Mississippi Blues Marathon

I'm going to try to avoid procrastinating on my write-up about this one while it is still somewhat fresh in my mind. Ah, but now it is days later and I am still trying to finish it!

The Mississippi Blues Marathon is in Jackson, Mississippi. I've had this one on list of potential races for my 50 states for awhile. The other marathon in Mississippi, Tupelo, takes place in August, which seems like it could be truly ghastly. January seems like a much more sensible time to run in the deep south.

After getting through my Indianapolis debacle, I started looking at potential states with races coming up, and I figured out that I had enough miles for a free ticket on United to get to Jackson. I did try at first to get Tommy to drive there with me, but he was afraid there might be snow in along the way. So I flew there by myself.

I didn't do any special training for this race. The farthest I ran since Indianapolis was eight miles and I only did that a couple of times. I didn't do any speed work except for the two 5k races and the Thanksgiving five-mile race, which did all go pretty well. Although I didn't do any long runs, I have been training pretty consistently---I've had a streak going since early December (would be early November except for the one time on December 1 when I just forgot!).

I wasn't worried about finishing, of course. I hoped to just settle in to a nice, easy jog and get through it in good enough shape so I could do a bit of touristing after the race, and be able to jump right back in to more serious training this week. And basically, that's what happened.

Finding My Way Around Jackson (or Searching for a Neighborhood that Feels Like Home)

I'll admit that Jackson is not a city that I knew much about prior to my visit. It is the capital of Mississippi, and the largest city based on population. Two of its most notable citizens were the writer, Eudora Welty, and the slain civil rights leader, Medgar Evers. The library system is named after Welty, and the airport is named after Evers. Point of interest, they are connected to each other by a story Welty wrote the night she heard Evers was killed, in which she imagines what was going through the mind of his murderer.

I'm no literature scholar, and I really didn't know much about Eudora Welty except I had heard her name. Maybe I read a story by her in a high school American Lit class, or maybe not. Anyway, I decided to download a collection of her short stories to my Kindle to read on the trip. I'm enjoying them. Going to read some more. Someday maybe I will become educated. There's hope.

I love touring old houses, and I had hoped to be able to have time for a tour of Welty's home. Unfortunately, it is only open Tuesday through Friday, and I arrived in Jackson too late to make the last tour. I picked up my rental can and headed for the Marriott. I needed the rental car if I wanted to venture out anywhere because there really isn't that much within walking distance of the Marriott.

After parking the car and checking into the hotel, I walked the short distance (about .4 miles) to the race expo at the convention center.

Packet pickup went pretty quick. The timing chip was attached to the back of the race bib. We got a drawstring gear bag, a short-sleeved technical top, and a harmonica. The gear bag and shirt are useful and well-designed but ugly. And I was expecting a long-sleeved shirt, or at least a short sleeve shirt in a woman's cut. The harmonica is a cute touch, but since it is made in China I could do without it. But I am having fun playing it now and making Eddy & Zen howl.

They also gave us a copy of a CD of blues music that is pretty good. Oh, and a wrist band that would get you on a bus Saturday night that was going to basically go barhopping around blues joints, supposedly a $10 value. So you get a lot for your money at this race.

Overall, I was disappointed in the expo. It was quite small. I guess this race isn't as big as I thought it was. There were just a couple of vendors and no speakers. I bought a tube of something called Skin Sake Athletic Ointment, and yet another fanny pack from iFitness. The ointment did its job, but it does make a mess of your clothes, especially if you are wearing black!

iFitness is a sponsor of The Marathon Show podcast. I bought the fanny pack because I wanted something that would hold all my gels plus have an attachment for my race bib. The little belt I have been using for my race bib doesn't have a very big pocket for gels. Unfortunately, I realized when I finally tried it on that this iFitness belt has the pouch in the front, and I am not used to that and didn't want to try it out for the first time in a marathon. So I ended up wearing TWO fanny packs---my little one that holds my race number, and my bigger one for my gels, credit card, room key, ID, etc.

Here's a picture of the gear bag. I think it's ugly but that's just my opinion. It has a little zipper pocket on the side and is a useful item, nonetheless. I ended up using it as my carry on for the flights home so I could check my roller bag. I know I looked kind of baglady-esque but I did it anyway.

I left the expo and walked back to the hotel. The hotel restaurant was supposedly offering a "runner's menu" that evening. The race had not organized a pasta dinner of its own. I think that is something they should consider, since there is really a dearth of restaurants in downtown Jackson that are open in the evenings. Seems like they pretty much just roll up the sidewalks at the end of the work day. A number of places are open for lunch but very few for dinner.

The "runner's menu" did not look promising. Definitely not the traditional pasta. Instead, something like risotto with asparagus and mushrooms. Also a couple of seafood entrees. Yeah, not really what I had in mind. I just wanted basic Italian spaghetti and meatballs.

I decided to venture out in my car. First I thought I would try to find a shopping center where I might be able to buy a cheap rain poncho that I could wear to the start in the morning if it was raining. I tried to use my GPS and found a place called "Metrocenter Mall" about three miles away.

Trying to follow the directions on the GPS, I found myself leaving the core downtown area within a couple of blocks and getting into what appeared to be a not-so-great neighborhood. It was still a couple of miles to the mall. Then we drove across an area of some empty fields and industry, and I wondered if maybe when I came out on the other side I might find myself in one of those new areas of McMansions and a really nice upscale mall, as sometimes happens.

Wrong.

I did come to the mall, or what used to be the mall. Looked like maybe it used to be a nice mall. Up on a hill with big anchor stores and an expansive parking lot all around. But all the signs had been stripped off the stores, and there were just a few cars in the parking lot. A ghost mall. I guess there are still some small stores in there but no anchors. Looked kind of creepy.

At this point I was getting hungry so I decided to let the GPS guide me to one of the restaurants listed in the race information, a branch of the Bravo chain. It was killing me to have to go to a chain restaurant for dinner but at least these are usually in somewhat upscale areas so I figured it would be okay.

Unfortunately, since the Bravo turned out to be on the second floor of a shopping center on the other side of town (the good side, as it turned out) it was a little hard to find at first. But on the way, I did come upon a supermarket, where I bought the following items:

• A bunch of bananas
• A six-pack of beer (there was a fridge in my hotel room)
• A bag of pretzel rods

I don't know when I thought I was going to eat all these bananas or drink all the beer. It seemed like a good idea at the time.

There was a shopping center across the street from the market that looked like it had some restaurants in it. That was where the GPS said Bravo was supposed to be. I drove over and knew that I must be headed in the right direction, and also had an indication that this was probably the part of town where "people like me" are supposed to hang out: there was a Whole Foods under construction. Go ahead, laugh at me.

This little shopping center, Highland Village, felt just like home. There was a fancy outdoor store. There was a Talbots. There was a cookware store. There was a serious shoe store. I am a little embarrassed that I needed to find a place like this rather than seeking out a more authentic experience. Instead I always seem to seek out the place where I could live if I had to.

So, anyway, after a bit of walking around (there wasn't much signage and it was hard to see the store directory in the dark) I was able to locate the restaurant. Also, by smell! I saw a few other runners (we are that obvious) also on their way to Bravo. There really just weren't many other options for a pre-race pasta meal in Jackson, unfortunately.

If I had taken a closer look in my race packet, or I would have realized that Bravo was giving a 15% discount to runners.

Bravo was hopping, even though it was still pretty early in the evening, but they found me a spot at the food bar.

Maybe I should have had a pizza, but I really just wanted plain old spaghetti and meatballs. Well, maybe not so plain. It's me we're talking about, after all. I wasn't going to drink, since I was my own designated driver, but I decided one glass of Chianti wouldn't hurt. I ordered a salad of field greens with some goat cheese to start, and the spaghetti & meatballs.

While I waited for my salad, I had some bread. Here was a problem. I wanted some olive oil for my bread. The olive oil was in a carafe in front of the woman sitting on my left. This woman, a fellow runner, was deep in conversation with the woman on HER left, another runner. She was turned away from me and I would need to tap her on the shoulder to get her attention.

So I nibbled on my bread, and waited for her to maybe turn a little in my direction so I could just ask her to pass me the olive oil.

And I felt lonely and sad there, suddenly, in the restaurant by myself, and missed the old days when I used to travel to these races with other people. Note to self, really need to rejoin local running club and make some running friends to travel with. Tired of these solitary race weekends.

I would not have minded talking to a stranger, even. And as I listened to these women's conversation, I kinda wondered why they didn't include me. It didn't sound like they really knew each other from before. They were not the same age, and did not appear to be related. They seemed to be two people who had just met that day.

Maybe it's because I don't look like a runner! Maybe that's why they didn't include me! I just look like some weird old woman who is out eating spaghetti by herself the night before the marathon.

Anyway, she did turn eventually and I got my chance to request the olive oil. Which she did but she seemed a little put out about it. Huh. And the worst part? The olive oil was rancid! I was so hungry it took me a few minutes to figure this out. Bummer. I debated saying something to my server, but he wasn't real communicative so I didn't bother. Instead, I posted it on Facebook. The passive aggressive response to disappointing service in the social media era!

The food arrived and it turned out that my glass of wine was probably the best part of the meal. The lettuce was a little wilted on the salad (the goat cheese was good, though). The spaghetti was actually linguine, which bothered me. It just wasn't right. The sauce was bland. The meatballs were okay but also kind of bland. Not great.

I did not order dessert at Bravo. By that point I had a close enough view of all their food preparations, including dessert, to know that it was not going to be worth it. Hoped that the little bakery/coffeeshop I had spied on the first floor was still open.

Fortunately, it was. Beagle Bakery Cafe had a nice selection of fresh, store-made cakes. I ordered a big slice of a chocolate and cream cheese concoction  (kind of like an opera cream cake) to take back to my room. (I would have taken a picture but I ate it too fast.) This cafe, by the way, is a very good place and I wish I had remembered to head back there on Saturday or Sunday.

Back at the hotel, I realized that I didn't get any kind of utensil to eat my cake with. I managed to eat half of it by scooping it up with a lid from a water bottle, and saved the second half for breakfast or maybe after the race.

Race Morning

My usual routine is to get up 2 1/2 hours before the race, which gives me a half hour to drink coffee and finish up two hours before the race in order to avoid needing to stop during the race to use the portapotties. But this time, I really did not want to get up at 4:30 am, even if I had picked up an hour traveling to Central time. I decided that I didn't care if I did need to stop during the race, since my time didn't matter to me anyway. So I got up at 5 am.

I had one cup of coffee, and the plan was to have a banana and maybe a Picky Bar. Or my leftover cake. But I was still really stuffed from dinner! Yes, I have been complaining about the food but I still cleaned my plate! So I skipped breakfast.

I watched the news (rain looked likely late morning), lubed up, settled on my race attire and attached my bib to the fuel belt. I wore black tights, black longsleeved top, black hat from Delaware Marathon (because it is fairly water-repellant) and thin red jacket. Oh, and thin black gloves. So I was mostly in black, which I think will be okay because it isn't supposed to be sunny, and will hopefully make me look less fat in any finish line photos.

The temperature outside was in the low 30s and it was supposed to get up in the 40s but that wouldn't be until afternoon when I was done running. It will rain later in the race (when you tell me 30-40% chance of rain I know that means it is going to rain!) but at least it's not raining at the start, and not very windy, so at least it was not as miserable out as it was for Indy.

I wanted to stay in the room until 6:30 but I got bored before that and headed down to the lobby. Lots of runners down there. The hotel put out some water, and what looked like fruit punch in a bowl, but I guess was Gatorade. But who knows, since they thought we would all want risotto and mushrooms the night before.

I followed along with the crowd as people began walking to the start, which was about .3 miles away. Up at the start, the portapotty lines were long, and I'm glad I didn't need to go. Did not need to stop at all during the race, either, so that part worked out.

I found a pace team guy holding a 5:00 sign, so I decided to hang out with him and whomever else is in that group. My goal was just to finish comfortably, but it would be nice to be under 5:00. If I start out slow enough that's probably about right, but you never know.

This pace guy is not like the ones I've encountered in other races. He's not talking. He's not gathering the troops together and giving us words of encouragement. Great, the one time I actually think I would like one of those overly cheery pace team leaders, I get stuck with this guy.

I chatted a bit with a couple of women. One is from Tupelo, and she tells me that their race isn't THAT hot. Right. The other lives in Jackson and works for Blue Cross so she gets reimbursed if she finishes. Neither one of them is planning on finishing under five hours. But 5:00 is the slowest pace team at this race. Looking around, I realize that it is a lot smaller race than I imagined, which doesn't matter one way or the other but is interesting. It is a small town, small race with big race amenities.

There are a lot of Maniacs at this one, though. Looking around, it seems like a majority of the runners are Marathon Maniacs, and I kind of wish that I was wearing my Maniac gear. Why don't I do that? Why do I always want to be anonymous? I guess because I don't feel like I really belong with the Maniacs, since I am just a Maniac at the lowest level. Note to self: get more involved with the 50 States people and the Maniacs. To start with, maybe try paying my dues this year.

The Race

As we begin running, I settle right into a pace just under 11 minutes per mile. That does feel like a comfortable jog. I pull ahead of the 5:00 pace team leader, and hope that I won't have to feel the shame of being passed by him later in the race. He still wasn't talking, and he was kind of holding his pace sign over his shoulder rather than up in the air, and I was worried when I got close to him that he would poke me in the eye with it.

The first two miles take us away from downtown. The hills are rolling but not bad at all from my perspective. Overall, it was not as challenging a course as I had expected. While it is hilly throughout, none of the hills were very steep or very long. Basically, the course is a couple of miles around the city, then 20 miles or so through the suburban neighborhoods, and then back through the city.

We passed through the neighborhood of Fondren, supposedly an arty area (although it just seemed seedy to me when I drove through it later) which is also where the hospitals are located. Around mile three, we turned off into a pleasant residential area. I enjoyed looking at the pretty houses and tall trees. There were a lot of people out in their yards cheering for us.

The first hour went by almost before I knew it, but it was a little disheartening to think that I had four more hours to go.

Around mile six, we were alongside Hwy 55 and I realized we were right by Highland Plaza, where I'd eaten the night before. Miles 3-17 were mostly residential, with some small, cute bungalows, modest older homes (a few being replaced by McMansions), and one area of actual mansions. It was a very nice course to run.

My pace had crept up over 11 but I wasn't struggling. I caught up with the 4:55 pace team leader, whom I had not noticed at the start. He was running by himself. He told me that he was a few minutes ahead of schedule, and he was wondering if that was why he had lost the rest of his team. Duh. Where did they find these people? Really not like any pace teams I have seen in other races. I ran a little off and on with this guy. Actually the only two people I spoke to during the race were this guy and the 5:00 guy (who did catch up to me and pass me at one point, before I woke myself up and left him behind).

I went through the first half around 2:25 or so. I was still feeling pretty good.

I had a GU pack every 3-4 miles or so. The aid stations came up regularly just about every two miles as promised. They were all well-staffed with volunteers.

There was a period when I was about halfway done that the sun came out, and I actually removed my jacket and wondered if I was going to overheat in my black clothes. But that didn't last for very long!

There was a group of three women I encountered repeatedly in the middle miles of the race. They were pretty, skinny Southern belle types dressed in cute little running outfits, chatting among themselves. I hated them. I was happy when I finally left them behind.

There was another group of Maniac women running together and I was a little envious not to be recognized as a member of their club, and jealous that they probably get to do this type of thing every weekend, being Maniacs and all. I overheard one say that she didn't even start to feel warmed up anymore until mile 20. I passed them eventually, too.

In miles 21-22 we retraced our steps on State Street towards downtown, then we made a loop of the city. This was probably the least attractive part of the race, and I wondered why they didn't do this part first to get it over with. It also started raining around this point, but it was a very light shower and not continuous. Nothing like the horrible freezing rain in Indy. I slowed to a 12:18 in mile 19, but after that I got back down
into the 11s.

We passed the Marriott, and I thought about how much better I was feeling at this race than I had when I passed my hotel in Indianapolis. I felt great, and I pushed harder the last mile to drop down to a 9:28 pace, crossing the finish line in 4:51:58 chip time. For the record, 6 of 26 in the age group (it is apparently a slow person's race), 156 of 289 women, 474 of 740 runners overall.

I got my space blanket and my medal and was going to just hurry back to the hotel to warm up (it was getting cold) but I decided to check out the food tent. I'm glad I did because they had most excellent post-race food, enough that I didn't have to pick up lunch on the way back to the hotel. They had pizza, deli sandwiches (my turkey sandwich!), hot soup (tomato basil) and red beans & rice. So I had a little bit of everything. There were tables set out on the lawn and a blues band playing but it wasn't the kind of weather to sit and hang out. So I ate my food standing up and headed back to the hotel.

Two things from the walk back:
1) There was a pretty park about a block from the hotel that looked rather deserted, and without going into too much detail, let me just say that I surmise that this is where Jacksonians go to buy and sell their drugs.

2) I passed another marathoner, a young woman also wrapped in her space blanket. She turned to me and said "Do you know you are awesome?" I wanted to say, "you are an idiot, we just finished a marathon, big whoopdeedoo, anybody can do it, there is nothing awesome about it." But I told her she was awesome too.

A couple of hours later, when I was ready to venture out for touristing, I could look out my hotel window and she the last of the marathoners finishing and the sag wagon picking up the traffic cones. I would not have liked being out there another two hours in the rain!

Tourist Time

By the time I decided to head out for some tourist activities, there wasn't very much open. I thought I could go see the Medgar Evers home, but I pushed the wrong button on the GPS and it took me to a senior citizen center instead. Then I realized that the home wasn't open to the public anyway.

Next, I had the GPS direct me to the Eudora Welty house. I thought maybe it would be open even though all the info I had said no. I found it in the Belhaven neighborhood, parts of which we had run through during the race. But the house wasn't open. I drove around Belhaven a little more, and then I took another look in the guide book to find something nearby that might be open.

I ended up at the Mississippi Museum of Natural Science, which is located in a state park not far from downtown. I spent about 90 minutes walking around the museum. On this rainy afternoon, the museum was full of families with young children. They were featuring a dinosaur exhibit, I guess because that is what brings families into science museums, but I was more interested in the displays about the flora and fauna of Jackson.

After a pretty thorough walk around the museum, I headed back to the hotel. I was getting hungry for dinner, but not sure if I would go to the restaurant where I had a reservation, just stay in the hotel for dinner, or go out on the Blues Tour bus to a burger place. The blues tour sounded like fun but maybe not so much for an old woman traveling alone. If I were still in my 20s, heck even in my 30s. And single. Or if I were traveling with a bunch of friends...but by myself, it didn't seem like quite the right thing.

I drove through Fondren on my way back, hoping maybe I'd see some place there that looked promising, but it all just looked too seedy and sketchy. Maybe it's really not, but I'm just saying that as a woman traveling alone that is how it looked to ME.

I mulled my options over while sipping one of the beers (Lazy Magnolia Deep South Pale Ale) I'd bought the night before and munching on the pretzel rods.

Dinner at Parlor Market by myself seemed appropriate, but I was a little worried about the walk there alone in the dark. It was only .3 miles from my hotel, so it seemed silly to drive or take a cab (although I noticed that the was plenty of street parking available when I drove by the restaurant, so I could have parked practically right in front of it). Downtown Jackson is not necessarily unsafe, but very empty and isolated, and there wasn't much activity going on in between the restaurant and my hotel. But I really didn't want to eat in the hotel.

So I decided to be brave and get myself to the restaurant. It was raining, so I bundled up my parka and put up my hood, and I actually sort of jogged there. One block down and two blocks over. I did pass one other restaurant along the way that seemed to have some business, and there were a couple of women on a street corner a block from the restaurant (might have been "professionals") but otherwise I didn't see a soul at 6:45 pm on a Saturday night.

In the end, it was a good decision. The maitre d' welcomed me warmly, and escorted me to a seat at the raw bar. It was cleaner and less hectic than the food bar at Bravo.

My waiter came to take my drink order, and I was thinking beer since I'd already had one and I didn't want a hangover, but they had this enormous cocktail menu---apparently it is a serious cocktail place---and, as the waiter pointed out, I was wearing martini glass earrings, so....I asked him to suggest something. Since I like gin, he selected The Aviator. This is a combo of Plymouth Gin, lemon juice, maraschino liqueur, and creme de violette (whatever that is).

It's not quite frozen, like a margarita, but it's a little slushy. Kind of like a gin slushie. I loved it. It was my favorite part of the meal.

The other things I ordered were well-prepared and tasty, but I found myself wishing I had made other selections. As an appetizer, I had the duck sausage.

This was two sausage links on a bed of grits with a garnish of duck cracklings and some sort of sauce underneath. The sausage was just a little too rich for one person. The grits and the cracklings and the sauce were wonderful, and a good balance for the sausage. Anyway, I ate one of the links and took the other one back to the hotel to enjoy later with my pretzel rods (ended up eating this for breakfast, actually, and it was pretty good that way).

For my entree, I ordered the red snapper, served with mashed potatoes and a sort of corn relish.

A green vegetable as something other than garnish might have been nice in there somewhere. My meal was a little heavy on the corn. If I had known better, I would have gone for a couple of the specials the waiter told me about: the foie gras appetizer, and the hanger steak entree. Umm, I guess that would have been a bit on the rich side, too.

A few other runners came in and sat beside me at the food bar but we did not speak. The woman on my right ordered a cup of tomato soup appetizer and what appeared to be a crock of cheese as her entree. I think I at least made better choices than that!

I did not skip dessert. The night after a marathon is no time to start a diet! I had Parlor Market's take on a s'more, which my waiter told me was his personal invention in college:

 This was sort of a deconstructed s'more. Basically, chocolate mousse in a little glass jar (was kind of hard to get it all out of the jar!) topped with toasted marshmallow fluff, and with the graham crackers on the side. I ate almost all of it.

And at that point, I was totally stuffed. I waddled back home, a bit less nervous than I had been on the way there. The rain had stopped. I did see a bunch of young women on their way in to the restaurant, and a couple of women across the street from my hotel (those two were pros, I'm pretty sure) but otherwise, nobody.

Another Half-Day of Touristing

First thing I did Sunday morning was head out for my little one mile run to continue my "streak." Oh yeah, I'm streaking again. Over a month now. If it had been raining I would have gone to the hotel gym and hit the treadmill, but it was a nice morning so I just hit the street. I thought I might just do a few laps around the block to be on the safe side, but found myself heading up towards the convention center, then down another block and back by the park.

Noticed at least two other people out running. Also saw that they had some sort of prayer service or outreach gathering in the park, where it looked like they were serving hot beverages to, possibly, homeless people. Otherwise, there was nobody out yet. Even the churches were quiet.

When I'm just doing the mile on the treadmill, I have no problem stopping, but it felt really strange to head back into the hotel after just one mile. I was just getting warmed up! But there was nothing to be gained by running any further, so I stopped.

I had considered eating a big breakfast in the hotel, but I was still full from the night before. So I just nibbled on my leftover duck sausage with a few of the pretzel rods before I checked out.

After looking through my assortment of informational brochures, the one thing that looked like it was open to the public on a Sunday morning (besides going to church) was the zoo, which was just a couple of miles away. So that's where I went.

Jackson Zoological Park is a nice little zoo. I was one of their first customers that morning, and for a bit of time had the place all to myself, except for the workers (who kept waving and smiling at me). After a bit, I was joined by a couple of families.

I spent about two hours at the zoo. It was a sunny morning and warmer than the day before, which made for a pleasant walk. I spent a lot of time looking at the big cats (among them, Sumatran Tigers and Florida Panthers) and the giraffes and the birds. The zoo has a nice collection of animals, and although the enclosures were not all exactly state-of-the-art, the animals all looked healthy. It was just around feeding time for most of them and they were pretty active.

Here's a picture of some kind of crazy bird that makes a lot of noise when he flaps his wings:

Here's a picture of the Australian Kookaburra, which makes a lot of noise in general.

Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree

Merry, merry king of the bush is he

Laugh kookaburra, laugh kookaburra

Gay your life must be!

Walking around I realized that it has been a long time since I've been to a zoo of any kind, and that I had forgotten how much I enjoy the zoo. Note to self, rejoin Cincinnati Zoo. Try to go there more often than once in a blue moon.

So, after I had made a rather thorough tour of the zoo, I still had a little time to kill before heading for the airport. I drove back downtown to the art museum, which would now be open.

I found a parking spot on the street right in front of the Mississippi Museum of Art, which is right downtown next to the convention center. This museum is in an attractive modern building and is free to the public. It took me about an hour to go through their permanent collection of works by Mississippi artists and artists who had spent time in Mississippi. I wish I had stopped in there sooner because it was really worth a little more time. I could have even walked there Saturday afternoon if I had thought about it.

And then it was time to head for the airport. Another state conquered at a slow and steady pace, and a little bit of tourist activity on the side, although not quite enough for me to feel, unfortunately, like I really got a sense of the place. So, I'm going to read some more Eudora Welty in compensation.

Indianapolis Monumental race report

I've had a few days to process it and I have a little time right now so I guess I'll write about it.

Before getting into the details, I just want to say that it is a really nice race. I enjoyed it last time I ran it (the inaugural event) and it has definitely improved over the years (under different management, I believe, since the second year). As far as organization, the course, every little thing that goes into putting on a successful event, overall they do a nice job.

But not much they can do about the weather! Which basically sucked.

And not much they can do about my lack of training or my psychological state!

But I went there and I tried to relax and enjoy myself a bit, and I did manage to finish (even though, at times, I thought it was really stupid to be out there continuing).

The Day Before

We decided it made more sense for Tommy to stay home with the dogs and for me to travel by myself. For one thing, I would avoid four hours of extra driving taking the dogs to and from the kennel. For another, Tommy could get some more work done on his porch project. The down side was that I had to drive myself there and back, endure loneliness, and have to check myself out of the hotel in the morning before the race.

I wanted to leave around 10 am so I could get there around noon and make it to the expo in time to hear Wesley Korir speak at 1 pm. But I didn't manage to make it out the door until 11. Oh well. The drive was relatively uneventful. I stopped for lunch at a Subway, and in honor of Korir, I purchased a tuna sub. Although unlike Korir, I did not purchase a second sub to give to a homeless person. I'm just not as good as he is.

Once I got to Indy, I wished that I had spent a little more time figuring out on a map where the expo and pasta dinner took place, so I could figure out a sensible route, rather than relying on the GPS to guide me. But I didn't have to drive around the block too many times before finding a parking garage near the convention center. Unfortunately, I think I picked the more expensive of the available options. But at least it was a short walk.

Hanging at the Expo

I found the expo pretty quickly, and made my way back to the registration table to pick up my bib and shirt. There was also a poster (which I have thrown away), but otherwise not much else in the goody bag, which was a brown paper supermarket bag with handles. The race chip was embedded in the bib, just like the way they did it in the first year.

I took a walk around the expo. It was about standard for a mid-sized race. I saw a lot of nice stuff but told myself that I didn't really need anything. Nick Willis was not going to speak until 3 pm, and then the pasta dinner was not until 6. I didn't want to move my car out of the garage to drive to my hotel and then have to come back here later for the pasta dinner. It was going to be a long afternoon.

I remembered that I wanted to buy a new fanny pack for my gels, because the one I planned to use was starting to fall apart. I found an identical one and bought it. This purchase activity loosened the purse strings and soon I was perusing the sale races. I bought a couple pairs of warmup pants (which I like to use for dogwalking and agility) at 50 percent off.

I sat down in one of the chairs in front of the stage where they had the speakers and waited for Nick Willis. Some others joined me.

And soon he appeared, in a Reebok (his sponsor) shirt and jeans, looking a lot cuter in person than he does in all the Flotrack videos I have seen of him over the last five years. Taller and cuter. Not too scrawny considering he is a miler. I remind myself that he is my daughter's age.

Anyway, he gives a nice little talk about, if I had to sum it up, recognizing the importance of your support systems and just being happy to enjoy running. He spoke a little about how fortunate he felt to have had the opportunity to come to the USA to train with Ron Warhurst at the U. of Michigan, and what it means to him to continue the great tradition of New Zealand track athletes. He took us through his experiences at the Olympics in 2004 (when he made the 1500 meter final), 2008 (when he won the bronze in the 1500 meters, which was later upgraded to silver when the winner subsequently tested positive), and this past summer when he had been running great leading up to the Games but totally bombed in the final.

His theme, as I said, seemed to be about how recognizing the importance of having a team behind him helped him win that medal in 2008. After 2004, he added his brother, his sister-in-law, and his wife to his support team, in addition to Warhurst, and it paid off. I thought about how my support team was just Tommy, and he wasn't here. Oh well.

He also spoke a little about recovering from the disappointment of the 2012 Olympics, and how as he got back into training, he wanted to always remember the joy that there is to be found in simply going for a run. This was how he attempted to connect to a topic that might be of interest to Joe Marathoner. I didn't really care about that---I have followed this guy's career for the last few years and I was happy to just hear him talk about himself, I didn't need him to connect it to me. It didn't need to have anything to do with marathoning.

Anyway, he took some questions. I don't remember what the other people asked, but I asked him if he was planning to move up in distance. He said that since he was still improving in the 1500, he wasn't really thinking about that. Makes sense, I guess. I just asked because it seems like that is the progression that so many of the professionals follow. But he's right, he is an Olympic medalist and he is still improving, so why move up? Leave that to the guys who can't compete at the 1500. Which, I have to agree, let't face it, is real running. Yeah, I'm a miler at heart, too.

When he was finished, I went up and boldly asked somebody to take my picture with him. Like he was some kind of zoo animal. I didn't even ask for his autograph! I just wanted the picture. I'm sure he thought I was some kind of crazy stalker. But afterwards, I wondered if maybe he had to be careful that I wasn't wearing any clothing from Nike or Adidas or Asics or whomever. Especially Nike. Maybe his contract with Adidas says he can't have a picture taking with somebody wearing the Swoosh. Wouldn't surprise me at all.

Nick's talk was finished around 3:30 pm. Still so much time to kill. Emboldened, I went over to the Kenyan Kids Foundation booth. That's Wesley Korir's charity. He was standing behind the table. I told him that I was sorry that I didn't get to hear his talk, but I really supported what he was doing. He told me that he was collecting donations via PayPal and that for $30 you could get a shirt. He turned me over to another couple of volunteers who took my information on their iPad.

Later, I found myself wondering if it was really Wesley Korir whom I spoke with or if it was another Kenyan guy who was with him. Later when Korir spoke at the pasta dinner he seemed a lot more self-confident than the guy at the booth. If this guy was embarrassed because I had confused him with Wesley Korir, that would explain things. Stupid old white woman.

Still had time to kill before the pasta dinner. Sat through another speaker, the guy who was the head of the company in charge of the pace teams. Pace teams have come a long way from their terrible debut at the Rock 'n' Roll Marathon in San Diego. The whole thing has become quite professional. Anyway, this guy spoke on six secrets to running a good marathon, or something like that. Let's see how many I can remember:

1) Pick the right pace team. (This one I failed, BTW!) This means, be realistic about what you will be able to run. Don't pick a number out of thin air or because it sounds good. Base it on the reality of your training and the conditions.

2) Oh, I am realizing that I am not sure I remember the rest. Okay, another one was "Wear the right clothes" or don't wear new untested clothes, or something like that. But I don't think it was number two.

3) Was there something about not eating weird food? I don't remember! Gosh, I really can't remember the rest of the things he said at all, but I enjoyed his talk. He seemed like a good guy.

After that last presentation, I headed over to the pace team booth and chatted briefly with a Chinese woman named Hong who was the 4:10 team leader. She seemed really nice and I thought that maybe I would start the race with her group and see how it went. (Wrong pace for me, unfortunately. See #1, above.)

I still had over an hour until the pasta dinner. I decided to go sit in the lobby of the Westin. Found a comfy chair and settled in. Facebooked a little and read a book on the Kindle app on my phone. Overheard people talking about the NYC marathon being cancelled, which had just been announced.

Around 6 pm, I headed upstairs to the ballroom where they were having the dinner. It was not very well-policed, and I think I could have gone in to sit down and eat without actually having paid for the dinner. Nobody was collecting the "tickets."

There were plenty of seats available. I looked around for a promising table of friendly folks to dine with. I settled on a table in the middle of the room with four woman sitting at it. They turned out to be nice enough, but they were all half-marathoners. You would be surprised how much of a difference this made. I really wasn't in the mood to have to answer a lot of questions about marathoning. I wanted to sit with a group of people with whom I could actually share experiences. At least two of the women were first time half-marathoners and it sounded like they were walkers. So I didn't have a whole lot in common with them on that score.

Wesley Korir and Nick Willis spoke during the dinner. Wesley didn't talk for very long, but as I said, I was left wondering if he was the guy I had met at the expo or not. Nick gave a slightly different version of the talk he had given at the expo. It started out quite differently, and at first I wondered if it was actually going to be a different presentation, which would have really impressed me.

The dinner itself was kind of odd. They brought the food out to us instead of having a buffet. There was a tossed salad, which was okay except that the only dressing was a very thick caesar/ranch concoction that had been sitting on the table for awhile and congealing. There were rolls and butter, also okay. And then they brought out the pasta, which was a smallish serving of ziti covered with a tomato sauce. But the strangest thing was the chicken breast that sat atop each serving of pasta. It tasted good but I think most of us would have preferred more pasta. And I was left wondering what the vegetarians were supposed to do. The wait staff was not very communicative (mostly Mexican) and the basically just brought the food out and didn't offer any other options.

As Nick's presentation winded down, I realized that we were not getting any dessert. That was also odd. Usually at these things there is some kind of cake or brownie. What kind of catered meal is it when you don't get a dessert? Overall, it was a very disappointing pasta dinner.

After dinner, I headed to the hotel. It was just a couple blocks away but after driving there I really had not idea where we were in relation to the start. I stayed at the Marriott Courtyard, which had a convenient outdoor parking lot where I could leave my car during the race after checking out of the hotel---they were not giving late checkout because they were booked for the next night. My room was spacious and comfortable, and there was a delicious sugar cookie waiting for me which made up for not getting dessert at the dinner. I watched some TV and Facebooked until I got tired enough to go to bed. I was comfortable in the room and I think I recall sleeping reasonably well. Didn't I? Or did I have nightmares? I don't remember!

Race Morning

Note: I'm returning to this report after a ridiculous amount of time has gone by. But I would like to get it done! Okay, what do I remember? I followed the standard ritual of getting up early enough so that I could finish drinking two hours before the start. I had the motel room coffee and a Picky Bar. It was too early to take advantage of the bagels and coffee they had promised down in the lounge. Nice of them to offer, though.

I wore...gosh, I don't even remember what I wore now! Did I wear the CW-X capris? I know that I had my old torn up blue nylon anorak and I ended up leaving it in the car, so it survived another race. Yeah, I don't really remember what I wore. I think I had a long sleeved shirt and a thin jacket and my thin black gloves.

I was a little confused about the direction to the start from the hotel. I found a guy and (I'm guessing) his daughter (but could have been his wife, it was dark out. He was older, she seemed younger. But she was kind of heavy, not trophy-wife type). Anyway, I walked with them. I think he said it was his second marathon? And he had been targeting 4:00 but he'd been injured or sick or something so he was just going to go out with the 4:20 pace team. Like I should have done, as it turned out.

I had timed it pretty well so I didn't have to wait too long at the start. It wasn't raining, yet. I found the 4:10 pace group and chatted with them. Figured I would start with them and adjust as needed.
.

The Race

I must have been delusional. The gun went off, we shuffled to the start---didn't take too long---and the pace team leader took off. And the rest of the group went with her. I couldn't even run a block with them. So much for the going out slow.

My pace, for the first mile, actually was a little bit faster than I would have liked if I was going to do the classic 10, 9:50, 9:40, 9:30 cut down. First mile was 9:44. That was dumb.

My condition (or decay, as it were) can be evaluated by breaking the race up into three segments.

The First Eight Miles

I'm looking back over the course description as I go through this part. I do really like the course. It's flat but there's plenty to see. Not boring. Lots of turns but can still be fast on a good weather day if you're trained properly. Anyway, the first couple miles go through the core downtown area, and then you head north.

First, you run around Lucas Oil Stadium, otherwise known as the House that Peyton Built. In mile 2 & 3, you run though Monument Circle, by the Soldiers and Sailors Monument. Near mile 3, you pass the Federal Building and the Courthouse. Mile 3 to 4 is run along Massachusetts Ave., an area of restaurants, galleries, theaters, and boutique shops.

I don't remember much about miles 4 to 8. I think it is mostly residential. Anyway, I was pretty much holding a pace in the 9:40s for these first eight miles. I knew that wasn't going to continue.

The half-marathoners split off from us just past mile 7, and I was happy to see them go. Pretenders. Actually, I was jealous and wishing I was only doing a half. But as I heard someone say, we didn't travel all this way just to run a half-marathon.

The Second Eight Miles

Between miles 8 and 9 we pass my favorite part of the course, which is the Indiana State Fairgrounds. It's my favorite part because of all my happy memories of showing dogs in conformation at the big Indy Cluster in February the past 6 years or so, and before that the time I took Libby there for dockdiving.

The fairgrounds, of course, like fairgrounds seemingly everywhere, is not in a good neighborhood. But just past the fairgrounds we make a right turn and head into a very lovely neighborhood of large, older homes. I'm not sure what this area is called but it's probably the nicest residential area of the course.

In miles 13 to 14, we run through the village of Broad Ripple, which is an area of interesting restaurants and shops. If I lived in Indy, I'd probably want to live in Broad Ripple.

In the second eight miles, my pace climbed into the 10:00 range. I was keeping it under 11, though. Still not too horrible. The 4:20 pace team caught me around the halfway point, and I wondered what it would have been like if I had started with them. I tried to stay with them, but by mile 16 I couldn't keep up.

The Last Ten Miles

And here is where the wheels came off. But to continue with our travelogue, you pass by the Governor's Mansion between miles 16 and 17. I was already feeling so bad that I don't even remember much about it.

In mile 17, the course runs through the Butler University campus. I enjoy this part of the race, but this year the bad news was that the rain (which had begun falling awhile ago) was turning into sleet. So basically, it all started getting really miserable. I was thinking that if there was anyway that the course would pass by my hotel early, I would just drop out.

In mile 19, you run through the grounds of the Indy Art Museum. This is another pretty part of the course.

I don't remember much about the last six miles of the race, as far as the scenery. There isn't really much written in the info guide, either, except for a bunch of monuments near the end. I think I remember running through some sort of park somewhere in there, but that's about it.

Anyway, pace-wise, I was in the 11s for miles 17-20, and then I climbed up to 12s for 21-25. I was not enjoying myself. Freezing rain is absolutely my least favorite conditions to run a race in. Well, isn't that true for everybody? I was in a pretty bad mood about being there, feeling kind of stupid about the whole thing, and remembering that after I finished I was going to have to climb in the car and drive myself home, which really was just the straw that broke the camel's back.

I managed to pick it up a bit to an 11:32 for mile 26. I just wanted to get it over with. I finally did pass by my hotel but it was just a half-mile from the finish, so that didn't do my any good!

Post-Race

Finally got there, and I guess I was glad to have finished it. I got a handshake from a guy who might have been the race director. The finisher's medal is really quite nice. They also gave out knit running caps that had a race logo patch sewn on and the word "finisher." It was an ugly cap but still kind of a neat idea. Unfortunately, I dropped mine somewhere on my way back to the hotel.

Food-wise, there was a tent where they were supposedly serving chili, but they were out of it when I got there. They said they were bringing more but I didn't want to wait around. So, after asking a couple of people I got pointed in the right direction and started the painful walk back to my hotel, which was not too far away but it was still kind of rough in the nasty weather.

Back at the hotel, I got my bag out of the car and headed inside. I went into the bathroom on the first floor and just spread out inside the handicapped stall. After I got into dry clothes, I did feel a whole lot better.

Still, the drive home was no picnic. For starters, it took me awhile to get out of the city, since the route that my GPS wanted me to take involved crossing the race course. As I drove block after block trying to find a way to get to the highway, I saw the still struggling plodders shuffling along. Some of those people still had two miles to go, and I had been done for an hour already. Put things in perspective for me. It could have been worse!

I think I stopped for Starbucks once I got out of town. I don't remember! Oh yeah, I had Starbucks and one of their breakfast sandwiches, which is similar to an Egg McMuffin but more expensive, of course.

So, in the end, although I was miserable during the race and really questioning my own sanity, I am glad that I went there and did it, even though I knew I wasn't going to be able to run well. On a good weather day, and appropriately trained, it could have been better. But it's still a great race, really well organized. Nothing they can do about the weather! Or my lack of training!

In the end, I was 46 of 84 in my age group, and 722 of 1135 women, and 2099 of 2865 overall.

Hartford Marathon report---finally!

I ran the Hartford Marathon on Saturday, October 15. Hartford took care of Connecticut on my quest to run a marathon in all 50 states. I now have just 13 states to go.

As marathons go, Hartford is just okay. It’s not the best, it’s not the worst. There were a few good things, a few not-so-good things. Overall, just kind of so-so. Which, I guess, is better than truly horrible. I just wasn’t in love with it, if you know what I mean.

I was also expecting that I would be able to run it a little faster than I did, but I swear I am not letting that affect my judgment.

A Long Weekend of Driving
Tommy came along and we drove out to Hartford. As it happened, my van was rear-ended a couple of weeks before, and while it was in the shop I was driving a Town & Country rental with unlimited mileage. So we were able to drive out in that thing and not put the mileage on one of our own cars. It’s not fun to drive in any way, shape or form, but was free. Except for the gas that it sucked down. Wow, it’s a guzzler. And that is just one of its faults, but don’t get me started.

For the race, we stayed at the Residence Inn in Rocky Hill, which is a suburb southwest of Hartford. We stayed there because I waited too long to make a hotel reservation downtown---who knew that everything for race weekend would book up two months in advance?---and also because Tommy could use a corporate discount. It was not much of a drive into town, and it was nice to have a kitchen.

On the way to the Hartford, we spent Thursday night at a Holiday Inn Express in Clearfield, PA (because I had a free night). On the return trip, we first drove up to Boston to see Susan and Ross, and then headed back via New York State (Tommy had business outside Syracuse). We spent Sunday night in Springfield, MA, and Monday night in Erie, PA, staying at Red Roofs. It is pretty weird to stay at a Red Roof without any dogs. Especially when there is a dog show in the town, as happened to be the case in Springfield!

Yeah, pretty much it would have been better if I had flown. We tried to break it up, but it was a lot of hours in the car. A car that I hated. But I digress.

Race Expo (and Pasta Dinner We Missed)
Even though we certainly didn’t linger in Clearfield, PA on Friday morning, it still took us until almost 4 pm to reach Hartford. It took us awhile, driving around in Friday afternoon downtown Hartford traffic---not that bad, except when you don’t know the area at all---to figure out where to park for the expo. The expo was in the XL Center, and we ended up in the garage across the street.

I had purchased tickets for the 5 pm seating of the pasta dinner. So now I was stressing out because I wanted to pick up my race packet and have a chance to thoroughly shop the expo before dinner.

Who am I kidding? I had been stressing out for probably two hours before we got to Hartford, worrying if we were going to make it on time.

Packet pickup was quick, albeit a bit confusing. The confusion kind of set the tone for the activities surrounding the race. Basically, there really was not a lot of direction or signage. And I guess I am old fashioned, but I really like to get printed instructions ahead of time. There was a little bit of info on the website, but not enough so that even if you printed it out would you have a truly clear idea about what was where. Maybe if you lived in Hartford and had done the race before it was enough. But not for somebody visiting for the first time.

I know this is also partly my fault because I’ve gotten kind of sloppy abut reading the directions at these races. After so many races in so many places, I guess I just assume that I’ll get there and figure it out.

Well, maybe it also would have helped if their race website was a little easier to navigate, and if they had sent out some detailed info via email, the way many other races do. They sent info, but not enough. And their website sucks---too much focus on their foundation and the charities, and not enough on the race.

So, I walked up to the first table and got my bib. That was it, just the bib. No bag to put it in. No goodies. No directions about where to go next. I noticed there was a little box of pins on the table but I didn’t bother to pick them up because I had packed extras, and I also assumed that at some point I would get a bag and maybe there would be pins in there.

I had to ask the volunteer about where to go next. If I had not asked, apparently she would not have said anything. She also did not say anything about the pins. I know I have complained about volunteers who are a little too explicit about exactly what the pins are for and how they should be used, but this was kind of the opposite. I would reflect on this later, and observe the results of her reticence while I waited for the race to begin the next morning (when random strangers kept asking me if I knew where they could find some pins).

I asked the volunteer about the location of the pasta dinner. She had no information.

So, it turns out that the next place I go is a table around the corner, where I get my shirt (long sleeved, technical, not bad) and a little orange sack designed like a backpack and made out of that material like you find in the reusable grocery bags. Turns out that does not work very well when you try to turn it into a backpack. It falls apart really fast. So, the result is you are going to throw it away, maybe even sooner than if it were an actual plastic bag! What is so green about that, I wonder?

There is nothing in this bag. It is not secure enough to use as a gear check bag, and it is kind of awkward to put your expo purchases in. I am not a fan of this bag.

I figure out the timing chip is already attached to the back of my race number, so we don’t have to pick up the chip.

I asked the volunteer at the shirt table about the location of the pasta dinner. He had no information.

We found a booth labeled “Information.” There was a large course map on display and a volunteer was going over that with some people. There was another volunteer standing around, so we asked him about the location of the pasta dinner. He did not have any information, and he was kind of rude about it.

I was getting hungry at this point. But we decided to put aside all thoughts of the pasta dinner, and do a quick walkthrough of the expo.

One thing I did like at Hartford was that you were able to pick up your packet (such as it was) before going through the expo. That is one thing that I really dislike about the Flying Pig.

The expo was about the size of the one at Flying Pig, maybe a little smaller. Hartford gets about 14,000 participants across all the events (half-marathon, relay, marathon) so that’s about right. They had a good selection of vendors. I ended up buying a couple of cute tee shirts (one technical, one cotton) with a dog-related theme (dog holding a race number that says 26.2 and the shirt says Marathon Dog).

There was an area selling Hartford Marathon logo wear, and I probably would have bought a hat or something, but they were a little overpriced for the lack of quality.

At this point we were expo’d out, and I was even hungrier, so we decided to try a little harder to locate the pasta dinner. On the way out of the expo I stopped at what appeared to be the “Trouble” desk. Somebody there was able to explain to us that the pasta dinner was located in Bushnell Park, about a half mile away from the expo.

Bushnell Park was also the start/finish area of the marathon. We had passed by it on our way to the XL Center. But now it was raining outside, and we were loath to move the car to another location more convenient to the park in the middle of rush hour on a Friday.

So we gave up on the pasta dinner for which I had stupidly paid in advance. It was windy and cold and rainy and miserable, so even if it were right next door to the expo the idea of sitting outside (under tents, but still) and eating pasta cooked for hundreds of people was not very appealing.

We drove to our hotel, checked in, and headed out to find an Italian restaurant nearby with the help of the GPS. Which turned out to be more difficult than you would think, since all the Italian places it could find seemed to be out of business. After a bit of driving around, we did locate a newish place not too far from the hotel, called Pazzo Cafe. Although the parking lot was full, we were seated right away. Décor was that trendy, casual, open kitchen, wood fired pizza oven kind of thing. Excellent bread. Decent wine list. Large portions. I had cavatappi with an eggplant sauce. I forget what Tommy had. Pizza? That’s right. This place also had an amazing selection of wonderful gelatos. I had two scoops for dessert, one scoop of chocolate and one scoop of mint chocolate chip. Tommy a piece of carrot cake, which I ended up having some of later back at the hotel. We agreed it was maybe the best carrot cake we had ever had in our lives.

The portions were so large, that we could take the leftovers back to the hotel with us, which worked out great for me after the race. I didn’t need my turkey sandwich when I could eat all the leftover pasta and pizza.

Getting to the Start
The morning was relatively stress-free for an out of town race with limited information. I was up early for my pre-race coffee and yogurt. The traffic getting back downtown was not bad at all on Saturday morning, and the highway seemed to dump us out right at Bushnell Park.

I got out of the car and left Tommy to go look for parking on his own. We agreed to meet after the race at the supposedly designated family reunion area, wherever that was. They said they had one.

It was a lovely morning in Bushnell Park, but the grass was soaked from the rain the day before. I got on the portapotty line, which was already rather long. Worse, as I approached the front of the line, I could see that the area directly in front of the portapotties was basically a mud pit. At least, I hoped that was mud. It was pretty disgusting. So, as you went in and out of the portapotty, you ended up with shoes that were covered in mud. Not the best way to start the race, I thought. Should have brought plastic bags to put on my shoes. Oh well.

After the portapotty stop, I walked around the little marathon village they had set up. There were a lot of tents and vendors, but no signage telling you which way to go to the start or providing any sort of useful information. Periodically, a guy on a loudspeaker would announce that the gear check area was in front of Bushnell Theater, but who knew where that was if you didn’t live in Hartford?

It was still early. I noticed that the booth for Dick’s Sporting Goods was unoccupied, so after making a pass around the village (picked up a little tube of free sunscreen, which did prove useful), I sat down in one of the chairs.

Almost as soon as I sat down, people started coming up to me and asking me questions:

Which way is the volunteer check in? Where is the gear check? Do you know where the kids’ fun run starts? And my favorite question, do you know where I can get some pins?

I had passed the volunteer check-in so I could actually help out with that one. In exchange, I asked people if they could tell me where the start line was, but nobody knew.

An official-looking guy dressed in a business suit came over, and I thought he was going to tell me I had to move. But no, he just was looking for the volunteer check-in. I pointed him in the right direction.

It was all pretty funny.

So I stayed seated there until about 15 minutes before the race was to begin, when I followed a growing wave of foot traffic in a direction that I hoped would lead to the starting line. This it did. And I also now knew where the Bushnell Theater was, but I wasn’t checking any gear.

Next point of confusion: I looked around for the pace signs to try to figure out a good place to line up. Then I noticed that all of the pace team leaders were hanging out together in front of the theater (I never did see any of them during the actual race, which was a little strange). So that was not very helpful. I found some people who looked like they were as slow as I was. I started chatting with a guy who told me that yeah, this was where all the over 10 minutes a mile people were, so it was the right place.

One nice thing at the start was that they had a big video display that was right in front of where I was standing, so I could see the people making the announcements (even though they still weren’t all that intelligible) and the woman who sang The Star Spangled Banner. They also showed a little video about selected people and their marathon “stories” but I didn’t pay much attention to that.

The Race
And soon, we were off. Overall, I’d have to say that it was not the most scenic or interesting urban marathon I’ve ever run. Also, it was not the most well-designed.Lots of turns, and retracing of steps. It was mostly flat, with a few hills provided by overpasses, and also by getting up and down from the riverfront. I know there are some pretty neighborhoods in Hartford (saw them later when driving around) but for some reason the course did not take us through them. It was a combination of boring downtown, industrial area, riverfront bike trail, and one somewhat upscale neighborhood in which we went down and back (and one much sketchier ‘hood that we went through on the way back).

There’s not a lot that is very interesting along the way. The aid stations are well-organized and well-staffed. There were occasional spots with live or recorded music, including a couple of bagpipers. Not too much crowd support. Not the worst race, but not the best, either. Just kind of ho-hum. Won’t make my list of favorites. It was just okay.

There were a lot of Maniacs and Fifty Staters. This is a big race weekend in New England, and there were several possibilities to complete a “double” by running Hartford on Saturday and then Mt. Desert Island (Maine) or Breakers (Rhode Island) on Sunday. There was one woman who was just in front of me for the first few miles who was wearing a sign on her back stating her intentions to finish Hartford and Breakers that weekend. I was glad that I had decided not to try that myself. It also made me feel good to eventually pass her. Would have been more demoralizing if she had easily pulled ahead of me. I’m just not ready for a double.

The first couple miles basically serve to get you out of the downtown area and into a combination of industrial areas and a riverside park. I know Hartford probably wants us to remember the park but unfortunately there was a lot of industry in there, too. I missed the first mile marker, but reached mile 2 in 19:58.

By the start of the third mile we had turned onto a paved path that runs along the Connecticut River. Mile 3 took me 9:56. I decided that I needed another portapotty visit. This hasn’t happened to me in quite awhile during a marathon so I must have been overhydrated or something. Anyway, just as we were leaving the industrial area and heading onto the bike path, I noticed a couple of portapotties on the side, off of the trail. I’m not even sure if they were actually associated with the race, but there was no line so I went in. This cost me a minute but it was worth it for the comfort factor. Mile 4 was 11:11.

I remember two things from mile 5, which took us back into downtown. First, there was some woman complaining to some guy that her GPS was a tenth of a mile off, and asking if he thought the course was measured wrong. I tried to explain to her that race courses are measured on the tangents, so unless she was always running the shortest tangent, every time we turned a corner she was adding distance. And we were turning a lot of corners. So really, a tenth of mile over five miles is not that bad. Anyway, she didn’t understand what I was trying to say. So I gave up.

Second thing is that I ran by Tommy, who lamely tried to take my picture but couldn’t figure out how to get the camera to work in time, so I just kept going because I was feeling good and didn’t want to stop.

Mile 5 was 10:04. I don’t remember too much about miles 6-11 (I am looking at the course map as I write this). My times were 10:02, 9:41, 9:52, 10:44, 10:06 and 10:02. I was having GU Chomps (Green Tea flavor) every four miles or so, and walking through the water stations. I guess some of this was along the river, and some of it was industrial. Nothing very memorable.

Around mile 11, we began a long out-and-back stretch that would take us through a neighborhood of large old homes. Even here, I was surprised that there were not more people out cheering. The Hartford Marathon is comparable in size to the Flying Pig in Cincinnati, and I was thinking about how much more interesting a course we have here, and how much louder the people cheer in Hyde Park Square. There was nothing like that in Hartford. In this neighborhood (whatever it is called) there were a few houses with parties going on out on the front lawns, but there were many empty spots as well.

The cool thing about the out-and-back was that it gave me an opportunity to see the fast runners on their way back (mile 23 is near mile 11). I saw the two Kenyan guys who would finish first and second, followed by serial marathoner Michael Wardian (the previous year’s winner, a fellow Maniac who would go on to win Mt. Desert Island in Maine the very next day).

I was still feeling okay, and keeping a pretty even pace for miles 12-16 (10:05, 10:39, 10:09, 9:55, 10:18). I was looking forward to the turnaround at mile 17, when it looked like we would be headed downhill. Funny how when I run these out-and-back portions of a race, I always think it will be downhill on the way back. It’s just an optical illusion.

Mile 17 was 11:47, and I was starting to struggle a bit. And then I found out that we were not going downhill after all. And now, we were running into a headwind, which would be with us for the remainder of the race. At this point I started getting really bored with the race and just wanted it to be over, and I was again very glad that I did not have to get up and do the same thing tomorrow in a different city.

Mile 18 was 9:25 (perhaps mile 17 and 18 markers were in the wrong places), but after that I was struggling again. 10:49 for 19, 11:05 for 20, 22:30 for 21 and 22, 12:05 for 23.

I had kind of been hoping for a sub-4:30 time, but that was not happening now.

At mile 24, we headed back along the river trail and into downtown. Mile 24 was 11:57, mile 25 was 11:59, and mile 26 was 11:14. Saw Tommy, who took my picture, as I ran towards the finish line. We passed under that little stone archway thing that is part of the race logo and replicated in the design of the finisher’s medal, but I did not even notice at the time. 1:57 for the last .2 and I was glad to be done with it.

It has been bothering me that I did not know anything about what that stone archway was supposed to represent, so I looked it up online. It is called the Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Arch, and it is in honor of the 4000 Hartford residents who served in the Civil War, and the 400 who died in Union uniforms. I never would have guessed that it was a war memorial. I am surprised that there is no info (or maybe I am not surprised considering the general dearth of info) about the arch on the race web site, since it is used as the race logo and therefore somewhat significant. Again, they seem to be assuming that the people who run this race are all from the Hartford area. Ha, and in truth is not really a race worth travelling for, after all.

So, that time put me 20 of 46 in my age group and 1557 of 2217 marathoners. I guess this race is a little smaller than the Flying Pig. I was disappointed that I didn’t finish any faster than at Leading Ladies, since I felt so good going into the race. But I guess the Leading Ladies course was faster than I realized. And, I had not expected to have so much trouble running into that headwind.

Post-Race
In addition to the traditional space blankets and the finisher’s medal (which is rather a nice one), they handed out reusable orange (the ING race sponsor color) water bottles at the finish line embossed with the race logo and the word “Finisher” on them. I thought that was a nice touch, but it would have been even nicer if they had rinsed the bottles out before filling them. Very strong taste of plastic in there. Had to dump it.

They also do a nice job with the food at the end of this race. There was a large tented area with a bigger variety of items than at most races. My favorite was the hot tomato and chicken soup with parmesan cheese. It was nice and salty and warm, just the perfect thing after an autumn race.

After getting some food, I was ready to find Tommy. Since he had been nearby when I crossed the finish line, I did not expect it to be too difficult to locate him. But what did present a challenge was finding the location of the reunion area where we had agreed to meet. I wandered around the park for a bit, asked various people for directions, and wasn’t having any luck. As I had noticed in the morning before the race, there were no signs anywhere, and nobody seemed to know where anything was---actually, I had a little trouble even finding my way to the food tent, to tell the truth.

Eventually, I found a volunteer who thought that he had seen some signage up on the street with alphabet letters (A-H, I-M, etc. that sort of thing) indicating it might be a reunion area. So I walked out of the park and toward that street, where I did find these signs. They weren’t very big. I stood on the sidewalk by the A-H sign. Nobody else was waiting there. I was getting cold. I walked up and down the street for a few minutes. I thought about how many people I had asked before I located the reunion area, and I thought about how unwilling Tommy was to ask for directions.

I wished I had carried a phone. I was just about to ask someone if I could borrow their phone to try to reach Tommy when he finally appeared.

The good news was that he had found a parking space that morning in the lot directly across the street from the park, so now that we were reunited, I did not have far to walk at all. We headed back to the hotel, where I feasted on our leftovers from the night before---no need of a turkey sandwich this time.

Hartford Touristing

After eating and getting cleaned up, we headed off for the Mark Twain House---the only thing we were going to have time to see while in Hartford, although honestly I am not sure that there is all that much else to see there besides the University of Connecticut and all the insurance companies.

We were lucky enough to get two of the last tickets for the last tour of the day---I had not realized that there were scheduled tour times and a limited number of tickets.

Ok, here is what I remember: Samuel Clemens moved to Hartford with his wife, Olivia. They rented a house in the Nook Farm neighborhood (a writer’s enclave, and I presume, the source of the name for the Barnes & Noble e-reader). They had this house built for them (Livy came from money). Harriet Beecher Stowe was a neighbor. It is a pretty cool house. The time they lived in this house marked the most productive period of Clemens’ life---he wrote Huckleberry Finn, Adventures of Tom Sawyer, and A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court while living there. The Clemens lived very well, until some bad business investments forced them to move away, and eventually sell the property.

At one point, the structure was in danger of being demolished and replaced with a car dealership! Would have been a shame. In addition to the house, there is a museum, gift shop, and café.

Oh yeah, and he had a lot of cats. Like Hemingway. And some of the descendants of these cats still roam the grounds.

The entranceway of the house reminded me of an M. C. Escher lithograph, because there is a big square space where you can look straight up and see all the other floors of the house. Or maybe it was the woodcut designs on the walls. Anyway, it reminded me of Escher’s “Relativity.”

After our tour, we drove around the neighborhood. There was a very pretty park (Elizabeth Park) with a restaurant/event space inside of it, where I had thought maybe we could have dinner, but there was an event going on so we didn’t try. The neighborhood around Elizabeth Park reminded me of Wyoming in the Greater Cincinnati area, and I wondered why the marathon didn’t go through here. It was close to downtown and a lot nicer than most of the area we ran through.

I screwed up the restaurant pre-planning for this race. I had been looking for restaurants close to the Mark Twain house (how I found Elizabeth Park) but did not look for things near our hotel.

We drove back near the hotel and tried to use our GPS to locate potential steak houses. No luck. We ended up at Wood-n-Tap, a bar and grill (seemed to be part of a chain) that Tommy had been to while on a business trip. He was not enthused about it because he didn’t remember it as being very good. And he was correct. The beer was okay but the food was pretty bad.

The Rest of our Trip
Sunday morning after breakfast we drove up to Boston and spent the day with Susan and Ross, hanging out around their apartment in Somerville. We got there just in time to see Susan finish a 5k race just around the corner from the apartment. Apparently Davis Square is a very popular location for Boston-area races.

We had lunch at the Boston Burger Company place on the first floor of their building (can you imagine living on top of that?), afternoon coffee at Diesel Café, and dinner at Foundry on Elm (gastropub that is just a couple of blocks away). These places were all really great, of course. Good food and 5k races all within walking distance of home, does it get any better than that?

We spent the night in Springfield at a Red Roof Inn. It felt weird to stay at a Red Roof without a dog or two or three. Especially when there was apparently a dog show going on in the area.

Monday morning we drove west to Fayetteville, NY, where Tommy had some business in the afternoon. We ate lunch at Hullar’s, an excellent little homestyle restaurant and bar that Tommy had been to several times before---a great little chowhoundie find. Had some wonderful French onion soup, and meatloaf with mashed potatoes.

While Tommy visited the plant, I drove around the town. I took some pictures of the Craftsman Inn, which is where Tommy usually stays. It is a neat place, filled with Stickley furniture.

Across the street there is a mall that includes some interesting outlet stores (Stickley furniture, L. L. Bean). We didn’t have room in the car to bring back any furniture, but I took a look around the L. L. Bean outlet. Didn’t find anything worth buying. There was also an Eastern Mountain Sports, and I checked that out as well but didn’t find anything good there either.

At some point I realized that this is the home of the Fayetteville-Manlius high school, a perennial high school cross country powerhouse that generally does well at the Nike Cross Nationals (NXN). How many times has their girls' team won that thing? The fact that I know this stuff just shows what kind of a crazy running geek I have become. Anyway, I drove by the high school. If they were selling logo-wear from that school somewhere in town, I swear I would have bought something.

Soon it was time to pick Tommy up and continue our journey home. We stopped for the night in the Erie, PA suburbs, near the casino. This is where we bought the Bad Monkey beer. I had heard of this beer before---and it was originally named "Butt Monkey." Seriously. It was disgusting, but I am saving the bottle in honor of Eddy. I did not realize until I researched it online that they stopped brewing this beer a couple of years ago. No wonder it tasted so nasty.

And the next day we drove home. It was after this trip that Tommy decided to redeem some frequent flyer miles for our Thanksgiving travels! We put a couple thousand miles on that Town & Country in the three weeks that my van was in the shop. We managed to suck all the newness out of that baby, all right.

I am taking a break from running the states for the next year. My next few marathons will be closer to home. I plan to pick it up again next October, after Susan’s wedding.