Praire State Marathon
in the wee hours of a saturday morning, i headed south of the border (wisconsin/illinois) for the prairie state marathon. unlike the other marathon held in the windy city that weekend, prairie state is a smaller event which includes a half marathon as well.
the start of the race was relatively casual with the half marathoners starting at the same time as the marathoners. the course headed north mostly along crushed gravel trails for a nine mile out and back segment. i cruised along at a seven minute per mile pace and passed the half marathon mark in 1:32:12.
in a rather cruel manner, the course rolls back through the start/finish area after 18 miles which is just when a bit of fatigue begins to set in. the remainder of the course is a four mile out and back segment which was less crowded as the half marathoners had already crossed their finish line.
the real beauty of the out and back segments is you get a chance to see where your competition is at. in my twenty second mile i counted the runners as they passed me on the way to the finish line. one, two, first female then not too far ahead of me – – and faltering – – was number three.
this race removes the top three finishers for men & women from age group awards so it’s a bit “more” to be top three versus getting an age group award. a few years back at the race for the bacon they scored the race in the same manner and i finished fourth overall. while i got first in my age group that day, i would have preferred to have been on the podium.
i downed my last energy gel, chased it with some water from the aid station then zeroed in on closing the gap on the runner ahead of me. it was really two runners as the guy had a friend running along with him. i drew even with them with less than three miles to go and muttered “looking good” to the guy.
true story. in that moment, my music shuffled to a tune i know really well which repeats “triumph awaits” over and over in the lyrics. just above the din of the song’s guitar/drum intro i could hear the guy’s friend say “lets keep up with this guy.”
no.
not going to happen.
i immediately threw down a surge to put some distance between us. running a bit recklessly, i didn’t turn around to see where they were because i didn’t want to give them any hope that they could catch me.
passing the twenty five mile marker in 3:03 i was able to do some math and figured i still had a solid chance at bettering the time standard (3:15:00) for the Boston marathon. as i neared the finish area, there were a few cheers from spectators and other runners as i passed the twenty six mile marker. a quick glace at my watch confirmed i was still on track so i made one last push to the finish line.
finishing was a relief as i was able to stop the clock in 3:13:21, which met the time standard for Boston. just after finishing, another runner crossed the line and then about a minute later the guy i had passed finished as well. a quick check of the posted results confirmed i had held onto third male finisher by a slim margin of six seconds, based on “chip” time.
3:13:15.7 (chip time)
3:13:21.1 (gun time)
4th/270 Overall
3rd/150 Male Finishers
so for only the fifth time, i was able to meet the time standard for the Boston Marathon. registration is closed for the 2015 event but my time would be good for the 2016 edition. maybe between now and then i’ll take another shot at bettering the time so i can move up in the starting corrals. regardless, marathon number twenty two…done!