Just over a month removed from running the Boston Marathon,
I had hit sort of a mild depression from the post race blues. I had trained and looked forward to that race
for about 4 years and now that it was over I felt like I did not have a purpose
for running anymore. As circumstances
would have it, my sister was living in Junction City Kansas due to her husband
being stationed at Fort Riley with the army.
She had asked for the family and me to come and visit during the summer
while the kids were out of school. I immediately
started searching the internet for a marathon in the area since Kansas is not a
part of the country I normally visit and this would give a good opportunity to
mark another state off the list. As
circumstances would have it, Fort Leavenworth was having their 2nd
annual Army Birthday Marathon on the weekend I would be there and it was less
than 2 hours away from her home. Another
big plus was the fact that it only cost $30 for the entry fee, who could pass
that up?
When I mentioned to friends that I would be running this
marathon, the first misconception is that it would be a flat course. In fact the opposite was true; this actually
contained a gigantic hill that had to be run over a total of 4 times. The race had a 5k, 10k, half-marathon and
full marathon event. All of the routes
were out and back with the marathon being the half course repeated twice. The course went up past the Fort’s historic cemetery
containing several
private markers to great military leaders such as Brigadier General Henry
Leavenworth—the fort’s namesake—and Colonel Edward Hatch. You could immediately feel the historical
significance of this military institution which once was home to the legendary
Buffalo Soldiers. I considered this a
nice run through history even as the course passed by the famous Ft.
Leavenworth penitentiary with its towering walls along a gorgeous view of the
Missouri River.
I
have to steal a quote from Charles Dickens to describe this race as the best of
times and the worst of times. A couple
of difficulties for this race came not only with the hills along the course but
also due to the temperature being at a hot 93 degrees along a freshly finished
black pavement road. Some positives from
the race came when I realized that I had been the fortunate recipient of the
coveted bib #1 which I consider in the running world to be both a privilege and
an honor. The marathon also had roughly
only 10 participants since most others had decided to run the shorter distances
which made my chances of a top finisher increase significantly.
As
the race began in a cluster with all 4 race distances beginning together along
the same course and only separating at the designated turning spot, I was
pretty much in the lead pack for everyone including the 5k and 10k
runners. After the 10k turnaround spot,
I slowed down to run with the half marathon leader in order to have someone to
pace with and talk to during the first half of the race. The day was warm and sunny but the low
humidity made it bearable. I made it
back to the start line at 1 hour and 50 minutes, which would have given me
second place if I crossed the finish line for the half-marathon but instead I
turned back around to complete the second half with a significant lead over the
rest of the group. I did not see another
marathon runner until I passed him at mile 14 for me which was mile 12 for him,
so I had roughly a 2 mile lead at the halfway point. This is a weird feeling that I had never
experienced before. Being in the lead
gives the attitude of being chased. I
was in a spot that I had never thought I’d ever be in and loved every moment of
it. The thought of winning first place
overall in a marathon had never seemed like it would even be possible even
though this was such a small race and I did not want to lose it. At this point I picked up the pace because
anything less than winning would be a failure I could not endure. I constantly kept looking back over my
shoulder on long straight-aways to make sure that I had not lost any
ground. People joke with me all the time
saying that they don’t run unless someone is chasing them and this time,
someone really was. The second half was run
faster than the first. I finished in
3:33:00. I was ecstatic after coming in
1st place overall on such a tough course on a very hot day. The thrill of victory soon turned into
multiple frustrations when I first found out that the electronic timing system
had stopped working due to the heat from the weather so there was not an
official finish time to record for any of the marathon finishers. The next problem that “really” ticked me off
came when I went to retrieve my 1st place overall marathon medal and
found that it had been given away to the finisher of a different distance. They had medals for every age group in every
distance and someone had mixed them all up and ended up giving away the
marathon medal to someone else who did not earn it. The only 1st place award that they
had left was the over 50 age group for the 5k.
I am still upset over this, there is no online record of my finish and I
do not have a medal to prove that I even ran this race. They tried to give me the 5k award but I told
them to keep it because it was worthless to me.
I was promised that they would send me the right one in the mail but
that was six months ago and I have given up on ever getting it. Like I said, it was the best race because I
got first place but it was also the worst because I have no record or proof of
this accomplishment. That is the way
that life goes, sometimes there is a blessing intertwined with a curse. There are greater tragedies that happen in
life but at least Kansas has been checked off the list bringing my marathon
total to 8. Looks like it is time to
move on and look forward to another adventure in another state.
No comments:
Post a Comment