Sunday, May 25, 2008

Madison, WI Marathon Race Report

I really enjoyed this marathon! Although I was horribly conditioned, with tremendous need for quad strengthening to better prepare for the hills, I found the course to be beautiful! The support was tremendous, and the course was fairly unique among marathons I've run in that it was a mix between running on streets and running on trails.

Official Race Results: Time: 04:24:58; Age 50-54: 49/75; Male: 538/739; Overall: 792/1194

Saturday, May 10, 2008

Quarryman 10-mile Race Report

I ran the Quarryman 10-mile challenge in downtown Lemont today. It was a great run! I really was challenged by the huge change in elevation along the course, but surprised myself in that despite my lack of focused training on hills I did well! One of the funniest verbal exchanges was when starting the first of the many near vertical hills happening to see a policeman guarding traffic on the street I jokingly said "what.... they promised me there'd be no hills on this course", to which the officer immediately responded with a grin "...well, son, they LIED to you!"

The people of Lemont were extremely supportive and loudly cheered on the runners. At one point at about mile 6 there was a group of elementary school kids providing fluids to the runners. Seeing me pour water over my back and chest a 3rd grade boy asked if he could splash me too. When I said yes the whole group of kids happily poured their cups of water on me (somewhat to the frustration of surrounding runners, who were looking to get a drink themselves!)

Afterwords the organizers of the event handed out incredibly cool trophies chipped from the original stone which was dug along Lemont's quary. Hope some day to have a chance to receive one of those trophies!

Official Race Results: Time: 01:26:31; Age 50-54: 14/23; Male: 104/196; Overall: 137/317