Spirit of St. Louis

Walter Mosley says if you want to be a writer you have to make yourself write every day. Do I want to be a writer? I guess maybe I haven't decided yet.

But I am definitely a runner, even if I don't look like one. Here is my report from the Spirit of St. Louis Marathon, which I completed on Sunday.

Overall, pretty nice marathon, reasonably good organization, weather was okay, I finished in one piece. Glad we went. This was my 29th marathon and 26th state (counting DC).

Earlier last week, I debated the wisdom of traveling to St. Louis to compete in the marathon, untrained as I am. Decided to go anyway, since the cutoff time was seven hours and I figured I could manage that even if I walked the entire way.

We stayed at the Adams Mark in downtown St. Louis, which was the host hotel and site of the race expo. Nice enough hotel, but not-so-great service in the hotel café where we ate lunch on Saturday. The hotel is designed so that many of the guest rooms have at least a partial view of the Gateway Arch, which is right across the street from the hotel.

The race expo was nicer than expected and we bought a lot of stuff, including those fancy CR-X tights that are supposed to make you go faster. Even Tommy bought a pair of the tights. The tights were 50 percent off, too bad they really only take seconds off your time. Tommy registered for the half-marathon.

Saturday evening I attended a meeting of the 50 States Marathon Club, which was holding one of their quarterly reunions at this race. Paid up a few years of dues and got myself back on the mailing list.

Saturday was very cold and very rainy. We elected not to go to the pasta dinner, held at the City Hall. Over the years, I have found it safest to avoid pasta dinners held at locations that do not normally serve food, and this one didn’t sound too promising. We also didn’t want to get our car out of the garage, and the location around our hotel featured mostly chain restaurants catering to the ballpark crowd, and other hotel restaurants. Since the service in our hotel wasn’t so great for lunch, we walked across the street to 400 Olive, a pretty good little restaurant in the Hilton. I had very good pappardelle pasta in a cream sauce with lobster, tomatoes and asparagus. The cheerful server kept refilling our bread basket, and we left the restaurant very satisfied.

As at some other marathons we have experienced, we had a bit of trouble figuring out the location of the start and finish line, and how we would get there. Stopping by the marathon information booth back at the expo, I was distressed to learn that the start was at least a mile away from our hotel, and the race organizers had arranged no transportation. But we decided that as long as the weather cleared up, the walk would be no big deal.

Sunday morning, we left the hotel at 6:30 for the 7 am start. The temperature was about 38 degrees, but it was dry and sunny. I wore capri tights, and three layers on top---a thin technical long-sleeve top, another heavier technical top with a half-zipper, and a long wind jacket. And of course, gloves and a hat. I didn’t need any throwaway clothes because we got warmed up on our jog up to the start line and then we didn’t have to hang around too long once we got there. I took the jacket off after the first mile, and the zippered top after the second mile, but I needed my gloves off and on for most of the race, as it was quite windy.

The half-marathon started with the marathon and followed the same course until about mile nine, before turning around and heading for the finish. There was also a four-person marathon relay. The race brochure encouraged relay team members to head for the finish as they completed their legs, and try to all cross the finish line together. I wondered what ill-informed race committee member came up with that bonehead idea that would likely lead to congestion and confusion at the finish line.

We lined up with the other slugs near the back. Tommy was aiming for a two-hour half. I was expecting to do a lot of walking, and I really had no idea how I would finish. I had even toyed with the idea of starting with a walk, but decided that I would start at a deliberately slow jog, follow my normal race strategy of one-minute walk breaks per mile, and just see how things went.

I agree with Ken about the course being quite pleasant. It was a bit hillier than I expected but not as hilly as Charlotte. I don’t know what I was expecting, really, since I hadn’t thought much about it. We started with a couple of miles through downtown, through the Anheuser-Busch Brewery (I totally missed the Clydesdales and the smell of beer, which Tommy claimed was overwhelming) then back through downtown, up through Forest Park (very pretty, huge city park), through Washington University campus (also very pretty, as I had always heard), through the Clayton neighborhood (upscale shops and restaurants), back through the park and back into the city (retracing some of our steps from earlier miles).

On Marathon Guide, I have read some complaints that the course could do more to showcase city landmarks and maybe swing by the baseball stadium, but we know how tricky marathon course design can be. Nothing’s perfect. This one is pretty good.

The course had water stops approximately every two miles (very well supported with water and Gatorade), three gel stations for those who don’t bring their own, reasonably accurate mile markers (mile 5 a bit short), and a road surface that was fairly level. This could be a good BQ course if you don’t mind a few rolling hills.

Had some nice little chats along the way with a guy who was running his first marathon. He had injured his calf muscle after his 17-mile long run and never got any further than that in training. I lost touch with him around mile 22 and I hope he finished.

I ran the first 11 miles between 10:00 – 10:30 pace, and felt surprisingly good. Entertained the thought of a 4:30 finish. But I knew by mile 15 I was going to be in trouble, since I hadn’t done any long runs farther than that and the last one was over a month ago! Slowed down a little in miles 12 – 13, and then by mile 14 was on a 12:30 pace. I expected that I would gradually get slower and slower until I was limping along at 15-minute pace, but the happy surprise for me was that it never got any worse than this. I managed to hold a steady 12:30 pace for the next few miles, and then picked it up a little the rest of the way, to finish in 4:57:28. This was just a little bit slower than Richmond last November, but with a much more even pace. Not so bad, I thought, considering I wasn’t trained.

They were serving Michelob Ultra at mile 24, but I was by then focused on new goal of breaking five hours so I skipped it!

There was one couple that I first noticed around mile 15 who looked like they had just jumped on the course to run a few miles. They seemed to appear out of nowhere. They were wearing marathon bib numbers but they were dressed as if for a warm weather 5k, not a chilly marathon. And they each looked fresh as a daisy. As they pulled away from me, I couldn’t help wondering if they had actually run the previous 15 miles. So it made me very happy to catch up with them around mile 23 and leave them in the dust.

Post-race, picked up the very large finisher’s medal, grabbed some pretzels and a banana, and started walking back to the hotel (just a couple of blocks). Tommy caught up with me, carrying a bag with a ham sandwich from Hardees. He says he tried to find me a turkey sandwich and this was the closest thing he could find. I was so pleased with my race that I cut him some slack, although I did point out that there was a turkey club on the menu at our hotel and even with their crappy service he probably could have gotten one delivered in time. So Tommy is improving in this regard, but before our next race I think I will scout out the options for my turkey sandwich ahead of time and leave him with clear instructions about how to purchase one.

After I got cleaned up, we walked across the street to the Max & Erma’s in a neighboring hotel for burgers. Then we walked over to the Arch, which I had never seen up close before. I really liked that you can just walk right up and touch it. I think it is such a lovely thing, so simple and elegant.

Later in the evening, we tried in vain to find an interesting restaurant within a short walk of our hotel that was open on Sundays, before giving up and heading back to 400 Olive in the Hilton lobby. This time I just had a salad and a crab cake appetizer, which were both very good. Even though it bothered me to eat in the same place twice, I guess it was better than eating bad food in two different places.

Today after the drive home I am quite sore but no permanent damage. I have been a bit worried about my knee lately but that seems fine. My quads and hamstrings are sore, but that is to be expected, and the heel doesn’t feel any worse than usual. Now I just have to decide when to start training for Milwaukee (in October) and if I can get myself up for anything before that.

Trying to get started

Just back from walking the dogs, trying to get a plan together for that magical 15 miler that is going to give me the confidence to believe I can finish a marathon two weeks from now. Good runs on Weds., Thursday and Friday but took yesterday off and for some reason rest days sap my confidence. Thinking about the Lunken bike trail or maybe Milford. Of course, as I sit here the skies are clouding up and it's starting to look like rain. To get 15 miles at Lunken you have to run the loop three times. Maybe I need an IPOD after all.