3:22:27
24th overall (out of 367)
6th in age (out of 37)

So this marathon trip started (sortof) the day before coming up from Albuquerque. I slept/rested in the passenger seat with my thigh high compression socks keeping me happy. The drive was pleasant, again seeing vast open spaces of nothing, but honestly I find that incredibly peaceful. Something about land untouched by human hands. I do miss the open-ness of Wyoming when I lived there for three years, honestly.

We rolled into Colorado Springs about 4 in the afternoon and quick checked into the hotel and then headed to my brother George’s house for dinner. My sister in law, Julie, made a great pasta collection and a strange but delish cake (German chocolate like with oatmeal and carrot actually). I tried to eat as much as I could but it still was not enough, I found out later. Good food, good conversation. This was the first time Misty had met my Brother or any one in his family. It seemed like a good first meeting

With race start at 6:30, that meant a 4 am wakeup. More tea, another peanut butter sandwich, shower and Misty and I headed off to the finish line where I got on my bus to the start line at about 5:10. The drive took a while because the race was a straight (ish) 26 mile race south from Palmer Lake Park into Colorado Springs.
In the 40ish minutes before race start, I saw two people of significance. The first was the young woman I tutored in Chemistry on my flight back from my Missoula marathon. I knew she was going to be running this day, but never expected to actually find her in the large crowd pre-race. That was pretty cool, actually. 5 minutes before the start I also ran into the Junkie himself, Chuck Engle. We have become friends and this was the 5th (I think) time I have raced with him. Turns out he crashed hard today running a 3:14, which normally I could have done had I not ran a 3:08 marathon the day before. Yes, I could have beat the Junkie. That would have been awesome.

Race start and I was off, my legs actually feeling pretty good. The course is a net 1200’ drop in elevation, but not constant. A few small uphills and lots of flat gave the legs good variety. I was doing great, put the first 15 miles away FASTER that the first 15 miles the previous day. Yes, I was actually running faster in the second marathon of the weekend. The course was beautiful, the sun coming up and lighting up the mountains to my right. No clouds at all, perfect.

Then mile 17 came and the monkey jumped on my back. My legs were fine, my lungs were fine, I just got tired. Every part of my body just finally gave up at once. I had hit the well-known marathon ‘wall’, and started having to take short walk breaks (300m or so each) every mile or so. I had just not replenished my glycogen stores from the previous day. I focused so hard at finishing. I kept reminding myself how many miles I had already ran this weekend and how few I had left to go. People were passing me left and right, but I didn’t let it get to me. Survival and crossing the finish line was all that was important.

By the time I crossed the finish line I was toast. Ten minutes after the race, my heart rate was still over 125. Misty kept a very close eye on me as I was not in a good place for a while. It took me a full 20 minutes to recover and until I felt somewhat normal. Pizza, soda, oranges, Gatorade and some beer all helped.
After a 90 min drive up to Denver we stopped for a nice steak lunch before we headed to the airport to check in and get on our plane. During lunch I found myself questioning my long term running goals. I still struggle with the ‘what am I going to do when I get all 50 states done’ question. We were cutting it a little close in terms of timing, getting to the gate just as they started to board our section, but it all worked out.
After an unexciting 2+ hour flight and 1 hour drive home, I arrived back at my house, roughly 84 hours after I had left it for this trip. I managed to knock off a total of 30 minutes off my two-consecutive-marathon-cumulative-time record.

The next day I felt surprisingly well. It really only hurt when I walked down stairs. Two days later I was doing a gentle 6 miler with little pain. I had recovered quickly from a heck of a weekend. These ‘doubles’ are great for knocking off states two at a time, but they take a toll. I will do this at least once more, maybe twice as I get closer and closer to my 50 states finish. Fingers crossed.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go eat…

3:08:31
7th overall (out of 378)
2nd in age (out of 27)

So this was a memorable trip, not just because I ran two marathons. I got three of my favorite things together. I got to spend the entire weekend with my lovely girlfriend, Mistique whilst running marathons in the mountains. She had never been to the mountains,  and had not even flown in 20 some odd years, so she had a good time even though it was a little smash and grabby.

Out whirlwind trip started with a 8am flight out of Detroit landing in Denver at 9am Mountain time. By 9:45 we were headed south for a 7+ hour drive to Albuquerque, NM. It was pleasant drive, with mountains always on our right and vast expanses of flat to our left. It reminded me of Wyoming. And Montana. And Nevada. And…

We got into town about 5 pm local, picked up the race packet, checked into the hotel, and headed off to Applebee’s (where else?) for dinner. Poor Mistique. She had to put up with my pre-race ranting and neuroses. The fiesta lime chicken was very tasty and we were back at the hotel room by 8. A very early start meant an early bedtime.

Since race start was at 5:30, that meant I was up at 3am local for peanut butter sandwiches and tea. Luckily, the bus to the race start (our hotel was about 4 blocks from the finish line) was leaving from the parking lot of our hotel. Right before it left, I grabbed a free cup of coffee being given away by the local Starbucks. Nice ladies in there, opening up at 4am for us goofy marathoners.

Once on the bus, I soon found out that I was sitting in front of the very famous Jeff Galloway. Anyone who has ever thought seriously about running a marathon knows his name. Former Olympic runner, now running coach guru. We had a pleasant talk comparing war stories. I was in the presence of running royalty, truly.

5:30 race start, the sun was not even close to coming up when we took off from a parking lot somewhere in east Albuquerque, heading north. At 10am this day the temp would be over 80 degrees, so I really didn’t mind starting so early. The course was essentially 3 sides of a very large rectangle, the first 8 miles taking us slowly up into the foothills above town. At about mile 7 I could start to see the road by sunlight (street lights guided us up until then) when I looked left and saw the city ‘below’ me. It was nice, realizing that soon I got to enjoy the downhill drop back into town. a mile or so later we took that turn and my pace when from a gentle 7:15/mile pace down to 7 flat. Interestingly, I got passed by 3 people during the 5 mile descent.

With about 4 miles to go, my pace was still 7:03ish, and I started getting a little tired, so I back off, finishing the race at a 7:10 overall clip. Hey, I had to race again the next day. Had I only been running one race this weekend, a sub 3 would have been easily attainable. Misty had decided to walk the last part of the course and time her arrival at the finish line with mine. I passed her with about 200 m to go. To get her attention I yelled something slightly risqué, but that’s ok. Only about 5 other people heard it. She jogged briefly to meet me at the end. She really is good support crew.

A nice handstand and some water and it was time to start thinking about the next race. Misty and I walked slowly back to the hotel where I drew a bath of cold water and we put in 3 trash cans full of ice. I sat down in it and it felt really good, actually. After 5 min, I got out, showered, and then enjoyed a Starbucks Mocha Misty went and got me. It tasted really good. My legs felt great, truly. I had one large and one small blister, which is fine, but my toenails were not happy. I knew that I was going to lose a few of them by the end of the weekend. I was a little concerned, but did my best to treat them. [Editors note: 6 toenails would eventualy be lost this weekend]

We wandered back to the finish line to check the results, saw my 7th overall placing (not bad!) and asked for and received my age award (2nd place) so we could take off. The award was pretty cool, a handmade ceramic old Indian type water container. A nice hand painted finishers medal made this a great race.

The course was very well marked, with orange traffic cones every 30’ or so for the entire length of the course. 12 hours after the finish, every runner got an email from the race director congratulating us, but more importantly asking for feedback and suggestions on how to make it a better race. Having now run 34 marathons, I have some good ideas on how to organize a marathon to be runner friendly. These people did a pretty darn good job, all things considered.

By 10:30 we were on our way north for race number 2. Misty was kind enough to drive that whole second day so I could stretch out and rest in the passenger seat.