldn’t see the finish line.  I had to make one more turn first.

I finished in 3:52:38.  Despite taking the first half faster than planned, I ran negative splits by more than two minutes.

The finisher medal is in the shape of Idaho.  I want to eventually run at least five marathons in every state, and this was my fifth Idaho marathon.  I’m done with Idaho now.

I’m pleased to have reached both of my goals, but I’m even more pleased to have done it so decisively.

I belong to a club called 50sub4.  The common goal is to run a sub-4 hour marathon in every state.  I’ve already done that twice.  I even set the bar higher and qualified for Boston in every state.  In the last two years, however, I’ve rarely broken four hours.

Until today, I felt like I had imposter syndrome.  When I got together with other 50sub4 members or posed for a group picture, I questioned whether I still belonged.  Now, I feel like I’m back.

After a race, I’m usually sick of drinking Gatorade.  Today was an exception.  They had bottles of water and Gatorade at the finish line, and I couldn’t wait to drink a bottle of Gatorade.

They had a variety of post-race food, but I went straight to the pizza.  By the time I finished my pizza and Gatorade, they were starting the awards ceremony.  I didn’t win my age group, but I had a good enough race that I actually wondered if it was possible.

When I got back to the hotel, the shoes I was wearing the night before were still wet.  I eventually had to use a hair dryer to get them dry enough to wear to dinner.  That wasn’t an immediate concern.  After having a slice of post-race pizza, I didn’t feel like I needed to go out again until dinner time.  I spent the afternoon relaxing at the hotel, including a nice soak in the whirlpool.  While I was in the pool area, I met another runner who also does race-walking and ultras.  We had a nice conversation.

For dinner, I decided to stay as close to the hotel as possible.  There’s a Red Robin across the street from my hotel.  I usually prefer local restaurants to chain restaurants, but one of my friends posted that it was National Hamburger Day.

Race statistics:

Distance:  26.2 miles

Time:  3:52:38

Average Pace:  8:52 per mile

First Half:  1:57:27 (estimate)

Second Half:  1:55:11 (estimate)

Lifetime Marathons/Ultras:  483

Idaho Marathons:  5

2023 Pine Tree Marathon and Salem, MA

Two days after running the Maple Leaf Marathon in Vermont, I ran the Pine Tree Marathon in Portland, ME.  This post picks up where the last one left off.

Saturday, May 13

After spending an extra night in Vermont, Deb and I drove to Portland.  As soon as we got to Maine, we stopped at a visitor information center, where one of the guides gave us directions to a nearby lighthouse.  Our next stop was the Nubble Lighthouse at Cape Neddick.

There are numerous other lighthouses along the Maine coast, but we didn’t have time to see them all.  Instead, we continued to our hotel in Portland.

When we arrived, they didn’t have a room ready.  While we waited, we went to see five lighthouses in Cape Elizabeth and Portland.  The first was this lighthouse at Dyer Cove, near Two Lights State Park.  There are actually two lighthouses here, but only this one is visible from the road.

Next we went to Fort Williams State Park, where we saw the Portland Head Light.  The museum isn’t open this early in the season, but we were able to view the lighthouse from two different angles.

From there, we could also see the Ram Island Ledge Light.

Next, we drove to Fort Preble, where we could get a view of the Spring Point Ledge Lighthouse.

Our last stop before returning to the hotel was Bug Light Park.  From the park, we got a nice view of the Portland Breakwater Lighthouse, which is affectionately known as the Bug Light.

By now, our room was ready, so we checked in, unpacked, and got settled into our room.  Then we went for dinner at Moe’s Original BBQ.  I don’t typically have BBQ for a pre-race dinner, but Deb was in a mood for pulled pork.

I didn’t get to sleep as early as I wanted to, but I managed to get about six hours of sleep.  I was hoping for more, but that was enough to get by.

Sunday, May 14

Sunday was race day.  My race number was the same one I used for the Maple Leaf Marathon, since both races were part of the same series.  That meant I didn’t have to get there early for packet pickup.  We also didn’t have to allow as much time to drive to the race venue, since our hotel was much closer this time.  That gave us the luxury of setting our alarms 15 minutes later than we did on Friday.  The race started at 6:00 AM, so we weren’t exactly sleeping in.

We had to leave before the hotel breakfast started, but we had leftovers from our dinner on Saturday.

The overnight low was in the mid-40s, and it was supposed to get into the low 50s by the time I finished.  That was deceptive, however.  When I ran this race last year, there was a cold breeze blowing in from the coast.  When I took another look at the forecast, I saw that the “feels like” temperature was in the upper 30s.  With that in mind, I wore my cheetah outfit, with a long-sleeved polypro shirt underneath.  Those were the warmest clothes I brought.

The course was a loop around Portland’s Back Cove.  We started and finished at Back Cove Park.  Deb and I arrived at Back Cove Park just as the sun was rising.  When I got out of the car, I was surprised how cold the wind was.

The race started with a short out-and-back.  Then we had to do seven laps around the cove.  I’ve run this race twice before, so I was already familiar with the course.  It’s mostly flat.  The only hill is the climb up to a bridge.

I ran a marathon on Friday, so I knew I wasn’t going to be fast in this race.  My plan was to run at a pace that felt comfortable and not worry too much about my time.

As we started the out-and-back, we were running into a stiff headwind.  I didn’t think I was running fast, but it felt tiring almost immediately.  I slowed down a little.

Coming back from the turnaround, the wind was at our back, so it felt easier.  I ran the first mile in 9:32.  I knew that was too fast, so I slowed down.  After that, my next several miles were all slower than 10 minutes.

There was a single well-stocked aid station in the start/finish area.  While I was running, Deb was volunteering at the aid station.  When I finished the out-and-back, I was still cold from running into the wind, and I didn’t feel thirsty.  I still took the opportunity to drink some Gatorade, knowing it would be 3.6 miles before I got another chance.

The trail we were running on was mostly gravel, but it was firm.  I don’t think it was appreciably slower than running on pavement.  There weren’t any roots or rocks that you could trip on.  It was a good running surface.

In my first full lap around the cove, my pace was between 10:00 and 10:15 per mile.  I wasn’t trying to hold any particular pace.  I ran at a pace that felt relaxed.  I paid more attention to my effort than my pace.  I knew I was starting the day with tired legs, so I paced myself conservatively.  I didn’t want to be suffering in the second half.

In my second lap, my pace continued to slow.  I felt like my effort was about the same, but my pace was now closer to 10:20 per mile.

I was only seven miles into the race when the leader lapped me.  By the end of that lap, four more fast runners would speed by me.  I would see some of them again before the race was over.

I experienced the wind in different ways as I ran around the cove.  It was coldest near the start/finish area, where it was blowing in from across the cove.  On the west side of the cove, we had a headwind.  It was tiring running around that side, but it wasn’t as cold, because the wind wasn’t blowing over the water.  I felt the wind least on the north side.  There, we were partially sheltered by all the trees alongside the adjacent parkway

The most wind-exposed area was on the east side of the cove, where we ran across the bridge.  There, we had a tailwind.  Everywhere else, I felt cold, but crossing the bridge, I always felt sweaty.  When I eventually returned to Back Cove Park, I would feel the cold wind off the cove while my clothes were still somewhat sweaty.  That made me even colder.  I repeated this pattern with each lap.  I was hot at times and cold at times, but overall, I think I was dressed about right.

In my third lap, my pace slowed to about 10:40.  I felt like my effort was still the same, but my pace kept degrading.

My slowest mile of the race was mile 13.  That was early in my fourth lap, as I was running into the wind.  At halfway, I was on pace for a time in low 4:30s.  I expected to continue getting slower, but my pace stabilized after that.

I was just past the halfway mark when the leader lapped me for the second time.  He wouldn’t be the only one to do that.  There were other runners who I lapped multiple times.  The runners varied in ability by a wide margin.

For the first half of the race, my pace was trending slower.  In the second half, I started to reverse that trend.  I wasn’t consciously trying to speed up, but I may have subconsciously picked up my effort a little as the remaining distance felt more manageable.

As I neared the end of my fourth lap, my shoulders started to feel heavy.  Apparently, I didn’t just start the day with tired legs.  I also had tired arms.

I always felt warm crossing the bridge, but my fifth lap was the first one where I started getting hot before the bridge.  In that lap, I started to sweat as I climbed the small hill leading up to the bridge.

When I finished that lap, Deb asked me if it was getting warmer.  I told her it probably was, but I wasn’t noticing a big difference yet.  In my last two laps, I started to feel the difference.

My sixth lap was the first one where I made a conscious effort to pick up my pace.  I realized my pace had improved in my fifth lap, and I suspected for the first time that I might me able to run negative splits if I could keep picking up the pace.  At first, it was a measured effort, but I got more confident toward the end of the lap.

On the north side of the cove, I noticed a change in my stride.  My stride was slightly shorter, but my cadence was noticeably faster.  I didn’t do this consciously.  It just happened as I put more effort into improving my pace.

This is the wind-sheltered side of the cove, and I started to feel sweaty even before I reached the small hill that leads up to the bridge.

I picked up my effort going up that hill and across the bridge.  I ran mile 22, which included that hill, in 9:42.  It was the first time since mile one that I was faster than 10 minutes.  My next mile wasn’t quite as fast, but it was also faster than 10 minutes.

As I started my last lap, there was no doubt in my mind that I could run negative splits if I kept picking up the pace.  I wanted to run faster, but I was just beginning the section that’s into the wind.  There was a limit to how fast I could run without wearing myself out by fighting the headwind.  As I got farther around the cove, there was less wind resistance.  Then I really picked up my pace.

I ran mile 24 in 9:18.  That was my fastest mile so far, but I knew I could go faster when I didn’t have any wind resistance.

The next mile was all along the north side of the cove, where I barely felt the wind.  I ran that mile in nine minutes even.  I felt hot and sweaty all through that mile.

As I started up the hill for the last time, I was determined to keep up the same pace.  I knew I would get hot, but I didn’t have that much farther to go.  I kept up my effort going across the bridge.  After the bridge, there was a nice downhill section, and I ran it for all it’s worth.  Then I tried to keep up the pace as the trail leveled out.  When I got my split for mile 26, it was 8:35.  That’s almost a minute faster than my first mile.

I wished I only had two tenths of a mile to go, but I could see the finish area in the distance, and I knew it was closer to half a mile.  I had known for some time that my watch would measure much more than 26.2 by the time I was done.  It turned out to be 26.45.  I’m not suggesting that the course was long.  I’m just saying my watch had a significant measurement error.  That’s not that unusual for a GPS watch.

The last section of the course has several turns, as it weaves through a construction area.  I kept up my pace all the way to the finish.  I finished in 4:27:40.  I don’t know my exact time for the first half, but extrapolating from my Garmin data, I’m estimating it to be 2:16:49.  That means I ran the second half about six minutes faster.  I knew I was running negative splits, but I was still surprised to do it by such a wide margin.

My overall time was 10 minutes slower than my previous race, but it was faster than I was running in February and March.  I’m happy with that.

This was my fifth marathon or ultra in Maine.  I’m still working on my fourth circuit of the 50 states, but I want to eventually finish five circuits.  I’m getting closer.  I’m now done with Maine.

During the race, I didn’t eat any food at the aid station.  I just drank Gatorade.  After the race, I made up for lost time.  I had two cups of Gatorade, two meatballs, an energy ball, a small cupcake, and a cheese quesadilla.

After the race, Deb dropped me off at the hotel.  While I was getting cleaned up, recovering from the race, and soaking in the whirlpool, Deb went shopping.  She had never been to this part of Maine before, so it was her opportunity to drive up to Freeport and go to the L.L. Bean outlet.  She also went to two flea markets in the greater Portland area.

For dinner, we went to an Italian restaurant called Tuscan Table.  I went to this restaurant when I was in Portland a year ago, and I thought Deb would like it too.

Monday, May 15

Instead of flying home, we spent one more day in New England.  After breakfast, we drove to Salem, MA.  Deb has always wanted to go there.

Our hotel was right in the heart of Salem’s historic district.  We arrived early in the day, but we were able to check into our room right away.

We skipped lunch in favor of doing as much sightseeing as we could before dinner.  We started with places that were within a mile of our hotel, so we could walk to everything.  Our first stop was the Salem Witch House.  This museum was originally the home of Judge Jonathan Corwin, who presided over the Salem witch trials in 1692.

On our way to the next museum, we stopped to take a picture of the Bewitched sculpture in Lappin Park.

Next, we went to the Witch Dungeon Museum.  This museum includes a reconstruction of the dungeon used to imprison people accused of witchcraft, as well as other criminals.

Next, we walked to the Salem Witch Museum, next to Salem Common.  When we got there, we found out you can only buy tickets online.  We decided to skip that museum.  As it is, we already didn’t have time for all the places we wanted to visit.  Instead, we walked to Herb Mackey’s Metal Sculpture Yard.

We spent about an hour and a half touring the Peabody Essex Museum.  Then we walked over to the cemetery on Charter Street, where we saw the Salem Witch Trials Memorial.  Finally, after walking back to the hotel, we drove to Proctor’s Ledge.  This memorial is built on a site where people accused of witchcraft were hanged.

That was all we had time for before dinner.  We had dinner at Rockafella’s, which was just a few blocks from our hotel.

After dinner, Deb started packing, so she wouldn’t have to get up as early the next morning.  I didn’t need as much time to pack, so I had time to go back out and view some of the historic homes that have been preserved by the Essex Institute.

Tuesday, May 16

Tuesday morning, we drove back to Boston to fly home.  The drive was much slower than we expected, but we allowed plenty of time.

Race statistics:

Distance:  26.2 miles

Time:  4:27:40

Average Pace: 10:13

First Half:  2:16:49

Second Half:  2:10:51

Lifetime Marathons/Ultras:  482

Maine Marathons:  5

Race Report: 2023 Maple Leaf Marathon

On May 12, I ran the Maple Leaf Marathon in Fairlee, VT.  This race is part of the New England Challenge.  The New England Challenge used to be a six-day series, with marathons in each of the six New England States.  This year, the series has been split into two parts.  Part one of the series took place last week, with marathons in Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and Connecticut.  Part two, which is taking place this week, includes marathons in Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine.

I’m just doing the Vermont and Maine races.  That way, I can have a day off between races to travel from Vermont to Maine.  I’ve always found the most difficult part of a multi-day series is driving to another state immediately after finishing a race.

Deb and I flew to Boston on Thursday and drove to White River Junction, which is about 20 miles south of Fairlee.  The drive time is typically about two hours, depending on traffic.  There are closer airports, but we were able to get a direct flight to Boston, and we couldn’t get direct flights to a closer airport.

Our flight was on time, but then we experienced a few delays.  It took longer than usual to get our luggage; it took longer than usual to get our rental car; and it took longer than usual to get out of Boston, because of an accident that backed up traffic inside the I-90 tunnel.

After checking in at our hotel, we only had about an hour for sightseeing before dinner.  We drove to two nearby covered bridges.  The first was the Quechee covered bridge, which is close to some waterfalls.

Next we went to the Taftsville covered bridge.

Our last stop before dinner was a bridge over the Quechee Gorge, where we could get good views in both directions.

We had dinner at Lui Lui, which is an Italian restaurant in West Lebanon, NH.  West Lebanon is right across the river from White Plains Junction.  Deb has some dietary restrictions, but the restaurant made her a dish that wasn’t on the menu.  I had a pizza (no surprise there).

The race started at 6:00 AM, but I needed to be there at 5:30 for packet pickup.  That meant getting up early enough to be ready to leave the hotel at 5:00.  Deb was volunteering, so she also needed to be there early.

We had to leave the hotel before they started their breakfast service, but we both had leftovers from our dinner the night before.  I don’t generally eat much before a race anyway.

The temperature at the start was in the upper 40s, with intermittent light rain.  I was expecting the rain to stop shortly after the race started, so instead of wearing a rain poncho, I wore a Tyvek jacket.  I was planning to wear it until the rain stopped and then tie it around my waist.

The course was a loop around Lake Morey that was a little over five miles.  Before the first lap, we had to do an out-and-back that was just over half a mile each way.  Then we had to do five complete laps around the lake.  Of the six races in the New England Challenge, this is the only one I had never done, so I was seeing this course for the first time.

I wasn’t sure how fast I wanted to run this race.  On one hand, I’ve been improving with each race, and I wanted to see if I could beat the time I ran two weeks ago at the Kentucky Derby Festival Marathon.  On the other hand, I’m racing again in two days, so taking it easy wouldn’t be a bad idea.  I decided to started running and see how I felt before making a decision.

When we started running, there were about half a dozen runners who started fairly fast.  I let them go and started at my own pace.  The first quarter mile of the out-and-back was flat.  Then we started up a long hill that was fairly tiring.  I had to slow down going up the hill.  I didn’t know if the course was going to be flat or hilly.  If this hill was any indication, breaking four hours probably wouldn’t be realistic.

After the turnaround, I started down the same hill.  To run down the hill comfortably, I had to adjust my stride.  I picked up so much speed going down that hill that I ran the first mile in 8:56.  That was faster than I wanted to start.  I could tell it wasn’t a sustainable pace.  After only a mile, it already felt tiring.

By the time I finished the out-and-back, I had already lost sight of the runners ahead of me.  As I began the first full lap around the lake, I was completely alone.  I couldn’t see anyone ahead of me, and I couldn’t hear anyone behind me.

I made a sharp left turn and started running along the east side of the lake for the first time.  I didn’t get far before I encountered a hill.  I started to work up a sweat, so I had to take off my jacket.  I wanted to keep it on until the rain stopped, and I could still feel drops, but I was too hot with the jacket on.

After the first hill, there was another one.  I quickly realized the entire course was going to be gently rolling hills.  None of them were steep, but I haven’t done much in the way of hill training this year.  I was forced to slow down.  Breaking four hours wasn’t realistic.

By the end of the third mile, another runner passed me.  At first, I wondered if it was the leader of the half marathon.  Their out-and-back was a mile longer than ours.  This guy was going faster than me, but not fast enough to have made up a mile already.  Apparently, he started at a more conservative pace and was speeding up.

Over the next few miles, I gradually slowed down.  By the fourth mile, I had slowed into the 9:30s.  By the end of my first lap around the lake, I had slowed into the 9:40s.  Even then, my effort seemed a bit tiring.  It didn’t feel sustainable.

By now, the rain had stopped, yet I didn’t feel comfortable taking off my gloves yet.  I was expecting the temperature to climb into the 60s by the time I finished, but my hands were getting colder.  I was feeling a cold breeze over the lake.

By the end of my first lap, I had passed several runners who seemed to be walking the whole way.  A few of them were doing the marathon.  I can only assume there was an early start option for people who needed extra time.  The others were at the back of the pack of the half marathon.  They were just finishing their out-and-back as I was finishing my first full lap.

There were two aid stations.  The aid station in the start/finish area had water, Gatorade, gels, and a wide variety of food, including some hot food.  The aid station near the far end of the lake had water, gels, and some candy.  I always drank Gatorade at the main aid station and water at the secondary aid station.  I didn’t eat any food during the race.

In my second lap around the lake, my mile times continued to degrade.  A few of my miles were slower than 10 minutes.  I didn’t feel like I was slacking off.  I still questioned whether my effort was sustainable.  My lack of hill training was painfully obvious.  I found the hills to be tiring.

Before I finished that lap, the two fastest runners in the marathon lapped me.  By the time I finished 11 miles, they had already finished 16.  They were both on pace to break three hours.

During the third lap, I reached the halfway point.  I was on pace to finish in roughly 4:16, but I expected to slow down in the second half.  Up to this point, my pace was gradually getting slower.  I might stabilize my pace in the second half, but I wasn’t likely to speed up.  I wasn’t motivated to push too hard when my time wasn’t going to be fast anyway.  With another race coming up on Sunday, it made more sense to conserve energy.

In the 14th mile, I started to feel some light drizzle.  Now, I was worried about getting cold.  I picked up my pace a little, in hopes that my extra effort would help me to stay warm.

The rain only lasted for about 15 minutes.  My pace, however, stabilized at just under 10 minutes per mile.  I maintained that pace for several miles.  I even started to run the same pace in uphill miles that I did in downhill miles.

Shortly after the rain stopped, the sun came out.  As I started my fourth lap, I started to feel the warmth of the sun.  I was starting to get sweaty, so I took off my gloves.

The road on the east side of the lake was well-shaded.  When I was in the shade, I wondered if I had taken my gloves off prematurely.  The road on the west side of the lake had more patches that were exposed to the sun.  Over there, I felt warmer.

When I started my last lap, I looked at my watch.  If I kept up the same pace for one more lap, I would break 4:20.  I wanted to take a few pictures of the lake, and I knew that would slow me down.  Because of that, I didn’t expect to break 4:20.

My first picture was looking across the lake from the east side.  It took me awhile to get my phone out of my fanny pack, and it also took a while to find a place where I could take an unobstructed photo.  I expected that mile to be really slow.  It was 10:02.  That was so encouraging that I wondered if I could speed up enough between photos to maintain the same average pace in this lap as I did in my previous two laps.

As I got farther around the lake, I eventually stopped to take a picture from the west side, but looking south.  I had to settle for a partially obstructed view.  That stop didn’t take as long, and then I worked at making up the time.  I sped up significantly in that mile.

With a mile and a half to go, I reached the top of a tiring hill.  Then I saw the back of the sign that marked the turnaround for the out-and-back that the half marathon runners had done at the start of the race.  From there, it was about a mile and a half to go, and it started with a downhill section.  I sped down the hill, but stopped briefly to take a picture of Lake Morey Resort.  I needed to get back to there to finish.

I had one more tiring hill to climb.  Then there was a level section.  I saw the sign that marked the turnaround point for the out-and-back section that those of us doing the marathon had run earlier.  Now I just had half a mile to go, and the first half of that was downhill.

I ran that last half mile fairly hard – perhaps harder than I should’ve under the circumstances.  I finished the race in 4:17:13.  I was surprised by how fast I ran the last lap.  I ran positive splits, but by less than a minute.  It makes me wonder if I would’ve run negative splits if I wasn’t stopping to take pictures.

Each race in this series has a finisher medal in the shape of the state.

I wasn’t taking in many calories during the race, so I made a point of eating some of the aid station food before we drove back to the hotel.  Then I had a banana and my last slice of leftover pizza before taking a long hot shower and doing some stretches.

While I was recovering from the race, Deb did some shopping.  Then we spent the rest of the afternoon sightseeing.  We started with two more covered bridges.  This is Middle Covered Bridge in Woodstock, along with views of the stream.

After stopping at an ice cream shop, we went to this bridge, which doesn’t have a name.  It’s not as attractive as the other bridges, but it was only a mile from the ice cream shop.

Next, we went to Sugarbush Farm, which makes maple syrup and cheese.  To get there from Woodstock, we had to take some dirt roads that looked increasingly sketchy.  As we got closer, we started seeing signs directing us to the farm.  Here’s the sign we saw when we got there.

We tasted various cheeses and syrups, and we learned about the process for making maple syrup.  While we were there, we bought some extra sharp cheddar, wicked sharp cheddar, sage cheddar, very dark maple syrup, maple butter, and a few other small items.

While we were at Sugarbush Farm, we learned about a glass store where we could watch a glass blowing demonstration.  It just happens that this shop was right next to Quechee Covered Bridge.  From a balcony behind the shop, we got a different view of the falls and the bridge.

For dinner, we went to a place called Wicked Awesome BBQ.  The name pretty much says it all.

This was my fourth marathon in Vermont.  To finish my fourth circuit of marathons or ultras in every state, I just need to run marathons in Utah, West Virginia, and Oklahoma.  All of those races are scheduled for later in the year.

Tomorrow, we’ll drive to Portland, ME, where I’ll be racing on Sunday.  Stay tuned for another race report. 

Race statistics:

Distance:  26.2 miles

Time:  4:17:13

Average Pace:  9:49 

First Half:  2:08:17 (estimate)

Second Half:  2:08:56 (estimate)

Lifetime Marathons/Ultras:  481

Vermont Marathons:  4