39/50 - Casper Marathon

Giddy up, legs!

This race was a last minute addition after the Fargo Marathon 2 weeks ago: I felt great, it fit the schedule, and I could book it on the cheap. I knew that I would have to acclimate to the 1-mile high elevation so I arrived in Fort Collins, CO on Thursday night, giving me 2.5 days to get my body to adjust. In contrast to my modus operandi, I actually reviewed the course elevation chart and compared it to recent failures to run sub-3-hours at elevation out west (Oregon and South Dakota). I could do this course in under 3 hours.

I flew into Denver and drove to a hippie hostel commune that we discovered last year when we stayed in Fort Collins on the Mickelson Trail Marathon / Revel Rockies Marathon trip. My wife did yoga at Solarium International Hostel and raved about the hostel so I booked a bunk bed in a room with 3 other strangers. This place is amazing! It's like staying in a greenhouse, on a river, on a bike path. The following pictures are of the interior courtyard:

I walked down the street to Colorado State University campus in search of a brewery... which took half a mile - this IS Colorado. Great eats were had at Music City Chicken for their Nashville Fried Chicken before I ventured next door to Black Bottle Brewery.

When I returned to Solarium, I saw a suggestion for great hiking at Horsetooth Mountain, about 20 minutes away. What better place to do a 5-mile easy run 2 days before the marathon, I thought? I made plans to drive there Friday morning.

An early view about 3 miles into this run

Now, I'm not completely naive. I love mountain running. I do this every time I head west. I've run the Pikes Peak Marathon. There is nothing more exhilarating to me than a run along a mountain trail where I tune out the Garmin and run by feel, jumping in creeks or waterfalls at will. However, after this run, my quads were starting to feel the wrath of some elevation drops that I hadn't anticipated. 5 miles turned into 7. While I felt the effort was not hard, my legs would tell me otherwise the next morning.

As you can see, this is probably not the best run to do when you have a marathon in 2 days

After the run, I drove straight to the breakfast suggestion I also picked up at Solarium: Lucile's Creole Cafe. This breakfast cafe knows New Orleans about as good as New Orleans knows itself. It was packed but I found a seat at the bar next to a gentleman (a retiring Union Pacific train engineer) that was quick to chat. This is my favorite part of traveling. If it weren't for my discussions with him, I would have never driven the route to Casper, WY that I'll talk about shortly.

After a quick nap, I walked to Rally King Brewing, my favorite brewery of the trip. Many of their beers, from IPAs to sours are memorable, even if their location is not. Sitting on their balcony in a faceless plaza, I struck up a conversation with Jim, a writer for an athletic publication. We waxed poetic about running, cycling, Leadville, Russia, beer. He left and I sought dinner.

Spicier than last night's fried chicken

Fort Collins has a great downtown promenade. It's Friday night and people are congregating around a live band under the band shelter, drinking beers, watching their kids dance their asses off. I found pie at The Chocolate Cafe, beer at Equinox Brewing, and donuts (on National Donut Day) at Peace, Love, and Little Donuts. You can take your pro-athlete nutritional regimen and shove it.

Hippie donuts at my hippie commune

Saturday morning is when it hit me: my quads are shredded. A 2-mile shakeout run confirmed it. I took a yoga class at my hostel hoping for some relief. It's a 5-hour drive to Casper. It could be 3 hours, but my engineer friend suggested taking the scenic route: Snowy Range Scenic Byway through Medicine Bow National Forest. Any time you have a chance to veer off the Interstate, do it! This route took me to the Saratoga Hot Springs; this gem of a public hot spring is located on the outskirts of an unassuming small town. It's free. It's got a couple of pools and a river with natural hot springs. Maybe this will help my aching legs?

The road just opened last week and the snow was 12 feet deep at points

Medicine Bow Peak

The main hot spring pool and bathhouse, all free

Alright, alright, let's get to the race.

If it weren't for us 50-state-marathon runners, the Casper Marathon might not exist. Fortunately, it does and it's celebrating 15 years. The race hotel, the Ramada Inn, is the finish line. That's convenient. It's a short bus ride to the convention center, the highest point of the course at 5,300ft, where the start is located. Bathrooms and shelter are available inside - another convenience. If the forecast weren't 90 and sunny, it would be a great place to stay warm before the start.

This might not be a familiar sensation to many of you, but at the start line, I felt like I did on day 2 of back-to-back marathons. My head was ready but my legs couldn't find that next gear. There's 120 of us running the marathon so it got lonely quick. Luckily, there has never been a course more well-marked than this one. I hung onto a sub-3-hour pace until about mile 14. Knowing it wasn't going to happen, I tried to hang onto 2nd place, hoping for a payout that would subsidize my plane ticket back to Wyoming. I finished in 3:10:48 in 2nd place... with no payout. Coincidently, the last time I missed my sub-3-hour goal was 1 year ago on this day in South Dakota, with a similar time of 3:10:24. I should just not run on this weekend!

The course is beautiful - much of it is rolling hills on the Platte River Trails that follow the North Platte River. The finish party was quite stocked with food and beer for such a small race. It was hot and sunny and the elevation was a mile high; I was comfortable with those factors. In the end, I made a mistake that cost me the sub-3-hour goal yet I don't regret it. 55 marathons later and I'm still learning. I had a drive to the airport to reflect on this with time for one more brewery along the way: Freedom's Edge Brewing Co. in Cheyenne, WY.

Oh, FHS!

While I won't pay for the race pic, the look on my face says I paid dearly

 I'll be back Wyoming!