Today was the last day of
the Mainly Marathons Northwest Series. For
the second straight day, we were running alongside the Snake River in Hell’s
Gate State Park.
I slept well, but I woke
up with a considerable amount of soreness.
Some of that was from my fall yesterday.
The scrape below my knee
looked ugly, but it didn’t hurt. The
scrapes on my hip were barely noticeable, but that’s where I had a lot of
soreness. My elbow didn’t look too bad, but
I had yet to wash out the blood stains on the sleeve of my jacket.
I don’t usually take
anything for pain or soreness, but I took some Tylenol before leaving the
hotel.
As usual, I took the 6:30
start. It was dark when I arrived at the
park, but it was light by the time I started running. Now that I knew the layout of the park, I
made a point of parking near one of the bathrooms.
Today’s weather was
similar to yesterday. It was chilly
enough at the start that I had to start the race with a jacket and gloves. My legs were cold, so I had to run fast enough
to stay warm.
As I got warmed up, I
gradually settled into a more relaxed pace.
Halfway through my fourth lap, I took off my jacket and gloves. I may have been a bit premature with the
gloves. For the next lap or two, my
hands and arms were cold.
Yesterday, I saw a few
deer, but I wasn’t able to get a picture.
Today, I ran the whole race with my phone, so I wouldn’t miss any photo
ops. I was nearing the end of my fifth lap
when I saw another runner stop to take a picture. I looked in that direction and saw a few deer
milling about.
There’s a long-standing
tradition that the last day of a series is hot dog day. They have hot dogs at the aid station, and
some runners dress for the occasion.
During the first half of
the race, I only took one walking break.
I had several other stops though.
Besides stopping to take photos, I had two bathroom stops, I stopped to
eat a hot dog, and I stopped to demonstrate some stretches for a runner with
sciatica. When I reached the halfway
point, my time was slower than any of the other days.
I usually start taking
walking breaks in the second half.
Today, I felt like I needed to keep running, but I ran at a relaxed
pace. I had two more bathroom stops, and
I stopped at the aid station one more time to eat a hot dog.
I was halfway through my
11th lap when I caught up to Clyde. I
asked Clyde what lap he was on. He
started an hour earlier, but we were now on the same lap. We each had three-and-a-half laps to go.
Next, I asked Clyde if he
was on pace to finish in seven hours.
Clyde was confident that he was.
That meant I could walk the rest of the race with Clyde and still finish
in six hours.
I thought we might be
cutting it kind of close, so I kept a close eye on our pace. Clyde maintained a brisk pace, and we were
always on schedule. By the last lap, we
no longer needed to walk fast, but we did.
I finished the race in
5:53:41. I kept my times under six hours
all six days. That was my goal.
Today, I got two pieces
to add to my chain of medals. The first
one was the medal for today’s race, which was the other Idaho medal. The second was an extra piece that goes to
anyone who does the whole series.
Here’s the entire chain.
As I was leaving Hell’s
Gate State Park, a deer darted across the road right in front of me. Fortunately, I was already slowing down for a
speed bump, so I was in no danger of hitting the deer.
When I got back to the
hotel, I finally took the time to rinse the blood stains out of my jacket.
Tomorrow, I need to drive
back to Spokane and fly home. My flight
isn’t until the afternoon, so I won’t have to get up as early tomorrow. I’m looking forward to that. I’m also looking forward to not having
another race until October.
This was the fourth time in less than a year that I’ve run marathons on five or six consecutive days. That’s unusual for me. Until recently, I rarely did more than one multi-day series in a year.
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