Today was day five of the
Mainly Marathons Northwest Series. It
was the first of two days in Idaho.
Every other morning, I
take an iron pill. On the days I take
those, I sometimes get the runs. I didn’t
have any problems on Saturday or Monday.
Today, I wasn’t so lucky.
I may have eaten
breakfast too soon after taking the pill.
I also ate a breakfast that was probably too rich. Ten minutes later, it went right through me. I made two more trips to the bathroom before
leaving the hotel. Then I crossed my
fingers that I was done.
Our race venue was Hell’s
Gate State Park. There’s normally a fee
to enter the park, but that was included in our race entry.
The aid station was set
up in the campground, but we couldn’t park there. We had to park in the day use area, which is
about a quarter mile away.
Most runners took the
early start at 5:30 AM. I didn’t want to
get up that early, and I also didn’t want to run in the dark for the first
hour. I opted for the 6:30 start. Unfortunately, that meant parking farther
away, since all the closer parking spaces were already taken.
After parking in the
closest available space, I notice a nearby building. I had plenty of time, so I investigated to
see if this building had bathrooms. It
did. I’m real glad I took the time to
use this bathroom, because there weren’t any bathrooms in the start/finish
area.
It was still dark, so I
needed to carry a flashlight as I made my way from my car to the starting line. It was chilly, so kept my warm-up pants on
until the last minute.
As usual, the course was
out-and-back. Usually, the aid station
is set up at one end of the course.
Today, the aid station was in the middle. We needed to run roughly half a mile to the
south before turning around and coming back to the aid station. Then we ran a similar distance to the north
before turning around again. When we got
back to the aid station, that was one lap.
I needed to run 14 laps for the marathon.
Yesterday was the only
day that it was warm enough in the morning that I could start the race without
a jacket or gloves. Today, I needed to
keep them on. As I started running, my
legs were cold. I didn’t have the luxury
of taking any walking breaks. I had to
run to keep warm. Fortunately, this course
was flatter than the others, so there weren’t any places where I felt the need
to walk.
The path we were on was
paved, but there were rough patches with small rocks imbedded in the
pavement. I was near the end of my first
lap when I caught my foot on one of these small rocks. I hit the pavement hard.
As I got up, I could see
scrapes on the side of my leg. My hands
and arm were protected somewhat by my gloves and jacket. Even so, my hands hurt for several minutes.
After getting up, I
immediately resumed running. I still
needed to run to keep my legs from getting too cold.
I looked at my sleeve to
see if my jacket was torn. I couldn’t
see any tears, but I saw a couple dark patches.
Evidently, my elbow was bleeding under the jacket.
I kept my jacket on until
I was halfway through my fourth lap. Sure
enough, there was a small scrape on my elbow.
I kept my gloves on until the end of my fifth lap. My hands looked fine.
Early in my sixth lap, I
felt the urgent need to rush to the bathroom.
There were two buildings with bathrooms.
Neither one was right along the route.
The one closer to the trail was the one near my car. That was at the other end of the course. The one I would pass first was farther away from
the trail.
I couldn’t hold it in
while running. I had to slow to a walk
until I reached the first building with bathrooms. Then I had to take a long detour off the
trail.
Later in that same lap, I
stopped at the other bathroom, just to make sure I was done. Since I was already close to my car, I
stopped to get my phone, so I could take some pictures of the course.
This was our view from
the northern end of the course.
Coming back from there,
we ran by two beach areas.
This is the aid station,
right in the middle of our route.
South of the aid station,
we ran past the campground.
The aid station always
has a hot foot item. Today, it was a
breakfast “hot dish” made with tater tots, eggs, cheese, and Spam. Halfway through my seventh lap, I picked up a
cup of the hot dish at the aid station.
I had to walk until I finished eating it.
When I finished that lap, I was half done. My time at the halfway point was slower than any of the other days. Between the bathroom stops and the walking, I lost a lot of time.
Usually, I start doing
extra walking in the second half of the race.
Today, I felt like I should keep running for a few more laps before
slowing down too much.
I had to make one more
bathroom stop. Other than that, I forced
myself to keep running until I was done with my 10th lap.
With four laps to go, I
wasn’t sure exactly what pace I needed to break six hours. I knew 16-minute miles was fast enough and 17-minute
miles would be too slow.
I saw my friend Fran a
short distance ahead of me. I kept running
until I caught up with Fran. Fran was
walking, but she often walks at a brisk pace.
I asked Fran what pace she
was walking. She said about 16 and a
half minutes. That was probably fast
enough for me, so I started walking with Fran.
I quickly found I had to work hard to keep up with her. She didn’t want to slow me down, so she was
picking up her pace.
After one lap with Fran,
I checked my watch. I needed to walk the
last three laps in an average of 32 minutes.
It seemed like we were going faster than that.
In one of our laps, I saw
Clyde was a short distance behind us as we reached one of the turnarounds. One lap later, it seemed like he was still
the same distance behind us. I told Fran
we were walking as fast as Clyde, who is usually the fastest walker on the
course.
Fran seemed skeptical,
but when we reached the turnaround at the other end of the course, it was
obvious that we were now farther ahead of Clyde. Knowing we were walking faster than Clyde
seemed to light a fire under Fran. We
walked even faster. In one mile, we got
as fast as 14:50.
Each time we finished a
lap, we were faster than the pace I needed.
With a lap to go, I told Fran a casual walking pace would be fast
enough. At this point, she was
determined to stay ahead of Clyde.
We were almost back to
the aid station, in the middle of the lap, when Fran tripped on something in
the trail. She bumped her head, and she
got some scrapes, but she seemed to be OK.
When we reached the aid station, Fran stopped briefly to clean herself
up. Despite the fall, and the time at
the aid station, we were even farther ahead of Clyde when we reached the last
turnaround.
This was my last lap, but
Fran was doing the 50K race, so she still had a few laps to go. It was Clyde’s last lap, so Fran just needed
to stay ahead of Clyde until we got back to the aid station.
When we were almost there,
I broke into an all-out racewalk until I reached the finisher bell. I finished in 5:50:32. Fran applied an icepack where she bumped her
head. Then she started her next lap.
Today I received the
first of two styles of medal for Idaho.
After a race, my top
priority is usually soaking my legs and stretching. Today, it was cleaning up my scrapes. I had a bloody scrape on my right knee and
smaller scrapes on my right hip and right elbow.
When I took off my socks,
I saw a blood stain from one of my toes.
I had a sharp corner on one toenail, and it was cutting the adjacent
toe. It looked messy, but it didn’t hurt
at all. Those things always look worse
than they are.
There’s just one more
race in this series. We’ll be on the
same course tomorrow. I’ll probably go
out of my way to park in the same place, so I can be close to the bathroom.
I felt tired today, and I expect to be even more tired tomorrow. I may also have some sore spots. I’m glad tomorrow is the last day of the series.
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