-- What. Held on June 7, this point-to-point race begins in the hamlet of Rockford, at an elevation of 5360 feet and climbs to 6180 feet over the first 13 miles, with an average grade of 1.4%. It then descends to finish in the town of Deadwood, South Dakota at 4600 feet, with a couple of additional uphills along the way. Total elevation gain is 960 ft. The course is primarily crushed cinder but begins on a dirt road for about 1.5 miles prior to joining the trail. |
| Driving toward Deadwood from Rapid City, along Alt 14. |
The George S. Mickelson Trail is the first rail-to-trail ways in South Dakota, and is named after the governor who helped spearhead the project. In total, it is 109 miles long and primarily follows a rail line constructed in 1890-1 and last operated in 1983. The town of Deadwood is nestled in the Black Hills and was a booming town in the gold mining era, with both gambling and prostitution providing major revenue streams. The last of the brothels was closed in 1980! The town was declared a historical landmark in 1961 but was on the decline until 1989 when it became the first place outside of Las Vegas and Atlantic City to have legalized gambling. It's pretty close to Sturgis, which is a big spot for Harley Davidson, and is easily accessible from a flight in to Rapid City.
--Expo. Held at the Lodge of Deadwood, which was the host hotel (and inconveniently located at the non-interesting edge of town), was pretty small. I suppose this is reasonable for a race consisting of only 2410 participants, split among marathoners (358), half-marathon runners (1996), and marathon relay teams (56). It had the usual expo things but one noted difference was the availability of gaiters, for keeping gravel out of your shoes. Hmmm, I pondered buying a pair but wasn't sure I wanted to mess with the visual of my funny socks. In the end I decided to wear my funny socks, which already had holes in the toes, over my shoes so they would serve as gaiters. We did race check in on Friday, and grabbed lunch at the hotel afterward.
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| We found the trail near Brownsville Rd. |
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| It doesn't look like much of a hill, but I tell ya, it adds up. |
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| The sounds from the stream off to the right provided for additional tranquility as I ran. |
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| Same stream, as seen when running back to the car. |
-- The town of Deadwood. It looks like you'd think an old Western town would, complete with road closure at 5 o'clock for a mock gun fight. The historic section was perhaps 5 blocks long, and my hotel was in a great location for checking out this area which had bars, restaurants, gift shops, and gambling. My hotel room was nicer than the price would suggest, clearly newly remodeled, spacious, quiet, and completely suitable for the occasion. It also had very friendly hotel staff and a slightly mediocre continental breakfast.
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| The street is paved with brick in meticulous shape. The sides of the road still have hitching posts for parking patron's horses. |
-- Race morning (Sunday). I don't know what was up with my phone, but the alarm didn't sound. It worked fine the day beforehand, and on this day I luckily woke up to the sounds of people outside. Looking at the clock, it was 15 min before I was planning to be out the door. I didn't eat breakfast and barely made it out of the hotel in time for my jog to the shuttle buses, which out of nerves I ran faster than intended. After a couple of blocks I realized I'd forgotten to grab my disposable long-sleeved top that I meant to bring to keep warm at the start, which was certain to be cooler as it was at higher elevation and nestled into the mountains.
The rodeo didn't have any signs indicating there was a separate place for the buses to the marathon start, and no mention of this was made at the expo. But I overheard someone else attempting to confirm they were in the right place and we were directed to another spot, which we made it to as the 2nd to last bus pulled away. Note that there is NO parking at the race start and that participants must be dropped off either by one of the race-provided shuttle buses or by someone else. I rode the bus as I usually do, keeping to myself and trying to keep my morning hostility at bay, while listening to others talk about their 'terribly slow' low-3 h runs at some other event. I ate my 1 nutrition bar, which was supposed to be supplementary calories, not my only calories that morning.
-- Starting location. This was a gravel parking lot with porta-potties. We were dropped of at least an hour ahead of race time and I found a spot in front of the tire to a bobcat, which at least blocked the wind somewhat. I sat down indian style with my knees pulled up to my armpits and my tank top over my knees, and hugged myself to conserve heat. Others, who had done this before, brought small air mattresses with them, that I guess they turned in with their warm-clothes bag. My dad stayed in the host hotel, which offered a shuttle ride from that location and I kept my eyes out for when he arrived. Once I saw him, I darted over to tell him where I was and then ran back to my spot of shelter. He kept pressing me for my anticipated finish time, which I'd been tightly guarding so as to avoid his blatant disbelief, and I finally blurted out that Jack thought I could go upper 3:40's. Yeah, that quieted him down. For a nano-second. My dad is awfully chatty first thing in the morning, a trait I clearly did not inherit. After awhile a stranger offered up his long-sleeved shirt that he was taking off, and I gladly accepted it. After some time I returned the nice-person's shirt, joined the line for the porta-potty, and started to get my game face on. In case you don't know, this involves dancing like an idiot, which I continued after porta-pottying and finding my spot in the group at the starting line. Mentally, I dismissed all the mishaps to this point and was ready to kick ass.
-- The race. I headed off as per plan, but couldn't help but notice this did not feel easy. The starts of most activities usually feel kinda taxing to me, until my heart rate catches up and I settle into a rhythm. In this case, however, my heart rate was already in the 170's which I can tell you is nowhere near my marathon heart rate, which has been in the 140's for my prior races. I reminded myself of my goals for this year, to do what Jack said no matter how uncomfortable it felt, aiming to believe in myself as he did. And I tried to reach the intended pace for ~6 mi. But I was working hard; not hitting pace; slowing down; and questioning where the line was between giving it all I had and likely blowing up, and admitting this maybe just wasn't the race for the outcome he predicted. Then the fierce headwind hit, and that was that. It was so bad I actually had to laugh - I mean, what else is there to do when a gust disrupts your balance? Altitude, uphill course, cinder, 11 mph sustained headwind..., it was a hard race every way you sliced it. Never mind that I was hungry from the start.
-- Aid stations. What the hell were these people thinking? M&M's? Where were the usual items, like Gu or bananas? A couple of the stations had orange slices and I grabbed 2 fists full when I saw them. This race had a 3 or 4-person relay option. I was fooled by the people lining the course a couple of times, looking forward to an aid station that turned out to only be a relay hand-off point.
-- Mid point. Once I reached the 13.6 mile mark and the grade started to level out, I wondered whether I'd be able to pick the pace back up. I tried, but by this time I honestly didn't believe I was going to be pulling out any great speed. I thought of my dad, who even though he's run some 20 marathons, had no idea what pace he was going to be able to hold with this much elevation gain, and actually hoped he'd dropped out. I mean, if I was struggling this much, how's a guy of 69 going to feel? Speaking of age, I was dusted on more than one occasion by women very clearly older than I was. All I could think was, "you go girl!" and "where the heck do you live/train?"
By the way, even though the first half was uphill, and the second half a net down hill, those first 13 miles were not the only hills, and each new one added significant insult to injury. There were also two significant descents that were steep enough for the organizers to warn against becoming "a run-away". By the time I hit them my quads were so fatigued that I was afraid of blowing up.
-- Scenery. Maybe now is a good time to re-state that I did not chose this course so I could throw down a fantastic marathon time. I chose it because South Dakota was the only state I hadn't been to before, and because I thought the western side of the state would be beautiful to visit. There's another marathon in the area in October (Run Crazy Horse Marathon) that I believe uses a great deal more pavement for its course. But I really liked the quiet and peaceful experience of running the Bucks County trail marathon, which felt much more 'low key' than the big city marathons I've run (Philadelphia, Chicago, Berlin), and I thought the timing of the Deadwood race worked well with my calender plus avoided a conflict with hockey season. And this course was gorgeous. I wish I'd arrived to town a day earlier and rented a mountain bike so I could have stopped to take pictures. Well it seemed I didn't really need the bike, as one of those women who dusted me stopped repeatedly to take photos before darting off again. Apparently all I really needed was a camera and to not care about posting the best time I could.
The sky was crisp blue. The grass bright green. The pine trees dark green. The exposed rock faces making a striking contrast against those things and the river the trail followed. This race wins, hands down, for the most beautiful marathon I've done so far.
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| My dad and I had consecutive bib #'s, 82 and 82. He'd been worried about tripping over an uneven running surface but the trail and the bridges were in great shape. |
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| I wasn't walking, but wasn't running fast either. |
-- Finish area. Ready for some serious food, I was shocked and dismayed to learn there wasn't any. What did the finish line nourishment consist of? 1 small thing of chocolate milk, a quarter of a dry bagel, and more M&M's. I think they were out of fruit which may have been quartered oranges. This race had no bananas at all and they looked at me like I was the weird one when I asked for either that or a slice of pizza. Michelle later told me they had no cups for the M&M's; you just put your hands out and they'd scoop some out for you. Unfortunately, the volunteers didn't think to remind me there was an off-site post-race after party offering complimentary beer, water, and appetizers.
The way my throat was feeling made it pretty difficult to choke down the dry bagel, and that led me to get upset which aggravated the breathing issue, which made me even more upset. I ended up leaving a sniveling, shaking mess, as I got cold from sitting around in the wind while damp. What the heck has happened to me? I went back to my hotel for some warmer clothes and to check my cell phone for a message from my Dad.
-- Catching up with my Dad & Michelle. No message, so I headed back to the finish and took a look at the posted results to see I'd missed him. I caught up with him on the shuttle to his hotel. I ordered food while he got cleaned up, but before the food was served my appetite was crushed by a bad-news email. This turned out to be the first of many days where I barely ate anything.
Later that night, during dinner (where I mostly just poked at my food), Michelle asked if we'd seen the really cool age group awards they were giving out - painted rail road nails. She also mentioned getting her official results email, which prompted me to look for one. Holy crap, that email indicated I placed 3rd in my age group. But HOW? When in the history of mankind has a 4:24 earned 3rd place in a marathon? Guess I was just lucky that all those women who kicked my pants in the run were indeed older than me. I emailed the race people and after pre-paying for postage they sent me my award.
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| Low numbered bibs have turned out to be my good luck charm this year |
-- Results. 2:10:34 first half,
4:24:28 finish
3/17 by AG
39/169 by gender
121/358 overall
Average finish time was 4:55:55
1st in AG finished in 3:58:51
2nd in AG 4:15:48
17th in AG 7:08:45
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