3:32:59, 13th place overall and 5th place age (30-39), normally stats most runners would love to have. However, those are stats I'd rather not have especially when one has just run a 1:33 first half. For this marathon there were no odd travel requirements -- fly into Rapid City, get a car and drive 45 minutes to the hotel and get to sleep at a decent hour. 4:45am rolled around and after a quick shower and a bite to eat I was on the 5:20am shuttle bus to the start. We were dropped off at the Crazy Horse Monument Visitor Center to hang out and wait until the start. After about an hour of waiting around, I hopped the shuttle bus to the start – 1/2 mile away – just too lazy to walk or run there. Once I got to the start I got my bib and chip and was all set to go with about 15 minutes till race start. After a few races instructions about the course changes from 2006 and nothing about how to run with cows and bulls we were off.
The first few miles were basically around the Crazyhorse Monument and consisted of rolling hills (elevation approx 6,000 feet). As we ran past the visitor center down the hill towards the monument/turn around point, from the left I see this huge cow with calf in tow. And then from the right two deer come darting out of the woods. As we got closer to the point where the cattle were crossing the road/route, I see two more cattle appear on the left and then to the right in the woods just off the route are about 30 head of cattle all running in the same direction as the herd of runners. Looking back to the left some more I see another 30 head of cattle heading at us. What I start to see is a convergence of the cattle trail and the marathon route. I've never run with cows before and I wasn't too sure what to do when I finally got to the converged trails. Just as I got to the converged trail the cows to the left stopped and watched us run by. With that cattle episode over, we made our way to the turn away point in the shadow of the Crazyhorse Monument (not really in the shadow since the sun was rising to the right of our route but you get the gist – we were pretty close).
After retracing our route, we climbed the hill towards the exit of the monument and got onto the Mickelson Trail for 10 miles of slightly downhill running. Mickelson Trail is a rails to trails path with soft packed gravel which made for ideal running conditions. I ran with Lisa (first place female) for a few miles before I picked up the pace around mile 7. The remaining six miles were pretty uneventful as I finally entered Hill City at 1:33. I knew there were some hills coming up and my pace would slow down but I was not prepared for the hill that started at 13.2 miles. I'm one who prefers up-hills but these hills from 13.2 miles to 19 and then again at mile 20 were pretty intense. Either that or it was the altitude kicking my ass (down to about 5100ft now).
Mile 15-17 were rolling hills with pretty step inclines then we went from road to trail. Shortly before we went off road, I looked to my left and I could see some more cows but this time the cows had horns. Something went off in my head – these were bulls. Now I've seen people on TV running with the bulls in Pamplona and rodeo clowns running from bulls but I was in marathon. I didn't pay too much attention to the bulls (with cows and calves in tow) until I realized they were to my left and to my right. I started thinking back to the starting announcement where I didn't hear anything about running next to free range cattle/bulls. This time I was a little worried because of the bulls. I had no knowledge on how to keep a bull from charging (don't look at it in the eyes?) or if one does charge how to get away (maybe run and hide behind a tree?). Well, I just kept running with my head hung low not looking at any of the bulls. Within a few hundred feet, I had cleared the cattle trail and continued up the washed out fire road to the "top" at mile 19. I started to really tire about this time and decided to start walking the steepest parts of the hills. My pace had slowed considerably over the last few miles but I knew once I crested the hill it was all down hill again. I got to the aide station at Mile 19, took a GU and some water and with the comment "It's all down here from here", I took off running. I was back on pace – 7:05 for the next three-quarters of a mile and I felt great. Then all of sudden the course went up hill. During this uphill section, I was able to pass a runner but then I started to walk again has my breathing became labored. I managed to suck it up and crest this last hill before another aide station at Mile 20. As I approached Mile 20, I heard it again "Its all down here from here," and I replied, "Yeah, I've heard that before about one mile back," and did get a chuckle out of the person who said it was all down hill. And in fact that person was right – it was all down hill from there.
My legs were tired but still capable of pounding out the last six miles at what I hoped would be around a 7:05 – 7:30 min/mile pace. Mile 21 came and went and I was running about a 7:48/pace – not even close. The legs were alright but I was out of breath and felt light headed at times. So I started to walk/jog. I was immediately passed by Lisa (actually it was like she sprinted past me). Then I started to do the wounded runner routine – look behind you to see who is coming up. Big mistake, when I see that in a race I know I'm gonna pick that person off and it gives me great satisfaction and here I was – that person looking behind me. I was passed by four more people over the next four miles to include the guy I passed at mile 19.75.
I'm not sure if I hit the wall or not but all I know is that I was out of breathe. I even had my hands over my head trying to get some deeper breaths but to no avail. This was something I've never experienced in a marathon before. I don't want to attribute it to altitude sickness because it was kinda lower elevation at that point and I've been in races and places at much higher elevations w/o problems. But all I know it I had one more mile to go and I was not gonna be passed so I jogged the last 1.2 miles and pulled myself across the line in 3:32:59, 13th place, 5th age. It took me nearly two hours to run the last 13 miles. (Lisa who sprinted by me finished in 3:22 and I was two+ minutes ahead of her around Mile 15 so needless to say I lost a lot of time). After getting some pretzels and sun dried bagels (that was all the post race food they had unless you wanted to pay $2.50 for some chili)) and a few words with the race director (t-shirt and packet pick-up – another story), I started to feel sick to my stomach and pretty weak. So I sought out the shuttle bus and made my way back to the hotel where I promptly took a post-marathon nap for the first time ever. I felt as if I was gonna throw up and even after a 45 minute nap, I still felt that way. I had no appetite, was drinking water but still felt like crap.
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