Bob Mann: 2012 Missoula Marathon

Sun Jul 8, 2012

On Sun July 8, I ran the Missoula Marathon. Montana became my 23rd state on my quest to run in all 50. I chose this one because I wanted to run my next marathon at about this time, and since there's not much to choose from in July, this became the choice. Plus, Montana is a difficult state to travel to from my home in New Jersey, so the sooner I can get the difficult states checked off the list, the happier I'll be.

This trip was to be a quick one for me. I flew out to Montana on Saturday morning, the race was on Sunday, and I flew home Monday. It's a long way to travel for less than 48 hours, but it's not like I haven't done it before. With a layover in Minneapolis, I arrived into the airport in Missoula a little after 1:00pm local time on Saturday. That gave me plenty of time to check into my hotel, hit the expo to grab my race packet, and even spend a bit of time walking around town.

Much of the country had been dealing with a heat wave, and Montana was no exception. Despite the fact that Missoula is at over 3000 feet altitude and is fairly far north, the daily high temperatures had been hitting the upper 90s, and the weekend I was in town was more of the same. As I was walking around town Saturday afternoon, a bank's thermometer said it was 97 degrees. Thankfully it wasn't at all humid. Still, the forecast was for similar conditions on Sunday, which would lead to an unpleasant marathon.

And thankfully the start time of the race was 6:00am, which meant the race would be over long before the temps reached their maximum. On the other hand, a 6:00am start time meant that the runners needed to be on board the shuttle buses to the start line by 5:00am, which in turn meant that I had to wake up at about 4:00am. At least that was 4:00am Mountain time. With my body used to Eastern time, that really wasn't too bad.

I woke up Sunday morning, grabbed a bite to eat, and made my way to the center of town. I boarded the bus, and was driven along with the rest of the full marathoners out to Frenchtown, Montana. The temp was about 60 at the start of the race, which wasn't too bad. But we all knew that those temps would be steadily climbing throughout the day.

I didn't have much expectations as far as my time went. I hadn't been doing terribly great in my long runs for the last few months, and had actually only gotten in one run over 14 miles since the marathon in Wisconsin a couple months earlier. Factor in the heat, and frankly I would just be happy to avoid a Personal Worst. That PW of 4:27 was set in my first-ever marathon, which was Chicago 2005. I would like to keep that as my slowest marathon for as long as I can. Inevitably, age will continue to slow me down, and someday I will be slower. I was just hoping that it wouldn't be today.

The race began with a blast of fireworks. It wasn't exactly the New York City Fourth of July display, but it was a nice touch. It might have been loud enough to bother the 1,825 residents of Frenchtown at that hour on a Sunday morning, though.

I tried to keep my pace slow from the beginning. My first mile was 9:15, and the subsequent few miles were right in that range too. After about Mile 3, the sun came over the mountains to the east, and things started to heat up. My fastest mile of the day was Mile 8, which I ran in 9:04. And the only reason I ran that one that fast was because I had started chatting with another runner and he had slowly picked up his pace while we were talking, and I guess I felt like I would rather also pick up the pace, as opposed to ending the conversation. Eventually, though, I did slow down a bit.

Around Mile 10, I passed run/walk marathon legend Jeff Galloway. He was doing his first marathon back from an injury. For a guy his age, he was making a pretty quick comeback. Mighty impressive. I also bumped into him back at my hotel later on and chatted with him for a while. He was a very friendly guy. Of course, he also made sure to plug his website.

For the most part, this was a very flat race. The finish line was at a slightly higher altitude than the start, but the increase was extremely gradual, such that it wasn't at all noticeable. That is, except for the big hill right in the middle of the course. Mile 14 included a very steep incline. While it might not have been as nasty as the hills in my last marathon in Lake Geneva , it was steep enough. And on this hot day, I wanted to save some energy, so I slowed to a walk for a good portion of the hill. My slowest mile through the first half was 9:43. Mile 14 was done in 11:23.

After leveling off for a while, Mile 16 included a steep downhill that brought us back to the level we were previously at. By this point, the temps were rising and the sun was blazing down. I often feel physically drained while running on a sunny day even if it's not very warm. There wasn't a could in the sky, and there was practically no shade. And the temps were going up and up. I never regained the pace I had been running before the hill, as I sunk into the upper-9:00s, which soon became 10:00-plus. Mile 17 was the last mile I ran in under 10 minutes.

I started noticing a bunch of runners pulled off to the side of the road nursing cramps. My muscles were barking at me, but I didn't get a full-blown cramp-up. I made sure to take at least two cups of Gatorade at each aid station, and I usually grabbed a cup of water also, which I dumped over my head.

While my legs were feeling quite tight, I never fully cramped up. A couple times I thought I might be in trouble, but whenever I felt a cramp coming on, I slowed to a walk and took it easy until I loosened up. After about Mile 20, we were into the city of Missoula and among civilization again. Thankfully, there occasionally now were trees lining the road providing some brief moments of shade. Also, many residents set their sprinklers up along the side of the road to give the runners a chance to briefly run through a refreshing mist.

Finally the course wound back to downtown Missoula, and we crossed the river to the finish line. My final time: 4:22:12. Not impressive by any means, but I avoided the PW by 5 minutes. I'll take it.

Yes, the heat and sun made for a grueling race. But I actually think it was a terrific event. There were a bunch of small, nice touches along the way. There were different tech shirts for the half marathoners and the full marathoners. Most races of this size will have one generic shirt for all runners. I like having a shirt that clearly shows that I ran the marathon. The shirt is also a nice dark red color. Most of my race shirts are white, gray or blue. Next, after the finish line, there was a spot where the runners could get their picture taken with their medal in front of a nice backdrop. While there is nothing uncommon about that, the nice part is that they would print out a 5x7 copy of that photo and give it to each runner for free. Most races lump those pictures in with the other race photos that cost $20 or more each. And next, there was a computer at the post-race tent where runners could just type in their bib number, and the computer would print out a little card with the final results, splits, and overall, gender, and Age Group placement. I thought these were a bunch of nice add-ons that runners don't get at most races.

One thing I've noticed at these small-town races in out-of-the-way areas is that practically all the runners are 50 Staters and/or Marathon Maniacs. Sure, there are some local folks who participate. But there aren't that many people who live in and around Missoula, which means most people are from elsewhere. And that most of those people are quite serious about marathoning. This means that there's a great amount of information on other marathons around the country to be gained from talking to people. While this may be the fist time I've mentioned this in a Race Report, it's certainly not the first time I've noticed it. I got some great tips on what races to look at and what races to avoid in other states in the future. As of this writing, I don't know what my next marathon will be. I'm thinking that I'd like to wait until approximately November, to give myself some time to recover. But nonetheless, I am nearly halfway through the 50 states, and I am excited to continue my progress. As for Missoula, I was happy to do the race and happy to spend a couple days in Big Sky country.

And now the photos. Click any image to enlarge.

A little before 6:00am, at the start line in Frenchtown

A crowd of runners waiting

Fireworks signaling the start. Not the best picture, though

Another shot of the fireworks

A lot of runners don't know how to follow instructions

Most people were 50 Staters and/or Maniacs. Notice the moon still up in the sky.

Plenty of wide open spaces in Montana

Sunrise coming over the mountains

About the only building we passed in the first 8 miles was this seemingly-abandoned stone quarry

Lots of horses and cows along the way. And umm, I'm already sweating pretty good. This is probably about Mile 5.

Every race I seem to get at least one person offering to take my picture for me so that they're not all BobCam shots

Hey, spectators! Hadn't seen any of them yet! There weren't many, but the ones who were out there were very loud and supportive.

I think one of those people behind me is Jeff Galloway. And that lady on the bike was around me the entire time. I think I heard her tell someone that her daughter was running the race. She must've been near me the whole time.

More horses

Heading towards the one hill of the race. And hey, cool pic of my shadow!

The halfway point, and a blazing sun

Going uphill

Thank goodness for occasional shade

There isn't wide-open scenery like this in New Jersey

A guy in a tux playing a grand piano. Okay.

Around Mile 17, we started approaching civilization. Not sure what's up with the giant plastic steer, though.

There were a bunch of signs like this one stuck on telephone poles along the course with all sorts of crazy saying. This is only one I got a legible picture of. Not really sure why they were there. But thanks for the advice!