Bob Mann: 2013 Five Points Of Life Marathon

Sun Feb 17 2013

On Sunday February 17 2013, I ran the Five Point of Life Marathon in Gainesville, Florida. This was my 25th state on my quest to run a marathon in all 50 states, putting me halfway to my goal. Of all the marathons in Florida, Gainesville may seem like an odd choice. But I attended the University of Florida for graduate school almost 20 years ago, so this race was a bit of a homecoming for me. I no longer know anybody who lives in town, but it was still nice to mark my halfway point in my old hometown.

I originally assumed that I would fly into a larger city like Jacksonville or Orlando or Tampa. It's typically much cheaper to fly to one of those, plus I could get a nonstop flight from New Jersey. But as it turns out, it was actually cheaper to fly to Gainesville. It did require a short layover in Atlanta each way. But with time saved by not having to drive to Gainesville from another airport, it was probably quicker as well as cheaper.

I arrived early Saturday afternoon, and rented a car. Since I wouldn't be driving very much, I just got the cheapest thing I could find. It was a Toyota Yaris, and it was tiny. I could almost pick the car up and carry it with me. But it would do to get me around town. I immediately went to pick up my race packet, and then check in to my (cheap) hotel. Since I was traveling alone, I felt like I didn't need any extravagance, so I stuck with the cheapest car and hotel I could get. If my wife and kid were with me, I would have been willing to pay for something better. But what I got suited my needs.

I spent a little time on Saturday late afternoon and evening driving around town, checking out the places I used to go, and strolling down memory lane. I've made it back for football games every so often -- most recently about three years ago -- so it's not like I haven't seen the town in a couple of decades. But it's still been a while, so it was fun to reminisce. And to see what changed. Not only are all the people that I knew gone from town, but many of the places are as well.

Of course I turned in early Saturday night. The race was at 7:00am on Sunday. And it was unusually cold for Florida. The temperature at the start of the race was 34 degrees. Most of the locals were not accustomed to temperatures this cold, and there was a lot of shivering going on in the start chute. Even I was feeling the chill, and this was slightly warmer than a normal February morning for me. It was great running weather, though.

This was a very small race. There were only 128 runners competing in the full marathon, plus another 30 relay teams. Another 629 people completed the half marathon, so the start chute wasn't completely empty.

One thing I've noticed about most of the small races I've done is that there are lots of 50 Staters and Marathon Maniacs around. Sometimes it has seemed like there are more people from out of state than locals. This was definitely not true in this case. Almost all the runners were from Gainesville or surrounding towns. It does make sense. For 50 Staters who need a marathon in Florida, Gainesville is certainly not the sexiest destination. And for Maniacs who wanted to run a race that particular weekend, this wasn't even the only choice in Florida. There was a larger marathon the same day in Jacksonville, just 90 miles away. There was also one in Fort Lauderdale. I did not meet another 50 Stater or Maniac all weekend.

As for my expectations for this race, I assumed I'd be in the same range as my last few marathons. All four of my marathons in 2012 were between 4:17 and 4:22, so I resigned myself to the fact that this was the pace of marathoner that I had become. I had "excuses" for each of those races: a minor injury, hills, heat, or lack of training. I didn't seem to have any of those excuses here, at least not at the outset. But I still wasn't expecting anything great.

The race started on the UF campus, in front of the gym that I used to work out at. We quickly left campus and went to northwest Gainesville, which is a residential area that I don't think I ever went to when I lived in town. The first few miles had more hills than I expected. It wasn't much, especially compared to my last few marathons. But it wasn't the flat-as-a-pancake terrain that I was expecting.

I fell into a good groove early and I was feeling good. I ended up running next to a gentleman who was running his first marathon. He was over 60 years old, but was still hoping to break 4 hours. That sounded overly optimistic to me for a first-timer of his age, but who am I to judge? We ran together and chatted, and stayed at almost exactly a 4 hour pace. He kept telling me that I shouldn't let him slow me down. And I kept telling him that my M.O. lately is to fade in the second half of races, so he shouldn't let me slow him down. But for now, we stuck together.

Around Mile 9, we headed into downtown Gainesville, which at least was territory that I was familiar with. After going thru downtown and heading towards campus, we ran down a street that I used to live on, and we ran past the first apartment building that I called home in Gainesville. Soon thereafter, we were on campus. The highlight of the time on campus was running into the football stadium ("The Swamp"). Unfortunately, we never made it on to the field. We ran around the concourse level, almost an entire lap of the stadium. That was pretty fun. We excited the stadium and ran past the Mechanical Engineering building where all my classes were. And then we worked our way back towards the start/finish area.

We ran with the half marathoners for about 12.9 miles before we divided off from them. At this point, the course became a lot more sparsely populated. We ran back towards downtown again, and then off onto the right lane of a fairly busy highway. This stretch was the dreariest part of the run. At least the lane was marked off with orange cones, so there was no danger from traffic. But it was still unpleasant to have cars and trucks zooming by us in the next lane over. As with most marathons that share a course with the half marathon, the first half was definitely the most pleasant.

I had passed the halfway point in just under 1:59. I was pleased to do that in less than two hours, but I knew that I couldn't keep up the pace. By Mile 16, I started to slow down. Not too much, but enough that I could hear the 4 hour pace group (small as it was) coming up behind me. They caught me, passed me, and kept going. But I wasn't too concerned, since I never had 4 hours as a goal for this race. The gentleman I was running with decided to stick with the 4 hour group, so he went ahead of me too. And this was fine with me. And as it turns out, he actually did manage to stick with the group and finish under 4. Quite impressive!

Despite the boring terrain, I am pleased with how I hung in there. I had not had a mile slower than 9:30 thru Mile 20. While I had clearly lost any chance at breaking 4 hours, that was fine with me. After Mile 20, I slowed down a little more, but not nearly as bad as in most of my previous races. We finally made our way back towards campus, and I managed to keep running. Mile 23 was 9:58. The next two were 9:54 and 9:57. I still had a little gas left, so I cranked it up a wee bit for Mile 26, which I covered in 9:37. Thus I managed to go the entire race without a single mile slower than 10 minutes. The last time I did that was nearly two years ago, all the way back in Little Rock. I crossed the finish line in 4:06:01. That's far from my fastest time, but it's better than I was expecting. And it's my fastest time overall since 2011. And I felt quite good! I am very pleased with how this race came out. It gives me hope that I might still have another sub-4 hour marathon in me, if I give it the proper amount of training.

The remainder of the day was spent wandering around town some more, and drinking beer at a few local college bars. As I said, I did not meet a single 50 Stater or Maniac. After checking the results, I was 72nd place out of 158 (including the relay teams). But I was 6th among non-Florida residents! This shows that there clearly were not many people running this race for the purpose of checking Florida off a map.

My overall impression is that this was a well organized race for such a small one. There certainly weren't many bells and whistles, but everything was handled well. Police presence was plentiful at intersections where traffic needed to be stopped, and all the volunteers were quite helpful and friendly. It would have been nice if the second half were as nice as the first half, and it would have been nice if we had run on the field at The Swamp instead of just around the concourse. But those are nitpicky complaints. I really enjoyed my weekend in Gainesville, and I am happy to have completed the first half of my quest back in my old hometown...

And now the photos. Click any image to enlarge.