Prairie Fire (Wichita, KS) Marathon

On October 13 I did the third race in my personal three-race series, which was the Prairie Fire Marathon in Wichita, KS. This gives me state #39, and I just figured out that it was my 49th marathon ever. Pretty cool. So next weekend in Grand Rapids will be #50.

Why Wichita? Well, I didn't have any big preferences as to which race I did in Kansas, and my friend Ken Chestek wanted to do that one because his parents were both from Wichita. I thought it would be nice to hang out with friends at one of these races for a change, so Wichita it was.

We stayed at the Fairfield Inn, which was one of the two race hotels downtown (other one was the Hyatt). Both were pretty close to the start, but the Fairfield Inn was a little cheaper plus had free breakfast and parking (and you don't get that at the Hyatt). So even if the coffee was not as good, at least it was free.

I flew in Saturday afternoon and the Chesteks picked me up at the airport. We headed back to the expo, at the convention center that was also close to the hotel. An okay mid-sized expo with several running vendors. Ken had to buy GU but nobody had the Vanilla Bean he preferred. I didn't buy anything, but in retrospect, I wish I had picked up one of those sparkly pink skirts to wear in Grand Rapids with my Diva shirt.

I talked Ken and Robin into joining me for the pasta dinner at the Hyatt. Turned out to be a pretty nice one. Buffet style, with a nice tossed salad, choice of white or wheat pasta, and meat and alfredo sauces, and good breadsticks. But better than the food was the company. We would up at a table with the Race Director, a representative from the main sponsor, and the guest speaker. So we had a little more interesting dinner conversation than most.

After dinner, the Race Director passed a microphone around the room and we all had to say where we were from and how many marathons we'd run. That was fun. Lots of experience in that room!

I have found these pasta dinner speakers are often surprisingly good, and that was the case for this one. He was a young man from Wichita who was in a horrific car accident in 2005 (hit by a drunk driver going very fast). He was burned on over 50 percent of his body, and his young wife (high school sweetheart) did not survive the crash. He told us about his fight to recover, which involved many surgeries and intensive therapy, but mostly depended on his realization that he needed to recover for his family and friends, and to honor the memory of his wife (he has established a foundation in her name).

He recovered, and now he runs marathons, and his foundation does good in the community. Very upbeat guy, and really put things in perspective for all of us. How lucky we are. How trivial most of our problems are.

Only bad thing about the dinner was that there was no dessert!

After dinner, we walked around the river area, where there was a fountain/light show set to Elvis music. We watched that for awhile. It was like fireworks without all the noise.

Back at hotel, I picked up a cup of ice cream from the lobby, which would have to do for dessert. We decided to meet in the lobby at 7 am to walk over to the start.

I got up early to get my coffee and have some breakfast. Fortunately they opened the breakfast bar at 5 am. I had some scrambled eggs and an english muffin. Then I had a lot of time to hang out in the room and get bored.

Selfie in the room before heading out to the start

Robin walked over to the start with us and took some pics. Ken said I could pass him during the race unless it was the near the very end. We took our place in the crowd. Somebody did a terrible job singing the Star Spangled Banner. Couldn't hit the high notes but also didn't know the words!

What about the race? I liked it. The course was flat but very scenic. We ran through a number of lovely neighborhoods with a lot of shade. Overall, there was much more shade than I expected. One of the nicer courses I've run on in an urban setting.

Ken pulled away from me immediately at the start but I was sticking to my plan. I had learned my lesson at The Mill Race. And it worked out. I think this was the first time that I ran the second half faster than the first. Not only that, but my last 10k was faster than my first 10k. Felt pretty good the whole way, and just snuck in under five hours.

Here are the splits:
1) 11:32
2) 11:57
3) 11:06
4) 11:41
5) 11;13
6) 11:28
7) 12:41
8) 11:24
9) 12:17
10) 11:33
11) 11:38
12) 11:34
13) 11:56
14) 10:28
15) 11:10
16) 11:09
17) 11:55
18) 10:39
19) 11:07
20) 11:09
21) 11:21
22) 11:05
23) 11:51
24) 11:09
25) 11:06
26) 11:24
26.2) 2:26

I didn't know that I was under five hours until I saw the results, because I started my watch with the gun and it took like 1:20 to cross the start and I wasn't doing the math. But I knew I was negative splitting and that fueled me to keep it up in the last few miles.

Weather was pleasant. Sunny but not too hot, and a nice breeze occasionally (although it was mostly a head wind, and that did cost me some time at the end).

Besides the pretty neighborhoods, I will remember:
The Dianetics water stop at mile 4 (was a little afraid to drink that water!)
Running near homes that looked like the one Ken had posted on Facebook where his grandparents lived
A couple of funny little sharp turns, one which took us almost through somebody's yard
Running along the river and passing the museums in the later miles
Passing a few people in the second half

I caught up to Ken right around mile 24, and he finished about 5 minutes behind me. Saw Robin around the corner from the finish. Nice to see a friend at a race for a change!

Post-race, we had some chocolate milk and cold pizza (which I couldn't really eat). After we got cleaned up, we drove out to the Cowtown museum to walk around. Cowtown is a collection of buildings from the early years of Wichita that they have gathered up and deposited in a little village arrangement, so you can walk around and learn about what life was like in the 1870s there. Ken remembered it as a fun place he used to go with his grandparents when he came to visit them 50 years ago. It is still fun!

I had a grand vision that I would somehow get myself over to the Old Town section of Wichita for more touristing and dinner, but instead I joined Ken and Robin for dinner at a Texas Road House near the airport. I was really too tired and hungry at that point to go out on my own, and again, it was nice to have company.

I spent a quiet evening relaxing in the hotel---kinda bummed that the lounge was closed because I would not have minded hanging out and having a beer by the fire pit---and departed the next morning.

In the results, I was 14 of 18 in my age group and 485 of 626 marathoners. The medal is on the large size and not especially attractive. This whole bigger is better craze on the part of marathon medal designers has to stop! Smaller and nicer is better.

Big medal, not pretty but somewhat distinctive.