Waves at The Surf City Marathon

Life is like an ocean, constantly moving and changing direction.  Sometimes the waves of life lift you up, other times they wash over and leave you gasping for air.  Runners experience ups and downs during training and racing, and marathoners especially find themselves surfing through waves of good and bad.

The 2014 Surf City Marathon was an important race for me for numerous reasons.  On a personal level, I hoped for some clear thinking time – I was hoping to identify a wave heading up, and locate a path to move towards it.  On a running level, I was seeking some redemption after last year’s event, when I was quite literally gasping for air and had a poor race.

I flew out on Friday and was pleased to find nice cool weather in Southern California.  I took care of some work, rested up a bit in the hotel, chatted with friends, and got a pizza for dinner.  During some music sharing I came upon a song that would be my theme for the weekend – Shinedown’s “Second Chance”.

Saturday was a busy day, starting off with an awesome early morning shakeout run with my friend and fellow San Francisco Marathon Ambassador Christopher Marana Malenab.  We did a quick 10k while comparing race strategies and planning our “AfterNuun Run” Ragnar Relay Team.

After the run I cleaned up and headed to the expo.  My friend Joe Taricani, producer of The Marathon Show podcast, was shooting video for his inaugural TV production, and I helped out for a few hours.  It was so fun to see the behind-the-scenes work, and to watch Joe in action.  A few of my friends were there helping too, including Andrea, Kristina, and Eddie.  And of course the seaside setting was amazing!

At noon, we had a fun “Tweetup” at the Nuun Hydration booth.  Another SFM Ambassador, Jody Stoops, joined Chris and I along with a few others to have a little social media fun.  We handed out some freebies, talked about the new “California Dreaming” incentive for anyone who does both Surf City and San Francisco Marathons (or half-marathons), and blitzed Twitter, Instagram, and FaceBook.

I spent a lot of time at the expo – something they say you should not do the day before the marathon – but it was tons of fun and I got a chance to spend time with a bunch of friends from all over, many of whom I don’t see very often.  Social media makes it easy to stay in communication, but it’s a great thing about the marathon running community that we can meet up at a race and go straight in to friendship mode.  Several of my marathon friends had talks with me that went far deeper than just superficial small talk, and it’s such a blessing to have them in my life.

I left the expo at mid-afternoon, after picking up my friend Yolanda’s race packet – her flight was running late and she wasn’t sure she’s make it to the expo.  I met up with Eddie and Kristina for lunch and drinks at BJ’s Brewhouse, and we had a great time discussing important stuff ;-)

My plan was to go out for dinner with a few Marathon Maniacs, but later in the day my stomach began to feel quite bad.  I’m convinced it was the pizza from Friday night, but whatever it was, I decided I needed to take it easy.  So I hung out and was fortunate to have some support and advice from friends back in Tucson.  When I got up the next morning, it wasn’t much better, so I wasn’t able to eat my usual pre-race bagel (normally I try to eat a bagel 2-3 hours prior to race start).  It’s very unusual for me to have stomach issues before a marathon – this was definitely making me feel like I was on one of those downward waves.  Not a good feeling to have before a marathon.

I drove to the beach with Chris and Stacy.  We were all a bit nervous and excited.  One nice thing about this race is that they leave the expo tent up and runners are allowed to hang out inside to stay warm.  Although Huntington Beach was warmer than much of the country, the cool air and ocean humidity makes it cold for an Arizonan!  At 6 a.m. we took a short walk to a bridge, where the Marathon Maniac’s pre-race group photo was staged.

I realized I had lost my sunglasses, which was a big problem!  I had a spare pair in the car, and decided to run back to get them – unfortunately this was only about 20 minutes before the start and the car was quite far away, but I knew the sun would be a problem for me if I didn’t get them.  So at the start, I was already feeling discouraged by my upset stomach, lost shades, and unplanned warmup run.  I decided this was not going to be a perfect race, and that I would target a 3:10 pace.  I started off slow, and my legs felt stiff.  Right from the start, I was having fears.

As the miles went by, though, I began to feel better.  I saw friends a few times at places where the course doubled back, and the weather was nice.  Fan support is very good at Surf City and the aid stations well-managed.  I began to risk slight speed-ups and at the halfway point, I was at about 1:31, far ahead of a 3:10 pace.  I began to worry a bit that maybe I was going too fast, but decided to keep pushing ahead.  Around miles 16 – 18, I found myself running near a small pack and we hung together.  I don’t run with music, but songs go through my head as I run – during that time I was hearing the old Bad Company song, “Running With the Pack”.

I eventually pulled ahead of the pack and was solo from there on.  The range from mile 20 onward is when the waves really start to show – both literally and figuratively.  The Surf City course takes you along Huntington Beach and at this point it’s on the beach path, complete with surfers in the waves and sunbathers on the sand.  Figuratively speaking, it is after mile 20 in a marathon that runners often go through mood swings.  In my case, the “Marathon Mind Monkeys” usually manifest themselves in the form of feeling really discouraged or even depressed.  Sometimes songs come into my head that are very sad.  During this year’s Surf City, the last 10k included some extremely sad songs:

·      “Tears” – Rush (a very beautiful but tragic song)

·      “The Answer” – Blue October

·      “Shattered Dreams” – Johnny Hates Jazz

When that happens, it can mean a few things.  One is that glycogen is dangerously low – time to eat something.  Surf City has an unofficial “Beer and Bacon Station” around mile 22, but when I went by it wasn’t open yet (although I could smell the bacon)!  My stomach didn’t want more gels but I forced a couple of bites down.

Another thing to do is try to re-orient your thinking to positive.  Just like a surfer might try to find a better wave to ride, a runner in the doldrums might be able to find a better thought pathway.  I tried to get my mind thinking more positively by focusing on happier songs, like “Survivor” by Muse.

When I hit mile 20, I realized that if I could pull off a fast 10k, I might just be able to get the sub-3 hour marathon that has been my goal for a long time.  My mile splits actually show a couple of fairly fast miles in that range but in the last 5k, I was hit with a combination of a fairly strong ocean breeze headwind along with an uphill climb.  My miles slowed and I lost time there, but I was still thrilled to cross the finish line at 3:02:29.  This was my second fastest marathon, and much better than the 3:10 target I had at the start.  It was also my 5^th marathon in a 34-day period, and I was happy that my legs had held up.  I saw Chris, who also ran a fast race (it was the day before his birthday, and he ran another 34 miles the next day to celebrate it – beast mode!)

After the race I hung out for a long time and saw many friends at the finish line.  I had a beer with my friend Cade, met up with Alfredo and Idalia (it was Alfredo’s 105^th marathon!), chatted with Marathon Goddess Julie and her husband David, and congratulated Vanessa who had just paced yet another perfect time.  Marathon Mitch and Eddie came in with Kristina for a new PR!  Stacy knocked out her second full.  Post-marathon parties are always awesome and Surf City does it right.  I also checked my results and found that I placed in my age group!  I got a nice plaque for 2^nd place.

I have learned to stay an extra day if possible for recovery.  This time I also decided to stay at nice place on the beach, and enjoy some peaceful thinking time.   But it was Super Bowl Sunday, and I was fortunate to be invited to a party at a friend’s house.  The game wasn’t too exciting this year, but hanging out with a bunch of Marathon Maniacs who had just enjoyed a morning in our own sport was priceless.  The food and drink was awesome too.

I finally went back to my beach hotel that evening and ran in to a couple of friends in the elevator.  I had planned on some alone time, looking out on the ocean from my balcony, but it turned out to be so good that I met them.  Once again I was reminded that while I love the sport of marathon for the run itself, there is also a human element that is a far greater treasure than any time result or award.

I’ve run Surf City 3 years in a row, and I expect this one to be on my schedule for many years to come.  Huntington Beach is awesome, the weather is awesome, the people are awesome, the bling is awesome…I’d say it runs a close second to San Francisco as my all-time favorite marathon.

Frequent Marathoning

(This blog was originally posted on The San Francisco Marathon's website on January 25, 2014).

After crossing the finish line, most marathon runners are ready for some rest and recovery.  Numerous sources recommend at least one day per mile of recovery time before a runner returns to normal training.  Many coaches suggest that runners compete in only one or two marathons per year.

But there are some marathon runners who disagree with the common advice, and when they cross the finish line of one marathon they are already planning the next. ——>

Frequent Marathoners are not as rare as you may think.  They vary widely in running speed, body shape and size, economic status, and may be female or male.  Some do it as a private personal quest, others promote themselves or run for charitable causes.  The one common trait they share is a love for our sport, the marathon, and that common bond creates a strong community that ignores the differences and celebrates the marathon lifestyle.

Some Frequent Marathoners are members of a club called the “Marathon Maniacs“.  They can be identified during races by their race kit – typically a yellow or pink singlet with the Maniacs logo.  Total strangers become instant friends when they see a fellow Maniac.  To join the Maniacs, a runner must first complete a series of marathons in a short period (many choose to run 3 within 90 days).  Different “levels” are achieved by running more frequently.  There are currently 8,600 Maniacs and more are joining every day.

 

It takes some commitment to train yourself to run marathons more often than once or twice a year.  Fundamentally, the training really is not so different than “normal” – you must develop the ability to run for long periods of time, and you must run regularly.  You also must learn your own body signals so that you can avoid injury.  You need to establish nutritional and sleep habits that provide optimal recovery for your body.  The truth is that there is little difference in training to run frequent marathons.  However, you do need to throw away the typical 12-16 week marathon buildup training schedules and work on training more consistently at the same level that you might see in those plans in the later weeks.  In other words, you will need to make it routine to do at least one long run every week.  Those long runs should probably be at least 15 miles.  Try racing frequently at shorter distances, from 5k to half-marathons, to teach your legs how to run when they are tired.  On marathon race weeks, your marathon will serve as a long training run for future races.  Between races, whether they are 24 hours, 1 week, or 1 month apart, you need to fuel your body properly.  Replenish with plenty of carbs and proteins, and don’t be afraid of fat.  Basically you should just plan to eat a lot.  A lot of pizza is good 

 

One well-known Frequent Marathoner is Scot Barco.  Last year, Barco ran 55 marathons in just 26 weeks.  How does someone accomplish such a feat?  It takes considerable planning and even some sacrifice.  Many would say that running so many marathons is a recipe for injury, but according to Scot, after the 55th marathon, he “felt great.  It wasn’t until I was not running as often that injury came”.  Scot quit his job and went on the road for those 6 months, travelling from race to race and making friends along the way.  He was running to test his limits, but he also paid attention to his health and sometimes made conscious decisions to pull back on his own effort and focus on encouraging first-timers.

Scot will tell you that his marathoning experience changed his life in many ways.  One of the highlights of the series occurred at the Route 66 Marathon, where he proposed to his fiance’ in the middle of the race; they were subsequently married at mile 6 of the Honolulu Marathon.  Scot’s wife Sandy is also a rather accomplished Frequent Marathoner.  Scot and Sandy will both be running the San Francisco Marathon this July and are looking forward to encouraging runners there.  Meanwhile, here are a few tips that Scot would like to share:

• There is time for fun during the run, but it’s also important to find time for fun between runs.
• Running 26.2 miles is great, but there is a greater experience all around you during the marathon; enjoy it!
• If you’re not nervous, you either don’t care or you are too confident.  It’s good to be nervous about a marathon.
• Stick to the plan.  For example, if you have a run/walk ratio planned, don’t change it mid-race.
• Do not be afraid of a DNF.  Don’t injure yourself just because you’re not willing to pull back.
• You cannot compare yourself to somebody else.  There is always somebody else who runs faster, or has run more marathons than you.

If you’ve read this far, you may be interested in frequent marathoning.  Most frequent marathoners will establish some sort of goal.  You might want to run a marathon per month.  Running a “Double” is a common goal – two marathons in two days.  Some use the Marathon Maniacs levels as a source of goals, for example reaching the 10-star Titanium level.  Groups exist for runners wishing to run all 50 states (The 50 States Marathon Club) or all 50 states in less than 4 hours each (The 50 Sub-4 Club).  Marathoners like David Holmen have achieved a Boston-qualifying time in all 50 states.    Other marathoners set their target on achieving 100 lifetime marathons, or 1,000…the possibilities are only limited by your imagination.

Running for a cause is a popular reason for marathon running, and frequent marathoners are often involved in these fundraising efforts.  Eddie Vega is currently on a quest to run all 50 states again – but this time, barefoot, in a charitable awareness campaign.  Julie Weiss, The Marathon Goddess, recently ran 52 marathons in 52 weeks to raise funds and awareness for the fight against pancreatic cancer.

Some frequent marathoners are on a quest to break records.  The world record for most official marathons run in a year is held by Larry Macon, a 69-year old attorney who ran 255 marathons in 2013.  The female record is held by Angela Tortorice who ran 129 marathons over 12 months last year.

There is also an annual ranking called “The Best Frequent Marathoners List“, as calculated by mathematician Dave Trautman, Ph.D.  According to Dave, “This is an effort to identify those marathoners who a) run a lot of marathons, and b) run marathons fast. The emphasis is on being able to do both. There are some runners who can run a lot of marathons, and there are some runners who can run them much faster than the rest of us; I want to find those runners who can do both”.

Ultimately, you should only become a Frequent Marathoner if you truly love the sport.  It’s fun to make the list, set a record, achieve a goal, or support a charity – but if the love of running long distances and testing your personal limits isn’t behind it, you won’t succeed.  On the other hand, if you truly love the marathon, you’ll find that running them frequently leads to some wonderful experiences and life-long friendships.

Hope to see you at the next marathon, and many more to come!

Marathons, Renewal, and Simplicity

With the hope that the New Year holiday would begin a season of renewal, I decided to enter a two-day marathon “double” in Allen, Texas.  After a few months of low mileage and injury recovery, I felt it was time to renew my marathon quest.  A pair of marathons, one on New Year’s Eve, followed by one on New Year’s Day, seemed like a perfect symbolic way to usher out 2013’s marathons and kick-start 2014.

There was a much deeper, and far more important “renewal” that made this an important event to add to my calendar.  I realized it was time for me to make a personal renewal, a change in my self that isn’t really possible to properly express here.  I’ve been very blessed with wonderful friends and family, but this trip gave me an opportunity to have some time on my own to reflect on the necessary changes.  Some of the best times of my life have occurred during marathon trips where I had a travel partner in 2013, but on this trip I would be alone, giving me plenty of time to think.  I also ran the races alone, instead of pacing with a friend as I had done in most marathons since May.  As one person said, I would have 52 miles to think of 52 reasons.

Thus it was that I contacted my friend Libby, who is the Race Director for the New Years Double, and got myself on the registration list.  The New Years Double is a fairly large event, with 5k, Half-marathon, and Marathon distance races on each day.  Several thousand people turn out, but the number of runners who tackle the full marathon on both days is about 100.  Libby sent me a message saying I might win, which was nice, but the real win I was looking for was to conquer the battle inside.  I think that may be why a lot of us who run long distances really run – it’s a way to face our issues.  If you’re a runner, you understand, if not, go for a run and see what happens.

I arrived a couple of days early, and picked up my race packets.  Two bibs, two shirts, plenty of pre-race excitement!  I noticed it was very cold in Allen, which was compounded by humidity.  I drove out to Celebration Park, where the race start/finish line would be, and previewed the course with a short run.  The first thing I noticed was that it was entirely, 100% concrete path.  In Tucson, most paving is asphalt, so I never run on concrete.  There is definitely a difference between the two – concrete is far more abusive to the legs.  The second thing I noticed was that the course is out-and-back…four times!  In other words we would be running the same path, 8 times back and forth, each day.  To some runners this may sound like a nightmarish marathon course, but others really enjoy it because you are continuously passing other runners of all speeds.

During my alone time in the hotel room that night, I decided that I’d make “Simplicity” a theme for life in 2014.  Whether I will succeed remains to be seen, but it seems like a good goal.  The Lynard Skynard song, “Simple Man”, came to mind and brought me some peace.

The next day was generally quiet.  I took care of some work responsibilities, and also drove out to the race site to assist a little with the setup.  Participants in large events like this often don’t realize how much work goes on behind the scenes.  I had some fun helping Libby and her crew of volunteers, unloading supplies for the finish line area.

Race Directors have a challenging job, because finishers expect to receive plenty after they cross the line – water, shirts, medals, food, etc.  When you have thousands of runners, and two days of racing, that translates to a lot of supplies.  After helping I took another short run on the concrete path.  Later that day, some of the members of the Marathon Maniacs got together for a pre-race carbo load at the Olive Garden.  It’s always fun to swap stories and share plans with these folks.

The next morning was New Year’s Eve.  I was concerned when I saw that the temperature was a frigid 19 degrees!  But the sun was out, and the wind was calm, so once the run started it was not as bad as I expected.  Cool weather always tricks me into running too fast, which is always a mistake in the marathon.  I planned to go hard the first day, with a goal of 3:10 or maybe 3:05 if things went well, but when I crossed the half way point at sub-3 pace I knew I would not be able to maintain it.  I did have fun cheering and high-fiving other Maniacs as we went out, and back, and out, and back…

I don’t run with a music player, but tunes are always in my head during a race.  Sometimes they seem random, perhaps based on a tempo that matches my pace, other times the lyrics have meaning and reflect my thoughts.  During a marathon it's not unusual to go through a range of songs, some happy and some sad, as the miles slip by.  Some of the songs I remember (linked to YouTube vids if you want to listen) during this marathon were;

            Warrior, Patti Smyth

            Maggie May, Rod Stewart

            You're Crazy, Guns and Roses

            My Body, Young the Giant

            Changes, Black Sabbath

            Look What You've Done, Bread

My pace did indeed slow, but at mile 20 I was at a pace that still might have resulted in a 3:10.  I didn’t think I’d be able to hold it though.  Sure enough, around mile 22, I had to stop and walk for 1 minute to catch my breath.  I started up and slogged on.  It was a treat to see my friend Cathy, who had finished the half-marathon and then rushed out to hand out water at aid station 23.  That gave me a boost and I worked my way through the rest of the race to finish in 3:20:10.  I was not thrilled with that time, but I was also pleased that my legs did not seem to be destroyed – important, since I had to do it all again the next day.

When the results were posted, I found that I had placed 6^th overall, and 1^st Masters.  It was a little bit comforting to see that the winner ran a 3:02+, he had told me at the start that he expected a 2:50.  So perhaps the conditions were partly to blame for my bonk.  I received a nice prize – two champagne flutes with the race logo and “Winner” printed on them.  And of course, a very nice shiny finisher medal!

One of the most important things to do when running a double is to re-fuel properly.  After a marathon, muscles are in glycogen deficit, so loading up on carbs is crucial.  But the protein necessary to repair muscles is also important.  So, my strategy is just to eat as much as my stomach can handle…simplicity!  I ate a LOT.

The next morning, my legs actually felt reasonably good.  The real problem was my stomach.  Maybe I ate too much the night before!  I could not convince myself to eat anything before the race, and I didn’t take any gels at all during the race.  My stomach just felt  like it couldn’t take it.  Fortunately, that did not seem to hurt me too much.

I expected to run this marathon slower than the day before.  I started with the goal of running sub-4 hours.  The temperature was a bit warmer, around freezing, but there was a strong wind so it felt much colder than the previous day.   I really was not sure what to expect, but when the race began I was pleased to be able to quickly get moving at about an 8 minute per mile pace.  I had expected it to take a couple of miles for my legs to warm up.  That pace felt fairly easy, so I just tried to keep it.  There were more people ahead of me than the eve race, but it was hard to tell which were half-marathoners versus full.

During this race, there were a few times when boredom set in, but those moments were brief because of all the runners and spectators on the course.  The wind was rough at points, but with the out-and-back it quickly became obvious where those spots were.  One of the most fun things about this course was that many of us “Doublers” recognized each other on the second day and were bonded by mutual self-challenge, so there was an awful lot of friendly encouragement going on between us as we passed again and again.

Although my time was slower on day two, my pacing was far better and I didn’t stop for any walking.  I finished in 3:32:43 and was again very happy to feel great at the finish line.  When the results came in, I was surprised to see that I had come in 7^th overall.  No Masters win this time, but an age group 1^st.  And surprisingly, I set a new PR for a double marathon - by just 34 seconds!  I was also very excited to learn that I had the fastest overall combined time for the double marathon.

We had a great finish line celebration.  It really was a fantastic way to start out what I hope will be a successful year filled with marathons and running friends.  Despite my plans to spend a lot of alone time, I found that true running friends don't abandon you in the low spots in life.  There were quite a few people at the event that I already knew, and I also made a bunch of new friends, and we all had a lot of fun together.  I also had a huge amount of support flowing to me through modern technology - FaceBook, text messages, etc.  I can't say that I found all the answers, but I definitely was reminded of one of the best "results" from running - the wonderful friendships!

Preliminary Race Schedule for 2014

Time flies when you're having fun, and I've had a LOT of fun in the past year.  Unfortunately I've also let some things slip, one of which is this blog.  So I'm hoping to make an effort to get back in to the blog-writing-about-running zone, and to kick things off I'm going to post my preliminary race schedule for 2014.  I'm hoping that after seeing this schedule, some of you who are friends might consider running some of the same events, or perhaps even joining me on a travel adventure.

If all goes according to plan, I expect to add a few more pieces of bling to my wall.

So here is my plan, which of course may change.  Bold means I've already registered.

• 1/1/14   - New Years Double/ New Year's Day Marathon
• 1/4/14   - New Year's Race LA Half-Marathon
• 1/12/14 - SAR Sun Run for PCC 10k
• 1/19/14 - Rock'n'Roll Arizona Marathon
• 1/26/14 - SAR Sunrise at Old Tucson 4 mile XC
• 2/2/14   - Surf City Marathon
• 2/9/14   - Fine Valentine
• 2/16/14 - Lost Dutchman or Mercedes Marathon
• 2/21/14 - Ragnar Relay Ultra Del Sol
• 2/23/14 - SAR BE Tucson Men's Mile
• 3/1/14   - Phoenix Marathon
• 3/8/14   - LA Big 5k
• 3/9/14   - LA Marathon
• 3/15/14 - Green Isle Mile & Run With the Irish 5k
• 3/16/14 - SAR Dave's Run for ALS 5k
• 3/23/14 - Arizona Distance Classic Half-Marathon
• 3/30/14 - Carlsbad 5000 All-Day 25k
• 4/5/14   - Catalina State Park Trail Race 10.3 miles
• 4/12/14 - Brian Michelson Memorial Marathon
• 4/21/14 - Boston Marathon
• 5/4/14   - OC Marathon
• 5/11/14 - Tucson 5000
• 5/18/14 - Cleveland Marathon
• 5/26/14 - Colossal Cave Road Race 5k
• 6/1/14   - Rock'n'Roll San Diego
• 7/4/14   - Fourth of July Freedom Run 5k
• 7/13/14 - Run With the Roosters 5 mile
• 7/27/14 - San Francisco Marathon
• 8/10/14 - ET Full Moon Midnight Marathon
• 9/1/14   - Saguaro National Park Labor Day Run 8 mile
• 9/21/14 - Maui Marathon
• 9/28/14 - Catalina State Park Reverse the Course Trail 10.3 mile
• 10/5/14 - SAR Run'n'Roll 8k
• 10/19/14-Rock'n'Roll Denver Marathon
• 10/25/14-Oracle Run 10k
• 11/9/14 - Fleet Feet Half-Marathon
• 11/16/14 - Rock'n'Roll Las Vegas Marathon
• 11/27/14 - Thanksgiving Cross-Country Classic 5k
• 12/7/14 - Tucson Marathon

Have you signed up for your 2014 races yet?  If not, I recommend getting started.  It is a great motivator to have long-term event goals!  Let's do some racing together in 2014.

Doing the Double

At the beginning of 2012, I went through my normal goal-setting exercise to help me plan out my running year.  I like to set at least one goal that I know will be challenging, but difficult.  This year the challenge goal was to attempt to run one marathon each calendar month.

As I worked towards achieving this goal, I discovered that I truly love to run in these events.  I also have learned not to fear the distance.  Although it’s always tough to complete 26.2 miles of running, I’ve always managed to do it (sometimes with more difficulty than others).  During my planning for the second half of the year, I searched for a race in early September, and found the Bozeman Marathon.  As I reviewed various sites about Bozeman, I realized that another marathon would be held the day before – the Salmon Marathon – and that these two races were fairly close.  Bozeman is in Montana, and Salmon is in Idaho.  This intrigued me.  Could I “do a double”?  I wasn’t scared of running one marathon, but running back-to-back marathons was unknown territory for me.  I knew that plenty of others had done it, but would my legs hold out?  These two marathons are both small events and relatively low-cost, and I could run them both on a single airfare, so I decided to sign up and go for it.  I figured that if I got to race weekend and felt totally unprepared, I could simply opt out of one of them without too much loss.

Training for my double was a little different than normal.  I scheduled some weekends to have two longer runs, and after my July marathon (San Francisco) and my August marathon (Anchorage), I didn’t take it quite so easy the week after the race.  Generally speaking, I felt about as ready as I could be with the limited mileage that normally fills my log.  What I did not count on, though, was the fact that by early August, most of Montana and Idaho seemed to be burning down!  And they kept burning, right through race weekend.  A couple of days before the race, the Salmon race director sent an e-mail offering participants the right to defer registration to next year.  The hotel called and asked if I wanted to cancel (turns out the firefighters needed rooms and the government was offering to pay a higher rate).  Thus it was that as my plane dropped down to the Bozeman airport on September 6^th, my eyes began to sting and I could smell smoke.  This was bad – so bad, in fact, that the weather forecasts for both areas called for “Areas smoke”:

Many of my friends advised me not to run, saying the risk to health was not worth it.  I decided to go anyway, since I had paid for a flight, and to make the decision on-site.

There were several other people in the Marathon Maniacs group who were racing either one or both events, and we had been chatting online in the days leading up to the events.  The Maniacs is a super group of folks, and some of us decided it would be sensible to share some costs and help each other out a bit.  I picked up my race packet on Friday, and also picked up David H.’s packet, then drove back to the airport to meet up with him.  We split a rental car and drove together over to Salmon, ID.  It was beautiful country to drive through – tons of wide open spaces and plenty of heavily forested land.  Unfortunately as we crossed the border the smoke was getting much thicker.  By the time we were on the State highway leading into Salmon, the smoke was almost too much and we passed National Guard personnel who were protecting evacuated ranches, and the largest camp of firefighters I’ve ever seen (I later read that there were over 1,000 stationed at that base).  It grew dark like twilight even though it was mid-day.  It was depressing to think that this area and all of the wildlife that must live there were under such an extreme threat.  This photo shows the smoke, but I think it was much worse than the photo reveals.

 We made it to Salmon in time to pick up our race packets, and checked in to the rustic hotel on the bank of the Salmon River.  Dinner was an awesome meal with a bunch of Marathon Maniacs.  It was really a great way to get to know new friends, hear amazing stories, and learn some tips from more experienced runners.  David, for example, has already run a marathon in all 50 states and several countries, and is now going back to run a Boston Qualifier (“BQ”) in every state.

 I also got a chance to visit with Regina Joyce, who ran for Team Ireland in the 1972 Women’s Olympic Marathon.  This was quite special, as 1972 was the first year that women were allowed to run the marathon distance at the Olympics.  Regina may not have achieved the fame of some other women, like Joan Benoit-Samuelson, but she actually placed fairly high at the Olympics and also was among the fastest women in the world at the distance in the couple of years prior.  Regina is now running with the rest of us, and is working on completing marathons in all 50 states with her friend Janet.  She was kind enough to let me record a very nice interview for the SunRunner Podcast project that evening.

Saturday morning got off to a nice start.  The weather was nice and cool, and a beautiful conjunction of the moon and Jupiter graced the early sky.  The hotel provided a nice breakfast, and then we all climbed aboard school busses for the trip to the start line.  The starting area for the marathon is next to a one-room schoolhouse on a dirt road that seems to be in the middle of nowhere, and the school was open for runners to keep warm.  The school kids had drawn pictures and written precious notes of encouragement (and some warnings) to the runners, which was probably the most awesome pre-race motivation I’ve ever seen!

The course was point-to-point, and starts at close to 5,000 feet elevation.  The vast majority of the course was rocky dirt road.  In a fortunate twist of fate, the winds had blown most of the smoke in an opposite direction from us so it wasn’t too bad, although I could still taste and smell some slight smoke.  When the gun went off, about 100 marathoners took off; apparently, about 50 or so had accepted the deferral option to next year.  Within a few minutes I was basically on my own, and it stayed that way for almost the entire race.  The course was net downhill, with about a 1,000 foot net drop, but rolling hills kept things interesting.  It also became obvious early on that the rocks in the road required careful foot placement, and occasionally a rock would fly up or my heel would scrape the opposite ankle.  I wasn’t wearing trail shoes, and my normal Mizuno’s have a tendency to lock a rock into the gap on the bottom beneath the heel, which happened several times.  But the scenery was so amazingly beautiful, with farms interspersed with wilderness and streams, that I felt quite happy on the run.

I never hit the wall, but did slow in the final mile when the dirt switched to asphalt and the course entered the small town of Salmon.  I had been alone for so long that I committed a classic racing mistake and assumed nobody was near me.  Much to my surprise, another racer caught me as I approached the finish line, and while I did have some energy available I decided not to go all out with a kick because I knew I had another race to run the next day.  So he passed me just before the line, beat me fair and square by 1 second.  I congratulated him and within a short time we were friends, and discovered that we were both from Arizona and run some of the same races!  It was worth getting beat.  I still managed to get 10^th place overall, crossing the line in 3:19:49.  The age groups were 10-year, and surprisingly the top 2 racers were in that group, plus the guy who outkicked me also was, so I got 4^th in my age group.  But they took the overall winners out of age groups (I love it when race directors don’t allow double-dipping!) so I earned a 2^nd place trophy.  The awards were very nice metal sculpture trophies of a jumping salmon!

My friend David was only a few minutes behind, and we enjoyed watching more of our maniac friends finishing.  After the awards ceremony, it was time for a quick clean-up followed by the 4 hour drive back up to Bozeman.  Normally I don’t recommend taking a 4 hour drive immediately after a marathon, but we had to get back in time to rest up for the next day’s event.  We loaded up on pizza in Bozeman for dinner, and I tried my best to keep my legs as loose as possible.

The air in Bozeman was a little cleaner on Sunday morning but looking at surrounding mountaintops made it obvious that there was still some smoke.  The runners gathered in front of the Bozeman Running Company shop to wait for the shuttle bus, and several of us who had run Salmon the day before compared stories.  It’s funny how common challenges can so quickly bond people together – marathoners who I had never heard of just 24 hours earlier now were my lifelong friends.

The bus was loaded and we made the long drive out of town to the race start.  It was chilly, but none of us were prepared for the strong winds that met us when we exited the bus.  Fortunately, the race was small enough that there was no mad rush to drop off gear check bags, so most of us waited until the last possible minute before stripping off our warmup clothes and throwing the bag into the trailer.  During the wait, I met a few more Marathon Maniacs, including one 67 year old who holds the world record for most official marathons run in a single year (113), Larry Macon.  Although both Bozeman and Salmon were small events, I made more friends than I ever have at the big races!  Here’s a photo of the start area, which was quite scenic:

When the gun went off, my legs felt a bit stiff and we were running uphill, but the wind was at our backs, which helped.  I had to make a porta-pottie stop at mile 2, but in general I felt better than I expected.  I was purposely holding back on the pace – this was totally new for me and I just did not know if I’d be able to keep running the whole way or not.  The Bozeman course was different from the day before in several ways.  This one was on paved roads, which were not closed to traffic, so it was necessary to run on the side.  The scenery was spectacular, but there weren’t many spectators.  The course started at about a mile high, and climbed to about 5,600 feet for the entire first half.  It then gradually dropped to finish a bit below 5,000 feet.  This photo was taken near the start:

I tried a new tactic in both races (I know, you should never try anything new in a marathon, but this whole double marathon concept was new anyway so it seemed trivial).  David suggested that it’s really not necessary to consume my normal 3-4 gels along the run, and that drinking the sports drink at aid stations would provide adequate calories.  So on both runs, I only ate a single gel.  I never bonked and I was able to continue running all the way with no walking on both races, so I may continue to use this technique in the future as I find it difficult to do much eating while running.

Although I didn’t bonk, I did eventually run low on energy in Bozeman.  I also had trouble with the continual running on the side of the road.  Running on a slant eventually becomes very rough on the legs, and I felt it.  Bozeman had a larger field of over 400 runners, so I was never totally alone but most of the time I wasn’t part of a group either.  By mile 24 or so I was eager to get this one wrapped up, and as we came in to the city and passed the university, it seemed like the auto traffic increased and the road camber got much worse.  I finally turned on to the main street and ran the final stretch to cross the finish line in 3:41:19.

I was 25^th overall, and was excited to learn that I placed 2^nd in my age group.  David also got 2^nd in his age group, so we hung around for the awards ceremony.  We were disappointed to learn that they only gave awards for 1^st place!  But that did not dampen my excitement level from knowing that I had just completed two marathons in two days, something I would not have even considered possible for me at the beginning of the year.  The weekend’s races also qualified me under two different criteria for a Iridium ranking in the Marathon Maniacs, and were the 10^th and 11^th states that I’ve run a marathon in, which qualified me for entry into the 50 States Marathon Club, as well as the 50 Sub 4 Club.  Being in these clubs isn’t a pride thing, it’s about joining up with other marathon enthusiasts, making new friends around the world, and helping each other out.  I came home with a couple of new race medals and a nice trophy, but I also came home with some wonderful new friends that I know I’ll be seeing again soon!