After doing a recount of my medals, this would be my 83rd marathon (I think) and second one this year. Didn’t run a marathon in the Spring. It was a 11-hour road trip from Toronto to Bowling Green on Friday. Kit pickup and pasta party was Saturday evening at the National Corvette Museum. Didn’t go into the museum as you had to show up early before the museum part closed and they opened kit pickup. Did see the Memorial Day parade in Downtown Bowling Green on Saturday morning which featured a parade of around 50 Corvettes both new and old. If you didn’t figure it out, the GM plant in Bowling Green makes Corvettes.
Nice marathon swag with a steel water bottle, beach towel, two shirts and a messenger bag to carry everything. Pasta was pretty good as well.
Start time of the race was 7am and you had to remember to set your clocks back an hour Central Time or end up showing up really early for the race. Got a parking spot about 50 meters from the Start/Finish line at the local ball park, home of the mighty Bowling Green Hot Rods, Class A farm team of Tampa Bay.
Marathoners, of which there were 166 finishers and half marathoners totalling 400, started together in warmer than usual, cloudy 66F degree weather, to which it would rise to about 72F at finishing time. I didn’t bring a singlet, and might of worn it, but was good with my “Canada” t-shirt. Got about half a dozen “Go Canada!” on the route with three people breaking into “Oh Canada,” but one actually singing to “Oh Christmas Tree.” Pickle juice stations were available on course. I passed, but did take up a couple of bites of Swedish Fish they had available.
The course was a double loop with almost a mile uphill to start and then three more significant hills in the next six miles. First part of the course was up and around the University of Western Kentucky, whose sports teams are known as the “Hilltoppers,” so yeah, some good hills to start. Managed to stay ahead of the 4:00 hour pacer until about a mile from the finish of the first loop. Could hear him coming for seven miles before as he was wearing a portable speaker and blaring the usual up tempo race music and it was also connected to his GPS phone app and it reported his pace over the speaker for all to hear. He was basically on time for his first lap, and I went through the half split at 2:01:49 chip time.
Of course with the half marathoners now finished the second lap was pretty lonely and I let the 4:00 pacer get away with the second time around hills taking the wind out of my sails. Turns out the 4:00 pacer blew up and he came in just ahead of me at 4:14:47. Guessing I passed about a dozen people on my second lap, with no one passing me, even as my pace got progressively slower on the second lap. Never got into survival shuffle, so it was still a good finish. Actually passed the last official half marathon in the last 200 meter.
Finished in 4:16:02, 42nd overall and 34th male. Also was 3rd in my age group, so got a beer glass award.
6.55 mile split – 1:00:52
Half – 2:01.49
19.65 mile – 3:08:05
Finish – 4:16:02
Next to "Big Red" UWK mascot with my age group award.
