Starved Rock Marathon

The Starved Rock Marathon turned out to be an interesting event.  A thunderstorm hit in the middle of the race and they officially closed it down for awhile.  I was at mile 19 when the rain started and heard the announcement of cancellation at mile 20.  It said that when the bus reached you, you needed to get on it.  Well, I wasn't going to just stand in the storm waiting for it, so I, like many runners, just kept going.  By mile 22, still no bus and the storm had mostly passed by.  Again, just kept going.  It turned out many people kept going as well.  Although many were picked up, too.  I never saw the bus.  

I'm glad I kept going.  It turned out to be a very good run for me.  Although it didn't start out that way.  For the first seven to eight miles, I just didn't feel very well.  My running form felt disjointed and not very smooth.  My legs were on the stiff side.  I'm guessing this had something to do with the cold I caught on Thursday and was still sniffling on marathon morning.  Whatever it was I figured it just wouldn't be one of my best days.  But as long as I finished, it would be a good long run as training.

The hills come about mile ten.  There is a series of four with some downhill between them.  For whatever reasons, things started to come together.  I was able to power up the hills pretty well and letting out the stride on the downhills really changed things for me.  After the hills we go through Starved Rock State Park which has another good downhill.  One last up and down going over the bridge crossing the Illinois River at Utica and then flat the rest of the way for about the last 10 miles.  Felt good the rest of the way, ran through the storm and finished strong.  Ended up with 3:49:00, well under my 'A' goal and a BQ time.  31st overall and 1st in my age group.  Very pleased all around

The big test would be the next day.  Did I push too hard and now I will need a week or more to recover?  To make a long story short, I was able to put in a good six miles at almost my normal training pace.  And today (2 days after), although the legs were a little stiffer, I still up in an eight miler.  So -- "Mission Accomplished" this weekend and Hennepin training is on track.