Moutain Home, AR
3:21:34 (2nd place overall, out of 52)
So my long 96 hour odyssey started at 2:30 ET on Thursday. A long week for sure up until that point complete with an appointment with my sports medicine doctor telling me I need to be very conscious of what my body tells me when I try to run back to back marathons on a good case of shin splints. My drive started out ok, arriving in Bloomington (~5 hours away) I spent the last 45 minutes of the drive on the phone with Stephanie who had a hard day at work. As I get off the interstate I let her go as I needed to get ready to check into my hotel. She called me back 2 minutes later as I am pulling into the parking of the hotel. She informs me that I seem to have forgotten my suitcase in the living room of the house. I turn around and sure enough, it is not in my car. A plethora of profanity later, and I check into the hotel, sans shaving kit and clothes. The good news is that my running bag with all my running clothes, shoes, etc. did make it into the car (I loaded that one first, priorities you know) so all was not lost. A quick stop at a local Goodwill store and Wal-mart and I was back in business. Chicken wings for dinner and I was in bed by 9 pm.
Friday morning I got up before the dawn, drove through a Starbucks and headed south past the St Louis arch into the heart of Missouri before I turned south into BFE, also known as northern Arkansas. Surprisingly hilly, the last part of the drive was actually very scenic. I checked into my hotel, checked my email using a community computer (oh yeah, my laptop was also in my forgotten suitcase) and then headed to a local movie theater to see Quantum of Solace. I had forgotten that this Bond flick was sort of a sequel to Casino Royale so I was desperately trying to remember how that one ended. In the end, I thought Quantum was a good flick. Later reviews from my father were also positive, my brother, negative. Oh well.
Since there was no Applebee’s within 60 miles, I had to settle for dinner at the Las Vegas Fire Grill in Mountain Home for my pre-race dinner. Not being very hungry, I had a small chicken pasta dish that was very spicy but quite good. There was (obviously) a Las Vegas theme to the restaurant, complete with a 10’ x 14’ aerial picture on the wall of downtown Las Vegas at night. What was cool is that that picture, if extended another 1 foot to the right the picture would have shown the hotel I stayed at last December when I ran the Las Vegas marathon. The thought brought a very big smile to my face.
The race morning ritual went off without a hitch, peanut butter sandwich, tea, shower, head to race start. The weather was cool, mid 30’s, but the wind was 15-20 mph, so that kind of stunk. Those were pretty much the conditions for the whole race, actually. While waiting for the race to start, I was talking with several other runners and met two women from Minnesota who were doing the same double I was. They both ended up finishing both marathons in just over 4 hours each. Right on time, at 8 am we started off. There was a half marathon and 5K all starting at the same time, so it was kind of crowded.
I have ran more than a few races, and I would say this was one of the most well-supported races I have competed in. At almost every aid station there was (of course) water and Gatorade, but there was also fruit, pretzels, candy and even the occasional Gu pack. I was amazed how much they had for such a small race. By comparison, the next day I ran in a race with 20 times as many marathon runners and they had only ONE aid station that anything but water and Gatorade, and that was only Gu packs.
Knowing I had ~52.5 miles in front of me, I started off slow with the crowd in front of me. About a mile into the race, I met a really nice 49 year old guy from NW Arkansas, Greg, We start talking and we both are ‘running easy’. About 6 miles in, two running friends joined us. The four of us stayed together for the next 13 miles. Hills, a little hail, a little rain, a lot of wind, we all stayed together. We weren’t really paying attention to our place until we neared the half marathon turnaround point. The two friends remarked that most of the people they thought were in front of us were coming back (meaning, half marathon runners) Once we passed the actual turn around, we realize there is only 1 guy in front of us. Great, I am running easy, and now I am in the 2,3,4,5th place pack at mile 7.5. The race was small, yes (only 52 finishers) and considering what the winning time was I should have easily been able to win this one, but with the shin issues and my next race being 22 hours later, I did not want to push it. The four of us stayed together, and at about mile 12 we came upon a port-o-potty that contained our race leader. Before then, we knew we were catching up on him. As we came upon the port-o-potty, I joked ‘Should we stop and wait for him?’ So now the 4 of us were in the lead, and stayed there, together, until mile 19.5. At that point, the running friends starting pushing the pace, and I picked up the pace. I know what I have in me, and even with the shin splints, I knew I could push it a little bit. Getting a 4th win would have been nice. At mile 20.5, I looked back and I had about an 800m lead on one of the guys. I decided to keep running hard, thinking if I could hold him off for a little while longer, he would give up and then I could go back to my comfortable pace and relax with a win. About a mile later, I turned hoping not to see him, and he was literally 10 feet behind me. I talked with him briefly as he flew by. Turns out, he is the faster of the two and was running slow to stay with his friend. When his friend decided he needed to take a walk break, this guy took off. He looked strong. I asked him if he had ever won a marathon before, he said no. I told him congratulations, please take it. Off he went and I slowed way down, knowing that I was not going to get the win, and that was fine. I was more than happy to roll in with a comfortable second place finish.
During the race, my feet never got more than 2 inches off the ground. Shin splints are considered an ‘impact’ injury, so I was running as gentle as humanly possible. Each and every step was as soft as I could make it. My shins felt ‘ok’ afterward. I am sure my excitement cut into the pain a little. They were a little worse, but not significantly. This was the first run I had done in (no joke) 2.5 weeks, and I felt pretty good afterwards.
A quick shower, a huge bowl of homemade chili (yum!!), and a very nice massage helped me recover for the most part. The awards ceremony was not going to be until 2 pm, so I kindly asked the race director (who was wearing a jacket that I also have, the official Boston 2007 windbreaker) for my award. When I explained I needed it because I needed to get to Tulsa by 6pm, she smiled and said ‘good luck’ as she handed my fleece blanket with the Marathon logo upon it. Quite a nice award actually. Salacia loves it as her new blanket. 
I got on the road about 12:30 pm CT, and headed west along state highways. Shins a little worse, and a little tired, but ready for my next challenge. I brought along a bathroom scale just because I was curious. The morning of the race, I weighed (a huge) 175 pounds. After I crossed the finish line (and before I ate any chili) I weighed 160 pounds. A nice workout, losing 15 pounds, eh? I ate plenty to make it back up, have no fear.
So I roll into downtown Tulsa at about 5 pm local. My legs are sore, I am dead tired, and so I plan on hanging out at the official race expo as short an amount of time as possible. I think I was there for less than 15 minutes, enough time for me to get my packet, check the chip, walk (quickly) in front of each booth, just in case something was cool, drank 3 glasses of Gatorade at their booth, and I was off to find my hotel. These expos always have the same crap, none of which I need, so I expected to spend as little time as I did.
So within the last few months, I have become a member of the Marathon Maniacs. An on-line organization of freaks like me who run marathons at a frequency that border on (ha!) maniac. One of the marks of a marathon maniac is the bright yellow racing singlet. This is the first race (weekend) I have had mine, so of course I wore it. During yesterday’s marathon, nobody really mentioned it, but during this race I got several (read: more than 10) people who acknowledged it. I heard ‘Go maniac!’ cheers and every time I saw another runner with a maniac singlet, I did a high 5 with them. It is cool, having sortof a built in cheering squad. I must admit, I like being a member of this organization. The 50 states club is also pretty cool.