Bob Mann: 2022 Sioux Falls Marathon

Sun Aug 28, 2022

After running my first marathon outside of the U.S. in May, I registered for another one here in the States. As with my first two marathons of 2022, this one was a meet-up spot for the 50 States Marathon Club. This one was in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. After Alabama and Indiana, it would be the third state that I completed for the second time.

Of course, running a marathon in the middle of Summer could be problematic due to the heat. I've done a number of Summer marathons before and a few of them have been rather warm. This one appeared to be headed that way as well. The forecast heading into the weekend showed a high over 90 for the race day of Sunday, August 28. The temps wouldn't get quite that warm until later in the day, but it would nonetheless be uncomfortable for running by the late morning. Especially as I've gotten older, I've found that I enjoy running in the heat less and less. So I headed out to South Dakota expecting a slow, unpleasant race.

After having trouble with my airline flights earlier in the year, I wanted to make sure my travel this time was as simple as possible. Sioux Falls has a small airport, but there are no direct flights there from anywhere on the east coast. So instead, I flew into Minneapolis and rented a car. It was about 240 miles from Minneapolis to Sioux Falls, which meant I spent a good amount of time behind the wheel. But since I enjoy driving through unfamiliar parts of the country, I didn't mind. It ended up being a nice, uneventful journey to Sioux Falls.

I went to the 50 State Club reunion meeting, picked up my race packet, found a place to grab dinner, and turned in early for the night.

The race began at 6:30am on Sunday morning. I'm happy that it was early like that so that we could get a portion of it out of the way before the sun got too high and the temps got too warm. My hotel was within walking distance of the start/finish area, so I didn't need to leave my room all that long before the start.

For some reason, I wasn't feeling well that morning. Even before I started running, something just wasn't right. I had a headache and just felt a bit off. Add that to the heat that was predicted to be coming later, and I knew that I was in for a long race.

The skies were cloudy when the race began. Sooner or later the sun was predicted to come out. I was hoping it would stay behind the clouds as long as possible, since I always struggle in the sunshine on my longer runs. Of course at 6:30am it didn't much matter. But the clouds were a good sign.

From the first mile, I was a little slower than usual. My pace was around 9:30 for the first two miles and then dropped to 10:02 for Mile 3. Yes, this mile featured a bit of an uphill, but that's still awfully slow for me so early in a race. I rebounded with a 9:21 in Mile 4, which was my fastest mile of the day. But that pace didn't last long. After a 9:24 in Mile 5, I didn't book any more miles under 9:50.

I reached the halfway point with a time of about 2:10. That's more or less in line with what I've been doing for the last few years. But I was already feeling very spent. The temps had climbed into the 70s, and while that's warmer than I'd like, it's not quite into "brutal" territory yet. And it was still mostly cloudy, so the sun wasn't a factor. Yet I was struggling quite a bit. The second half was going to be a nasty slog.

Indeed it was. My pace continued to drop, and I spent more and more time walking. Eventually the sun did come out, and from then on it was a total death march for me. The second half of the race was downright awful for me. Eventually I dragged myself across the finish line in a time of 4:52:45, making this my second-slowest marathon ever. Only my disaster in Boston was slower. I shudder to think how bad I would have done had it been sunny the entire day.

Later on, a couple hours after the race was over, I cramped up quite a bit. I've gotten charley horses before occasionally, but this was bad. I was cramping up all over the place in muscles I didn't know I had. Thankfully I was alone in my hotel room when it happened, so there wasn't anyone around to hear me scream. Maybe the people in the rooms next to me heard me, but I never knew about it. Eventually my muscles stopped yelling at me and I was able to get some rest and go out for the rest of the day and enjoy some of the brewpubs around town.

Despite my poor performance, I found it to be an attractive course and a well-organized race. Running by the waterfalls in Falls Park along the Big Sioux River was really cool. I've now run two marathon in South Dakota at opposite ends of the state, for whatever that's worth. Well, that's three states done for the second time and 54 overall. I guess we'll see how much longer I keep this up. I might need a little time off after this one...

And now the photos. Click any image to enlarge.