Marathon #3 -- Carrollton

(This race took place on 11/12/11)



I was watching Family Guy on a Friday night, saw a couple of TV commercials for “Saginaw’s only marathon”, and decided to show up & toe the line two days later on a cold, sunny Sunday morning for my third marathon (and first spur-of-the-moment marathon). There was a steady but light wind that would grow throughout the day to become downright nasty. Only about 50 of us doing the full marathon, probably 70-100 doing the half marathon.
It was about an 8.8 mile loop through a rather bleak combination of industrial wasteland and heartland Midwest that we’d do three times. We went past some homes, through a wooded area, past more homes, through a warehouse district, and along some farmland, before finishing up next to more homes. The most drastic course feature was encountered when we ran under the Zilwaukee Bridge twice each loop. The course was definitely flat and being marketed as a good course to BQ on. If they wanted to make it a cool course, they would have us running ON the Zilwaukee Bridge once or twice, but then it wouldn’t be a BQ-type of course.
Anyway, off we started and after about ¼ mile I was already about 5th from last place. I thought I was going along at a decent clip (10 minute miles is a decent clip for me for the marathon distance). I seem to start out near last place in almost every race. So I settled in, trying to come up with a good goal for the race. I rationalized that any goal would be extra-conservative, since I’d done a 100k only three weeks prior and wasn’t sure how I’d hold up. When I awoke that morning, the goal was to break 5:30. When I got to the starting line, the goal was to break 5:00. A mile in I started thinking about sub-4:30, which would be close to a PR for me (which some days I think is pitiful, until I remember the whole 21-year-smoker thing in my history), but at about that same time I came up with another, even better goal—try to run the entire marathon, with no walk breaks. Every race I’ve done from marathon up to 100k has had numerous walk breaks throughout, and I remember reading in the past about how some “purists” (a.k.a. running snobs) felt that people aren’t really ‘marathoners’ unless they run the whole thing. I’ve always wanted to run an entire one just to see if I could, and this appeared to be as good an opportunity as any. The running season was drawing to a close so I wasn’t too worried about lingering effects, the weather was decent (but cold and windy), and the legs felt solid.
So, I zoned out & ran, trying to ignore the uninspired, dreary, tepid, sterile scenery and the wind that we spent a great deal of time running right into the teeth of. From about the halfway point through to the end I started passing run-walkers one at a time; my IT bands started going south around mile 23; left knee started getting real bad with a mile to go but I made it to the finish in I think 4:39 without any noticeable damage (later discovered a blister on a pinky toe, my first toe blister from running). I think I finished middle of the pack. Also had negative splits (2:20, 2:19), which was good I guess. For three days afterward I had a nagging, persistent cough that I’m blaming on the car exhaust from going under the Bridge, and/or from the exhaust of probably 3 dozen rumbling semi trucks going by at various points throughout the race. Plus there was harvesting going on in one of the fields, might’ve contributed as well. Or maybe it’s just bad air in Saginaw, made worse by those unceasing winds.
Couple of nice things about marathons—you don’t have to worry nearly as much about nutrition/hydration, you’re done and headed home in only ½ a day, and though you’re beat up from the effort you’re not completely chewed up & destroyed like run-over Spam the way you are with Ultras. Despite the wind, the landscape & the IT Bands, I really, really enjoyed this race and am thinking about doing many more marathons in the future. I found out that this race qualified me to become a Marathon Maniac (since I’d done 3 races of marathon distance or longer within a 90 day period), so of course three days after the race I joined. Perhaps this will inspire me to do more 26.2’s, maybe even work on getting my PR down to around 4:00 or below.
Biggest Drawback—got beat by a 71 year old! *@$@&%^ Maybe my goal should be to never get beaten by somebody in their 70’s/80’s ever again.