32 - Fargo, ND - Henry

During the Fargo marathon, there were some out and back portions where we could see the runners before us and behind us.  At one point I saw Henry, the marathon man I met in Oklahoma.  Henry was running his 799th marathon that day ...  Sunday, the next day he ran in Green Bay, Wisconsin, his home state for his 800th Marathon (see his photos from that marathon below)!

Henry finishing the Green Bay Marathon on Sunday.

 Cake the race committee had for Henry after he finished.

Henry and his cake...


Congratulations Henry!

32 - Fargo, North Dakota

Start slow and easy, finish fast and strong— this is my marathon philosophy.  Sometimes this transpires during my marathons, but other times I start slow and easy, but finish even slower and easier! However, the stars were aligned for the Fargo Marathon and my marathon philosophy panned out.   What can I attribute this to? My pre-race dinner, running Kentucky 4 weeks prior, the Tyenol 8 hour I took prophylactically an hour before the start, the Vibram FiveFingers I've been running in more consistently, who knows?  All I know is that I felt FANTASTIC!

The Fargo Marathon was listed as the "8th Best Overall Marathon in America" by Runner's World in January 2010.  So Fargo became my choice for my North Dakota marathon.  "Yah, you betcha!" But to be honest, I did not really look for other North Dakota marathons.

This is a popular marathon, as I discovered when I was trying to book a hotel room for the weekend.  Everything was sold out.  I decided to wing it and find a room once I got there.  I flew into Minneapolis, rented a car, and drove to Fargo, which took about 4 hours.  Marathon "headquarters" was the Fargodome; number pick-up, the expo, the starting and finished area for the marathon were all there.


The hotel search was on after I picked up my number and walked around the expo. Across the street from the Fargodome I saw a hotel, stopped in there first.  They had one room left...and it was mine, luck of the Irish, thanks Dad!

The women at the front desk recommended a local Italian restaurant for dinner. I drove into downtown Fargo and found the restaurant, but there was a wait.  Every runner in town must have been there. I noticed a funky little place around the corner that wasn't too crowded ... HoDo Lounge, in Hotel Donaldson.  It seemed like the "place to be."

They had an adequate dinner menu, my pre-marathon dinner was there.  Some runners who had run the 5K that night came in too.  It was fun to chat with them and get the low down on the local scene.  This WAS the place to be.

Started with a salad,
Organic Garden Greens
mixed greens, tomatoes, cucumbers,
red onions, carrots, croutons, choice of house made dressing

And then, for my main course, had the bison (remember, I'm in North Dakota!).
Bison NY
black truffle and yukon pavé, wild mushrooms, broccolini,
micro greens, shaved black truffles, white peppercorn demi glacé

Everything was delicious.  And everyone was so friendly!

On my way back to the hotel, I stopped at Cherry Berry a self serve yogurt bar.
While I was sitting out front eating my yogurt, I met Ryan Taylor, a North Dakota senator running for governor.  Literally and figuratively: running for governor.  He was running the marathon the next morning.

Saturday night after the marathon,  I followed the same pattern, dinner at HoDo Lounge and desert at CherryBerry.  As Mae West said, "Too much of a good thing, can be wonderful." My cuisine choices were a little different,

Started with,
Fresh Manila Clams
white wine broth, grilled bread 
and Grilled Olives
artichoke and tomato beurre blanc, crostini 

then had a
Bison Burger
local bison, lettuce, tomato, grilled onion, Wisconsin cheddar . 

The night before the marathon, the sound of heavy rain woke me up.  In the morning, it was thunder and lightening.  Chance of rain was 80% for the day.  But the 20% won out!  It didn't rain for the rest of the day.

I felt mellifluous during the run— yes, mellifluous!  The course was flat as they said, and there was lots of music along the course to keep it interesting.  I held back, took it slow and easy, until mile 20 and then I started to "pick off" people.  My strategy is to find a target person ahead of me, catch them, run with them for a little, and then find another target ahead.  And I keep doing this for the last six miles; it helps to pass the time and makes it a little more fun.  As you can see from the following results, I passed 195 runners. I'm sure it wasn't all in the last six miles, but many were.

After the run I happily walked across the street to my hotel, took a long hot shower, and then crashed for the afternoon.  VERY happily, since I had a room and didn't have to drive anywhere!

For the movie buffs out there, the movie "Fargo" is named after the city but was not shot in or near Fargo.  It was filmed in northeast Minneapolis and the local areas around Grand Forks, ND.  "Fargo" as the title was chosen because it sounded more interesting than "Brainerd."

Enjoy some more pictures from Fargo...

Two weeks until South Dakota.  Maybe I should have just stayed?

31 - Louisville, Kentucky

This marathon was part of The Kentucky Derby Festival, a two-week long, community-wide celebration for the Kentucky Derby.  Mark came along to continue his 60th birthday celebration.  When will his birthday celebration end?!?

We arrived late on Thursday, April 26.  On Friday morning, we went over to the marathon packet pick-up, which was across the street from our hotel. The afternoon we spent exploring downtown Louisville.

We walked along Riverfront Park, stopped by the Fest-a-Ville on the Waterfront, and explored the Frazier International History Museum.  If you are interested in guns, this is the museum to visit!
For dinner we stopped at Bristol Bar & Grille, where we met a waiter who was running his first marathon the next day.

The marathon started at 7:30 AM in the downtown area, just was a quick walk from our hotel.  I was excited to run through Churchill Downs which was at about mile 8.  Once we arrived at Churchill Downs, we ran under the grandstands, through a tunnel entrance onto the infield, around the infield service road, and then out again.  There were horses warming up on the track as we ran by, which put a little pep in our step!

After Churchill Downs, we were off to a run around Iroquois Park, which was planned by Frederick Law Olmsted. This was the hilliest part of the course. As I was leaving the park at about mile 15, I saw the waiter from the night before.  He was quite chipper and still in good spirits.

The remainder of the marathon was uneventful and flat.  At mile 20 I started talking to a friendly women from Tennessee.

Friend from Tennessee is behind me in the white tank top.  We hadn't met at this point when this picture was taken. 

She had started with her boyfriend, but he cut it short and only ran the half marathon course.  She and I chatted about everything, which helped to pass the last 6.2 miles.

If you can believe it, Mark was waiting at the finish line!  I know that it helped to call him about an hour before I was planning on arriving at the finish line to give him a heads up.

After the run, we went back to the hotel and I took a nap to get ready for Opening Night for the 2012 Spring Track Events at Churchill Downs.  John Fox, a friend of ours, got us tickets.  Thank you John!

Our seats were just past the finish line.  We got there early to walk around and of course to have the
obligatory Mint Julep.  I totally understand why it is called a "sipping" drink! Actually, it tastes pretty bad — maybe it's an acquired taste?

Mark read "How to Wager" in the program and much to his dismay, I did not follow any of the advice in the program.  My betting plan was to pick the horse with the worst odds... to win.   We came out a whopping $0.60 ahead by the time we left!  No worries about me getting a gambling addiction.

30 - Surfside Beach, Texas

Thunder, lightening, pouring rain, and 26.2 miles on the beach — all made for an unique marathon in Texas.  This was a small marathon with less than three hundred runners, and Surfside Beach is a cool, little beach community.

I flew into Houston, rented a car, and drove south to Galveston. I then continued driving another 20 miles west along the Gulf Coast to Surfside Beach.

Back in December I booked a room at Cedar Sands Motel for $50 per night, but when I arrived to check in the price for my room had doubled!  I cancelled the reservation and figured that I would be sleeping in my rental car since this was the day before the marathon.  Fortunately, the Surfside Motel was just around the corner  and they had a room available for $60 per night.  By this time I was getting hungry, so I stopped for lunch at Kitty's Purple Cow

and had a delicious burger.  After lunch, I drove over to the start / finish area at Stahlam Park to pick up my race number and T-Shirt.  

Stahlam Park Pavilion

The T-shirt was very cool!  It looks more like a surfing shirt than a running shirt and even has a hidden little zipper pocket.  Also, for first time Surfside Beach Marathon runners were given a gym bag with the Surfside Beach Marathon logo on it.  Yes, I know no one needs another bag, but it was the thought that counted.

While I was driving around Surfside, I saw a beach / surfing shop called Bingo Boards and decided to check it out.  Little did I know that it was also a surfing museum.  The owner, Bing Cosby, is a 60's guy who had competed around the world in his younger days. He still is a big surfer and the surfboards in his shop were amazing.

For dinner, I stopped at the Red Snapper Inn and had Shrimp Jambalaya and called it an early night.

The next morning I woke to a cloudy sky.  When the marathon started it wasn't raining, but within 10 minutes the heavens opened — pouring rain, thunder, and lightening.  At the starting line, I started talking to Sarah

Sarah

and ended up running with her for the entire marathon.  Sarah was using this marathon as a training run. She is doing the Ironman Texas on May 19, 2012.

Ready, set, go!

Sarah and I kept waiting for us to be pulled off the course since the rain, thunder, and lightening didn't let up, but we never were.  By mile 15, our sneakers were completely soaked and filled with sand. Sarah and I decided to take off our shoes and carry them for the rest of the marathon.  It was much more comfortable running barefoot in the sand.

Sarah was trying to beat her time from last year and she was able to better her time by about 5 minutes. She came in first in her age group, and I came in second in my age group.

After I got back to my motel, I took a long hot shower to warm up!  Then I drove to Galveston to check out the Mardi Gras festivities.  Unfortunately, the "festivities" didn't start until later in the evening and I couldn't find a hotel room there, so I headed back to Houstan and got a room near the airport.

This was a first for me, running in the thunder and lightening.  Not sure how safe it was, but I'm here to write about it.  What I love about doing these marathon in different states, is the interesting people I get to meet.  Sarah is an amazing person, and I loved running with her and hearing about her life.

29 - Tecumseh Trail Marathon - Bloomington, Indiana

The Tecumseh Trail Marathon was a scenic and challenging run in Morgan-Monroe and Yellowwood State Forests with about 700 runners. It was unfortunate that I was battling a cold from the moment I left NYC until the moment I returned.  All I thought about was being in a warm, cozy bed. I tried to make the best of the situation— mind over matter —but it was a battle.

I flew into Indianapolis, rented a car, and drove down to Bloomington on Friday afternoon. I pickup up my registration material on Friday night at the host hotel, A Summerhouse Inn, which was quite intimate, aka very small.  Then I went to dinner at a local place, Bucceto's Smiling Teeth for some delicious lasagna.  While I was waiting for a table, the next two people in line started chatting with me.  They were also running the marathon the next day and asked me to join them for dinner, which I gladly did.  Jeff and Jeff were childhood friends from Chicago and I enjoyed listening to their banter back and forth about running, their families, and life in general.

Fortunately for me, the marathon didn't start until 10 AM on Saturday.  Sleeping in the morning of a marathon was a welcomed change, especially with my cold. About 8:45 AM, I drove to A Summerhouse Inn where there were buses taking the runners to the start line at the Morgan-Monroe State Forest office.  This was a point-to-point course, starting from the Morgan-Monroe State Forest office and finishing at Yellowwood Lake, mostly on the Tecumsah Trail. I found a YouTube video that a couple made when they ran the marathon in 2009, which gives you an accurate idea of what the marathon was like.  Click here to watch the video.

The best part of this marathon was the post-race amenities at the finish line. They had an open, old stone structure with two huge fireplaces, which they had enclosed for post marathon warmth and comfort. So after I finished with the marathon, I got some of the homemade vegetable soup and got cozy in front of a fire.  This was truly ecstasy!!!






Now it's time to catch up on my past marathon blogs and plan my marathon schedule for 2012!

28 - Rock 'n' Roll Savannah Marathon, Georgia

Finisher medals waiting for finishers

In August of 2010, I received an email about the inaugural Rock 'n' Roll Savannah, Georgia Marathon. The email encouraged you to sign up early to receive a huge discount on the entry fee. Because Georgia was still on my list of states to complete a marathon,  I seized the opportunity for early registration and only paid $65. That was the cheap and easy part. I then learned it was super-expensive to fly to Savannah directly from NYC (about $1200 round trip). In addition,  the hotels in the area of the start and finish line were astronomically priced (over $250 per night; 2 night stay required).

All this just to run a marathon in Georgia?  I was considering taking a loss of $65 and finding another Georgia marathon to complete.

The Rock 'n' Roll Marathon Series is "run" by an organization, Competitor, that puts on half and full marathons throughout the United States and is expanding internationally.  I had never run a Rock 'n' Roll marathon and thought it would be fun.  Little did I know that the Rock 'n' Roll Marathon Series is only concerned about the money!  They charged for things that at most marathons are included in the entry fee. The big thing that got me was that they charged you to ride the shuttle to the start of the marathon from many of the hotel locations. 

But let me go back to bit first before I continue...back in February while running a marathon in Tulsa, Oklahoma, I had met a fellow runner named Henry.  In my eyes,  Henry should be called "The Marathon Man" because he is a true Running Guru.  He runs a marathon or two almost every weekend. He was soon to finish running a marathon in all 50 states for the 10th time —yes the 10th time!!!!  During the Tulsa marathon, I ran with him for a bit and picked his brain about the best way to complete the 50 states.

So, now when I was trying to decide if I should run the Rock 'n' Roll Marathon in Savannah, I decided to contact Henry for his input. Well, it turns out that Henry was planning to run the Savannah marathon too!  He was flying into Raleigh, NC, which was much cheaper, driving to Savannah, and staying at a hotel on the outskirts of Savannah that was reasonably priced.   Henry offered to let me tag along.  Mark happened to be lecturing in Raleigh, NC the same weekend as the marathon, so I decided to fly to Raleigh with Mark (no need to tell you about missing our flight out of LaGuardia on Thursday)  and meet up with Henry.

Henry and I met at the airport on Friday about noon and drove 5 hours to Savannah.  We were planning on being at the expo by 5 PM to pick up our race numbers. The expo was at the Savannah International Trade and Convention Center, which is on Hutchinson Island.  Once we reached the Talmadge Bridge to get to Hutchinson Island, however, we hit bumper-to-bumper traffic.

It took us over an hour to go about one mile. Once we were near the convention center, there was limited parking — overall, getting to the expo was not a pleasant experience.  We finally got out of there about 7 PM.

Henry and I decided that we needed to be at the start early since this was an inaugural marathon and we anticipated lots of kinks, like we had experienced the night before getting to the expo.  We were NOT taking one of the shuttles that you had to pay for.  We left our hotel at 5 AM and drove to the Ogelthorpe Mall to take the FREE shuttle to the start line.  As the crow flies, the Ogelthorpe Mall is only about 3 miles from the start but it took us over an hour to get there.  Good planning on Henry's part!

We had lots of time before the 7:30 AM start.  To be honest, I was a bit exhausted from the complicated logistics and lack of sleep.  Fortunately I found a restaurant, B. Matthew's Eatery that was open and serving coffee; I waited there and kept warm.  AND it was directly across from my starting "corral."  No, I was not racing on a horse.  Let me explain....because there were 23,000 people registered, all the runners couldn't start the race at the same time (it they did, it would result in utter chaos).  Instead, this marathon had what's referred to as a wave start.  For this, we were separated into 23 groups (corrals) with about 1000 people in each corral.  The first group of runners started at 7:30 AM with each successive corral starting about 1 minute later.  I was in corral 16, so I finally got started at about 7:46.

Running the marathon was a blast; it made up for the logistical nightmare.  Along the course, there were bands and cheering sections about every mile —no need for an iPod.  The course took us through historic sections, residential areas, business and factory sectors; what stood out the most to me was the Spanish moss hanging off the Oak Trees throughout the city.  It was mystifying...

Spanish Moss

Another "stand out" point along the course was Optimist Field at Daffin Park.  Running past that definitely put a smile on my face...

There was no time to enjoy the post-race festivities; we had to get out of Savannah as soon as we could.  Henry was running the Raleigh City of Oaks Marathon the next day back in Raleigh to complete his 760th Marathon —YES, I really did mean number 760!!!

For me, I needed to get back to Raleigh because Mark and I had dinner plans with a friend, Katsumasa and his family in Raleigh.  Katsumasa was one of my students when I was teaching in Japan after college.  He is now working in Statesville, NC, for a Japanese company called ASMO, North America.  We met at a local Japanese restaurant in Raleigh called Waraji that is popular with the Japanese community in NC. It definitely was a true taste of Japan in North Carolina.

Savannah is a place that I want to revisit and spend more time.  It seemed to have a down south romantic charm that I didn't get to experience during the marathon.  I will be back!

Next state marathon is in Indiana, the Tecumseh Trail Marathon on December 3, 2011.

27 - Freedom's Run - Harpers Ferry to Shepherdstown, West Virginia

For my West Virginia marathon, I decided on the Freedom's Run Marathon in Shepherdstown, WV. This race was suggested to me by Carol, one of my running buddies from NYC who has friends that live in Shepherdstown.  Both Carol and Dave, another running friend from NYC, decided to join me for the race, which was a great idea because Dave volunteered to do all of the driving (thanks Dave!).

Late Thursday afternoon, Dave, Carol and I left NYC. After driving for almost 4 hours, we stopped in southern Pennsylvania to spend the night with Karin, my childhood friend.  On Friday, we drove on for another 3 hours to Shepherdstown where the marathon was being held.  After picking up our race numbers, we stopped in at the Shepherdstown Sweet Shop Bakery for a snack.  They were selling "marathon" bread so we pick some up for dinner.  On Friday night Stephen and Jeffery, our hosts, made the most delicious pre-marathon dinner — quinoa with lots of fresh veggies. And of course, we also indulged in some of the "marathon" bread, which was yummy;)

On Saturday, it was marathon day.  Unfortunately, we woke up to a chilly and wet, rainy day.  The course was scenic, with rolling hills through the lower Shenandoah valley as well as four historic national parks.  We passed through Harpers Ferry, the site of a 19th century arsenal and transportation hub where railroads and canal boats carried cargo and passengers East and West.  Then, we proceeded over the Potomac River on the Appalachian Trail footbridge and headed west on the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal.  At Miller’s Sawmill Road, we headed uphill toward Antietam National Battlefield, the site of the 1862 Civil War fight that was also the bloodiest one-day battle in U.S. history.  It was a tough course but worth it!

Saturday afternoon, we lounged around the house. Early that evening, we went for drinks at Mecklenberg Inn or as the locals call it, the "Meck."  BK (Bar Kitty), an orange tailless kitty was our host at the "Meck."  Dinner was at the Press Room, a local restaurant.

Sunday morning, we had breakfast at Betty's, a local landmark.  Then we hit the road to head to NYC for the long ride back home.