I did not sleep particularly well last Friday evening in to Saturday morning. I was to run the Veterans’ Marathon in Columbia City, Indiana, at 8:00 on Saturday, and I rarely sleep well before a race. I got out of bed before the alarm was to go off at 4:30 am, in an effort not to wake Mer. I woke her up a little bit, but she managed to get back to sleep. It was a happy thing that I got up on my own; Saturday night I discovered that I had set the alarm to 4:30 pm, so if I had been sleeping soundly, I would have missed my race.

Anyway, I got up and got dressed, which included my t-shirt dedicated to my friend Mark, who died last summer of cancer. I also pulled on my new compression running tights that I hoped would help keep my recent injuries from flaring up again. I went downstairs to Ellen’s kitchen and made myself an English muffin, which I ate because I thought it was wise; I was not hungry at all because of the very large supper I had eaten. Whether it was from the large meal or my pre-race nerves, I also had digestive issues, but those passed after a mere five trips to the bathroom. I do not know why this seems to happen in about half of my races, but so far it has never interfered with my running.

I left Ellen’s house around 5:15, and got on the road. It was very dark, and I was on back country roads, so I was very pleased at my last-week purchase of a GPS. I could just drive while the computer told me every turn. It worked pretty well. I stopped twice on the way for bathroom stops, including a large truck stop on the highway where they sold LCD TVs. It made me wonder why you would need to buy an LCD TV at a truck stop.

Anyway, I got to Columbia City with no real problems. Columbia City is small – about 7,000 people, and I was a bit worried about finding parking downtown. I saw a sign for parking down an alley, and there was ample parking, so that was well. I picked up my race bib and timing chip, and lined up to use the bathroom one more time. I got to the start line later than I should have, with only about five minutes to go, so I was nearer the back than I would have liked. It resulted in my dodging a fair number of people for the first half mile or so.

It is remarkable to me that a town of 7,000 people decided to put on a race. There were over 900 runners for the day, which I think included the 5k as well as the half marathon, but I’m not sure. I know there were 271 finishers for the marathon alone, so the 900 runners could have been for just the half and the full marathon. I was also pleased that the race was designed to honor veterans, which is why the race is fairly late in the season (because it falls on the Saturday after Veterans’ Day).

The marathon and half marathon shared the first 13.1 miles together. The marathon course kind of looks like a figure 8, and the half marathon does the first loop. The course takes you way out into farm land. There were some very lonely stretches of road to run along, but wherever there were spectators, sometimes just at the end of a driveway, they were very enthusiastic. Somehow, for a good part of the front half, I found myself 50 yards behind the runner in front of me and 10 or more yards ahead of the runner behind me. It was a lot of time to be by myself, that is for sure. It made me appreciate my running partners.

I had forgotten my watch at home, so I had no good idea of how fast I was running. The only real goal was to finish the race so I could try to honor Mark in that way. I thought I could break three hours and forty-five minutes, but that was not the most important thing. Without a watch to pace myself, I ran what I felt was a comfortable and relaxed pace. I even stopped at mile ten or so to use a port-o-john, which I usually do not do during a race if I can avoid it. It was to my great surprise, then, to see the only clock on the course; at mile 13.1 I saw that I had been running for about 1:43, which is a 3:26 marathon pace. It looked as if I had a good chance to break the 3:30 mark for only the second time in my running career.

I tried not to think about that too much, and I tried to keep my steady and comfortable pace. My left knee did not, and never would during the race, hurt. My right quadriceps, the injured muscles that made me drop out of the Towpath Marathon five weeks ago, were tender but holding up. They stayed pretty good up to the last mile of the race, and even then they just hurt a bit. The compression tights seemed to do their job (and the recovery time from the race has been remarkably short; the tights may have helped with that too).

The back half of the marathon was very rough. There were far fewer runners, and even less crowd support. In addition, the back half had a number of rolling hills which were surprisingly tough to run. Lastly, at least six or seven miles of the back half was into a stiff headwind, which included the last two miles into town. I started to get tired around mile 17 or so, and was struggling pretty hard by mile 23. I managed to keep going by taking it one mile at a time, but it was very difficult. I did slow down on the back half some, but managed to cross the finish line in 3:28:45, which was only 25 seconds off from my best marathon. Here are the quick stats:

Finish: 3:28:45 (7:58/mile pace)
Finished 56th out of 271 (top 21%)
Finished 17th out of 54 in my age group, 30-39 (top 32%)

I was pretty happy with the run. Overall, the Veterans’ Marathon got mixed reviews from me. It has tons of friendly people and good parking, and is run in honor of veterans. The water stations were mixed – there were a lot of them, but they were erratically spaced, so that there were some stretches of three or more miles with no stations, and then you could have three stations in two miles near town. On the back half, there was about a mile of the run on a rough gravel road that was hard on the feet. Still, it was a solid experience, and I am confident it will keep getting better (this was only the second year for the race).

After the run, I went back to the car, and I called Ellen and Meredith to let them know I had finished. I then drove back to Ellen’s, showered, and then ate an excellent pasta lunch that Ellen cooked. We three then looked at some difficult but rewarding poems by the Jesuit priest Hopkins, and then Ellen humored me and my craving for beef by taking us out to Johnny T’s restaurant. It was surprisingly crowded for 7:00 on a Saturday, but we found out that the local college’s volleyball team had just won a playoff game, and this was the post-game crowd. We got a table after about 30 minutes and had an excellent supper. We then went home, and I went to bed.

The next day we slept in, since Ellen’s church does not start until 10:30. I was up a bit early, so I read some of Hopkins’s sermons, which I liked very much. Mer and Ellen came down and we went to church, where we heard a good short sermon on how the ritual of the Anglican Catholic church is empty and useless unless you know the Jesus behind the rituals. After church, Ellen made us a different but still excellent pasta dish. I tweaked and fixed a few things on her new MacBook, and then Mer and I had to go (it is a three-hour drive home). It had been a very good long weekend.