Missoula Montana Marathon was my 70th marathon (though I have to recount my medals to be sure of that marathon total) and 39th state.
PRERACE:
Flew into Calgary on Thursday instead of Missoula or Spokane as air fares were half as cheap as going through any U.S. hub city route. It’s about a 6-7 hour drive from Calgary to Missoula. But it took a couple of tourist diversions. I arrived just after 9am MST Thursday into Calgary and spent the morning into mid-afternoon at the Calgary Stampede. Left after watching the rodeo show for a while, traveling through Crowsnest Pass and resisting the urge to visit Head Smashed In Buffalo Jump Interp. Ctr., down to overnight in Kalispell MT.
Spent the next day Friday with a back and forth trip along Going to the Sun Road in Glacier National Park. It’s been over 20 years since I last visited Glacier National Park and it’s as beautiful and awe aspiring as I remember. It was a two hour trip to Missoula after leaving the park.
Woke up Saturday with rain showers falling all morning. Something this parched area needed badly as it’s almost been three months here without significant rainfall. So I spent most of the day doing some shopping. Kit pickup was at a downtown Missoula park right by the marathon finishing bridge across the Clark Fork River. Fortunately the race expo was in a sheltered pavilion area as intermittent showers continued to fall till mid-afternoon when the sun made a brief appearance. Very compact expo with only one running store vendor, and a half dozen other assorted booths.
Headed back to my hotel which had a Pizza Hut next door from which I got some take out pasta for dinner and got to bed early since race time was not only at 6am, you had to grab a bus starting at 4:15am to take you out to the start line out to the west of Missoula in this point to point marathon. Similar scenario to Boston’s point to point course. So it was a 9pm bed time with a 3am wake up call, with me waking up about two times to pee and waking up myself just before 3am. At least my body was still pretty much on Eastern Time, so the 3am wake up wasn’t all that too bad for me.
RACE MORNING:
After my usual prerace toilet duties and meal of a banana and bagel with peanut butter washed down with a Gatorade it was into the car just before 4am for the 10 minute drive to downtown Missoula. I parked about three blocks from the finish line and needed to walk about 10 minutes to the bus pickup point at the University of Montana’s Grizzly Stadium. You had the option of parking at Grizzly Stadium right at the bus pickup area, but you would have had to make the walk/limp after the marathon back to Grizzly Stadium. Fortunately the bus driver made sure there were only marathoners on the bus as four half marathoner were on the wrong bus. The Halfers had their own start area about half way of the marathon course. About 1,000 marathoners and 3,000 half marathoners. Pretty much an even split between men and women marathon entrants, but in the Half, the women out numbered the guys 2 to 1.
We so lucked out with the weather during the marathon as the showers stopped right before we unloaded in Frenchtown MT. It was overcast all through the race with damp roads and temps starting in the high 60F and just going up to the mid 70F at the end. Usually the morning temps are in the 80s and quick go up to the 90s late morning. Hence the need for the early start. Course records were set in almost all the races and age categories with the perfect weather.
RACE TIME:
Race started with a cannon blast courtesy of the local military. Bit of a surprised that many did not know about including me. Started just ahead of the 4:15 pace rabbits (the pace rabbits ran in pairs for the most part) but quickly made it up to the 4:00 rabbits and ran with them till the 6 mile water station where I had to do a #2 porta potty break. It would take me till about the 11 mile mark before I caught and passed the 4:00 rabbits. Things were dead flat for the first 12 miles of rural road passing farms and ranches, with no shade at all if there was sun out. Saw couple on their horses at around the 4 & 14 mile marks. About half a dozen other horse sighting, one mule sighting and four reindeer passing through someone’s front yard at mile 17. Only significant hill was at 14 miles and it was a good one, but we also passed through a nice forested area along the half way area and things started getting more urban after the halfway mark. Grand piano player at mile 16.
Porta potty pee break at 19 miles and felt the first muscle twitch at 21 miles. The right calf would twitch cramp about four more times before the finish and the left calf just once in the final mile, but fortunately there wasn’t any prolonged cramping. With about 3 miles left I did start to slow down and the 4:00 pacers passed me and would pull ahead about 100 yards with every mile left. I was just hanging on hoping to have some energy left in the final mile to push it to the end. At least I was still passing a fair amount of people and also started to pass the half marathon walkers.
I knew it would be close if I wanted to make the sub 4:00 time and was afraid to look at my watch and see my time slipping away. Making the final turn onto the finish line on the bridge I heard the race announcer counting down to the four hour mark. Making the best effort I could for the final 300 yards I was the second last runner to get under 4:00 hours gun time. WHEW!
3:59:26.83 - Chip
3:59:52.63 – Gun
306/997 Overall
200/493 Males
13/56 M 50-54
27:58.39 / 9:01/ M 293 – 5K / Pace / Rank
56:31.88 / 9:07/ M 280 – 10K / Pace / Rank
1:24:43.79 / 9:07/ M 228 – 15K / Pace / Rank
3:02:16.39 / 9:07/ M 203 – 20 Mile / Pace / Rank
3:30:21.76 / 9:06/ M 200 – 20.3 Mile / Pace / Rank
As you can see, I pretty much kept an average 9:06/mile pace throughout the race. First time finishing sub 4:00 in over a year. YIPPEE!
There was a marriage proposal at the finish line. The guy was one of the 4:00 pacers.
POST RACE:
After a pretty good nap went to a local BBQ place for a nice pulled pork sandwich and waffle fries. Felt good enough to walk around the Fort Missoula Historical Site and then onto a Rookie League Baseball game double header with the Missoula Osprey taking on the Idaho Fall Chuckars. Not only did the home team take both games, but for a few innings, Miss Montana (Miss America system, not Donald Trump Miss USA) was my seatmate.
Currently in Coeur d’Alene for some RnR. Spent earlier today in Spokane. I hear they need a new NAACP Director. I just need someone to vouch for my blackness.
This is the Bloomsday race sculpture in Spokane’s Riverfront Park.
Back to Calgary through Banff National Park on Wednesday and flying home on Thursday.
