24/50 GO! St. Louis Marathon

This was the next race I was really looking forward to after another cold midwestern winter, not because I think the weather and landscape rival that of Hawaii's Big Island Marathon (4 weeks ago), but because this was the first group trip I organized for the Libertyville Running Club (www.libertyvillerunningclub.wordpress.com), a running group I founded last year. The trip would see several of us descend upon St. Louis for a weekend of running and shenanigans.

Some of the LRC at the Arch

I spent the first of the four weeks after the Hawaii marathon in Hawaii, recklessly running steep hills and technical terrain in Kauai and on the Big Island. I don't run much when I'm on vacation, in this case a 30-mile week after the race, but I still managed to do some damage. I came home with a lust for Hawaii and a sore hip from some pretty steep downhill running that's been bothering me since. I think these couple of runs with 2,000 ft drops over 4 miles and then back up here (trail) and here (road) did me in. C'est la vie!

Once back home, I nursed myself back to training with a 40 then 55-mile week before tapering a bit the week before the marathon on Sunday. We drove to St. Louis on Friday, making a stop at Abraham Lincoln's home in Springfield (www.nps.gov/liho/index.htm). As part of the aforementioned shenanigans, I created a version of Flat Stanley (www.flatstanley.com/about) I named Flat Molsens for some friends that couldn't make the trip with us. The stop at Lincoln's home was the beginning of many photo ops with the Flat Molsens throughout the course of the trip. Our other option was to stop at the Grain Elevator Museum (www.haweselevator.org/hawes_home.htm) in Atlanta, IL. I'm sure that's fascinating; maybe next time!

Abe's home

On Friday night in St. Louis, a group of us headed over to Schlafly Tap Room (www.schlafly.com/tap-room/) for dinner and - you guessed it - beer. Now let this be a public service announcement of sorts: if you ever see a meatloaf sandwich on a menu, you best order that thing post haste! Schlafly's Meatloaf Muffin is a slab of bacon-wrapped meatloaf topped with crisp onions and a fried egg on an english muffin that is sure to obliterate your notions about the hierarchy of gourmet burgers. This is the new what's next! Oh, the beer is also good. 

I'll always remember you, Meatloaf Muffin

I went into this marathon knowing that I was in sub 3-hour shape and therefore, wasn't too focused on the race. I also have another marathon 3 weeks after this and then my first ultra, a 50-miler 6 days later. We did a group run Saturday morning to the St. Louis Gateway Arch, visited the expo, then went up in the Arch. I was last up in the Arch some 25 years ago; it turns out it didn't warrant another visit. Afterward, I washed the disappointment away with a tasting flight at Perennial Artisanal Ales (www.perennialbeer.com), a stopover on our way to visit some local friends for dinner and a good hang. Below is the second half of the flight. 

Pictured with our friends, the Flat Molsens

Race morning was a comfortable 50 degrees Fahrenheit and cloudy; considered to be ideal race conditions for most on what I thought to be the perfect PR course - slight rolling hills, interesting landmarks, and well-maintained streets. I was rather impressed but not enough to throw caution to the wind; I knew I had to get through a few more races in the next month and that hip was still bothersome. I started out comfortably and finished 16th/1,433 overall in 2:53:22 with a close-to-even split at the half which you can see here. 

I should not fail to mention that in St. Louis we had one of the most accommodating hotels for a race ever. The Drury Inn Union Station, which is the GO! St. Louis host hotel, is 4 blocks from the race start/finish area, provided a full breakfast (opened at 4:30am on race morning), snacks, bananas, a free happy hour, dinner, and post-race aspirin and treats, all included in the very reasonable price. 

Also, we had a Rosie Ruiz cheat the race! Interesting to me since I ran most of the 2nd half with the real 1st and 2nd place women and my friend on the trip took 3rd place. Here is that story and here is another happy race photo: 

Free glasses at the expo!

This race marks my 20th sub 3-hour marathon. There are 5 states: CO, ME, VT, FL, and OH that I need to revisit for various reasons (mountainous, 2nd races of doubles, wrong turn, lame excuse, etc...) in hopes of doing all 50 in under 3 hours. The local paper ran an article about my goal a few days before this race that you can peruse here. For my CO race I chose the Pikes Peak Marathon (see my review of that race here); there is no way I can capture that one in sub-3 so instead I'll take on another CO race this summer. ME, VT, FL, and OH, I'm coming for you, too.