18/50 - Mercedes-Benz Marathon

Inspired by a friend's accomplishment of running 2,013 miles in 2013, I decided I would start 2014 off with a similar goal. Given that I usually fall within the 1,600 mile range, this seems attainable. Of course, this hasn't been the best winter in Chicagoland to start with - brutal cold, record snowfall and black ice for as far as the eye can (not) see. Also, this was my first winter without the luxury of a gym membership - my favored retreat for winter speed work.

I usually don't run much in November and December and 2013 was no exception. An ill-prepared attempt to run the Memphis Marathon on December 7, 2013 was thwarted by bad weather. We recently moved from the south suburbs to the north suburbs of Chicago. I found motivation to train by starting another running club (https://www.facebook.com/groups/LibertyvilleRunningClub/) that coincided with a seven-week training plan for the Mercedes-Benz Marathon in Birmingham, AL. If I learned anything from founding a club in the past, it's that beginnings are humble, the groundwork is considerable and few run in the winter. Luckily, I found a great group of runners undeterred by the elements of a polar vortex.

Running in these conditions was more about survival than adhering to any specific training program. The pace per mile was slow, the long runs felt like really long runs and the beardcicles were prodigious. I averaged 41 miles per week for those seven weeks running three to four days per week. I gave up beer, wine and refined sugar for one month leading up to this race just because I like a challenge. A bet with my wife fueled this test for which she will suffer its outcome for the remainder of 2014 - a ginger beard of imposing magnitude.

We left Mars with his grandparents and arrived in Birmingham Friday morning, thinking this would be a nice getaway before child #2 arrives. Birmingham, Alabama's largest city, has a storied history engulfed by the civil rights movement and as such, offers a glimpse into the most significant domestic drama of the 20th century. What it does not offer, is much else! Though we struggled to find food within a 2-mile radius of our hotel in downtown Birmingham, we eventually stumbled upon Full Moon BBQ (www.fullmoonbbq.com) and Hop City (www.hopcitybeer.com), a bar and bottle shop that rivals anything I've seen. Its selection of great local, national and international beers is a testament to how far Alabama has come in the craft beer scene. Outside of those establishments, the Todd English P.U.B. (www.toddenglishpub.com) in the Westin we stayed at was a frequented spot.

The race had a field of 1,000 marathon finishers and 3,300 half marathon finishers. The two-loop course makes for a lonely second loop for marathon runners. In all, it is a very well organized race on a fast course with enough rolling hills to keep it interesting. The post race party was catered by Jim 'N Nick's BBQ (www.jimnnicks.com), another fantastic BBQ joint. As I usually do in this type of race, I got caught up with the half marathon runners and started faster than I should have. At the half marathon split, I averaged 6:38 per mile. I tempered my pace and teamed with the only runner around for the second loop. At mile 18, I left my partner to finish the race in solitude. My average pace for the second half of the race was 6:52 per mile. I finished in 2:56:56 (my 6th best marathon time) in 22nd place overall, 17th male. Below, I present to you my reward. It was heavenly.

Birmingham - The Wife's Perspective

This post is definitely waaaaaay after-the-fact, but I’ll keep it brief. I feel like I’m on a role after the last post. Not enough of a role to go back very far in time, but I can go back this far.

Alabama. Birmingham. We got grandma and grandpa to watch the little person for a long weekend and flew in. The trip was also a “babymoon” given that our second little person was due to join us not two months later. We stayed at the Westin, and the staff there might have been the friendliest we have ever encountered. Which is a good thing, because we spent a lot of time with them. A lot.

The Mercedes Benz Marathon is one of the more condensed, easy viewing, and smoother running events of a large size that we’ve participated in, and for that alone I want to recommend making the trip, but Birmingham. Oh Birmingham, how you disappointed me.

The problem? There was absolutely nowhere to go, at least without a car (which we didn’t have, thinking that by staying in the downtown of a big city we’d be within walking distance to most everything anyway. Wrong). We even went to the expo TWICE just to kill more time. We ended up venturing out a couple of times, but both times involved walks of approximately 2 miles through desolate neighborhoods. And keep in mind that I was also quite hugely pregnant.  It wasn’t too bad when we went out the first time during the day, but when we headed back out for dinner one night I let Mike know in no uncertain terms that we’d have to take a cab back. Which might have been fine, except a storm hit and the cab that we were told would take 10 minutes took over an hour and five phone calls to get to us. So after that we mostly ate at the hotel. Luckily for us Todd English’s PUB is a great restaurant. They were also in the process of building all kinds of new restaurants and other venues right in the Westin corridor so maybe for future races it will be much more of a destination, but if you go I’d definitely recommend you make sure to have a car.