19/50 - Erie Marathon at Presque Isle, PA

I have to admit, I didn't see this PR coming...

After a dismal showing at the Wisconsin Marathon in May (which I did not blog about), I didn't really think much about attempting to top my previous PR of 2:53:09 set in 2010 at the Bayshore Marathon in Traverse City, MI. My plate was full with structuring workouts and creating events for the Libertyville Running Club, becoming a co-race director for a local 5k (www.twilightshuffle.com) held on Labor Day weekend, and being a stay-at-home dad with my 17-month old son and 2-month old daughter. However, the runs with the Club were slowly making me a better runner without me realizing it. This was the first time that I consistently did speed workouts, hill workouts and tempo runs over the course of a training period. I built a 16-week plan that I mostly adhered to that had me peak with a couple of mid-70-mile weeks. My average weekly miles, year-to-date were at 46 miles per week, one-and-a-half times what I had averaged in years past. 

Of course, I didn't do ANY cross-training. Sure, I preached it. I just lacked the motivation to do it myself. Also, I've never been one to follow a nutrition plan. I've built running clubs around food and drink - pizza, donuts, beer...this is why we run after all, right? I was really having too much fun with the growth of this new club and the opportunity to run with so many new people this summer to bother taking my training too seriously. Then again, I never have and I probably never will. 

Our trip to Erie, PA was a long weekend away from the kids. It was to be a motorcycle trip but a cold front moved in just in time to lessen the appeal of that venture. True to form however, it was still a gastronomical adventure. On the drive out, we hit up our favorite burger/beer bar, www.lassenstap.com (Libertyville - I love you but with your overpriced beer and lack of a stellar burger, you can learn a thing or two from this gem) and then settled in at www.thebrewkettle.com for a night in Cleveland, OH. Saturday, it was on to Erie, PA to check-in to the race and get a to-go order from www.miscuzirestaurant.com before the carb-loading masses' decent upon these unsuspecting purveyors of quality italian cuisine. 

I like to say I never get nervous before a race, but the truth is, 32 marathons later and I still fret over some minutia. With a goal of running as many of these 50 state marathons in under 3 hours that I can, I always get a bit nervous that I will fall short. For this race, I brought 3 pairs of shoes with and tested them in the motel parking lot at 4am to make my final shoe decision. On any other morning, this would seem odd to other motel guests; this morning I had an audience sympathetic of my plight.  After a coffee, banana, and some granola, we were off to the start line with a tinge of apprehension from choosing to stray from my go-to marathon shoe, the Brooks Pure Connect, and selecting the Saucony Kinvara 5. 

The race is two flat loops around the idyllic lakefront setting within the Presque Isle State Park (www.presqueisle.org). The field was 1,250 marathoners and 1,250 half marathoners that started 30 minutes after the marathoners. The weather was a beautiful and sunny 50-degree morning on a course that was mostly shaded. The nerves are really getting to me now because I'm left with no excuse for anything short of a strong performance. I, like so many others, have a habit of going out too fast. This is how I blew up in the aforementioned Wisconsin Marathon. This time, I had a plan to take the first 2-5 miles slow and maybe pick up the pace to finish in 2:55. I managed to not get caught up in the excitement and held 7-minute miles for the first 2 miles here. I'm convinced that made all the difference for me. I clocked the half marathon in 1:27 feeling conservative. From there, I continued to work with one other runner for the next 7 miles. Around mile 20, I realized I was on pace for a PR so I pulled ahead to finish the last 10k solo, albeit dodging half marathoners, finishing with a 3-minute negative split. I took 9th place overall (2nd in my age group) with a new PR of 2:51:22. With this, I'm batting .500 for sub-3 hour marathons, 16 out of 32. Here are the details if you're the analytical type: http://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/590323169.

I know I've had a great race when I feel like I can still run 2 more miles. With little fatigue, we ventured over to www.bertrandsbistro.com to destroy an all-you-can-eat brunch buffet in the quaint heart of Erie. The following morning, we meandered up to Ann Arbor, MI after lunch at one of Cleveland's fine breweries, www.fatheadscleveland.com to stay with friends and pay a visit to our favorite brewery, www.jollypumpkin.com - a fine artisan of sour ales. Looking back, we first discovered Jolly Pumpkin after the Traverse City, MI marathon and celebrated my previous PR there. Our visit after this new PR was apropos and resulted in, much like last time, a car full of beer for the cellar. 

Of course there's always room for one more beer stop on your way out of Michigan. A layover at www.bellsbeer.com/eccentric-cafe/ satiated a desire to visit here after a previous failed attempt. I suppose I should begin my taper for the New Hampshire & Maine double marathon weekend in three weeks...oh, and book our hotels!

A post-race dip in Lake Erie:

Erie - The Wife's Perspective

Soooo you’re telling me that I haven’t made an appearance on this blog in over two years? TWO YEARS? Well, I guess I have been pretty busy, mostly in the way that carrying, birthing and taking care of two babies (15 months apart), a cross-city move, and also continuing to work full-time and enthusiastically supporting my husband’s running habits (club, miles, and, for a while there, part-time employment, which ended when he realized his job really wasn’t so much “fun”) will keep a person busy. Don’t get me wrong – I don’t take any credit for keeping the little people alive day-to-day. That’s all Mike. But I still spend most of my non-working time with one or both of them and just that is enough to fully deplete my tank.

Anyway, at the present moment both of those crazy kids are dead asleep and I can get back to the matter at hand. The Erie Marathon.

As Mike mentioned, we fully intended to make this one a motorcycle trip, given that we almost never get to ride anymore. And I was totally on board, even when Mike said a rainy cool front was on its way in. Until the day before we left when I walked outside in the full sunshine in the middle of the day and was still chilly. Weather like that, on a bike going 75 mph, is just not pleasant and requires so many layers that I’m getting exhausted thinking about putting them on (which we can’t have or else this entry will end right here!). Add to that the fact that there’s really no scenic way to get to Erie from here that doesn’t require going super far out of the way and it wasn’t too long before I threw in the towel.

Usually car rides are great for me because Mike insists on driving (he gets so antsy in the passenger seat that he once complained after I had been driving for all of 40 minutes that we needed to stop so he could stretch his legs) and so I get to read to my heart’s content (another thing I don’t do enough of these days). But this time he insisted that I drive. The entire way there. And that’s when I knew that he was indeed nervous.

As Mike mentioned, we stopped the first night outside of Cleveland to stay with my cousin’s family and to have dinner at The Brew Kettle with them and my aunt and uncle. These guys are always a good time and I regret only that the timing was not good for an all-night bluegrass jam session (complete with moonshine, of course). Breaking the drive into two allowed us to leave the next day bright and early in the late afternoon and still get to Erie with plenty of time to hit packet pick-up and get the lay of the land.

Well, I could have gotten the lay of the land, anyway. Instead, after checking out the expo (which was really pretty decently sized for such a small race), we headed out to get settled in and figure out the dinner plan. Now, in our first few races we always had dinner reservations in place at least a month in advance. In this case neither of us had even pulled up Trip Advisor, which we did immediately after we found out that the race-sponsored pasta dinner was sold out. Lo and behold! Erie’s 2^nd highest rated restaurant is an Italian place, Mi Scuzi. But of course they couldn’t seat us until 9 (at which point not only would we hopefully be asleep, but I’m pretty sure they would have also been out of food). However, they did takeout and so that’s what we did. Along with at least a couple dozen other people from the looks of the bags lined up and waiting to be picked up when we showed up there at 5:20. I’m not sure there was even any food left for the 6 pm diners! The food was really great and we both stuffed ourselves silly (hey, spectating burns like dozens of extra calories!!).

So, the race. After an early morning wake-up (for real, waking up at 4 am for a 7 am race is always the hardest part about the whole thing for me) I finally decided to take a look at the course map. I used to plan my spectating before we even left home! Lucky for me it really couldn’t be any easier to spectate a race. The race is two full loops, so that the Start/Finish is also the halfway point. That’s three times to see your runner right there. Add to that the fact that the “far side” of the loop is about a 5 minute leisurely stroll away and you get to also catch your runner at miles 6 and 19. For Mike that’s a chance to see him about every 40 minutes, which including point-to-point time still gives me plenty of reading time while I’m waiting (this time around my book of choice was a guide on how to make the terrible twos “terrific.” I already have it all figured out, though – just leave them at home with Grandma while you take long weekend trips!). Since everyone’s traveling to and from the same rough spots, I also got to make a couple of cheer friends, which was nice because it gave Mike extra people screaming his name and also gave me more of an excuse to watch the race. Sometimes I forget what a special thing it is to see that many people so deeply involved in such a crazy endeavor.

Everything really was perfect for the race. I was bundled up because I was more or less stationary and also in the shade, but I could tell the runners were all doing really well. So when Mike shouted “I’m going to break 2:53” when he passed me at Mile 19, I certainly got excited. He’s been hoping to PR for years. And when I spotted him in the distance coming down the final stretch at just after 2:50, I absolutely lost my mind. To those of us who don’t run it would seem like shaving off almost 2 minutes over a 3 hour period wouldn’t be a big deal. But it is. It’s a huge deal. I was so proud.

And I have to say, as much as I have tried pleading, betting, bribing and just plain old begging to get him to shave that ridiculous beard, it sure does make him easy to spot on the field of runners.

After the snafu with dinner I decided it was best to go ahead and make a post-marathon brunch reservation at Erie’s top-rated restaurant, a French place called Bertrand’s Bistro. This turned out to be a fantastic place to celebrate Mike’s PR. Not because of the mimosas or other drinks – of which there were plenty – but because the brunch included all-you-can-eat made-to-order crepes. We took so many of them down that at the end the chef started to send out half-portions. We were so stuffed we were actually glad.

And even gladder later when we realized that nothing is open in Erie on a Sunday night. I mean, nothing. We ended up with a pretty decent pizza from a local hole-in-the wall recommendation, but there was absolutely nowhere interesting for us to go had we insisted on a sit-down meal. Good thing all we wanted to do was sit around in our motel room and eat pizza and watch cable anyway. Ahhh the joys of being kid-free.

Mike went through the trip home (I made him drive all the way back!) so I won’t go through that again, but I will say that our visit to Ann Arbor was also a highlight. We got to have dinner and stay with friends who we just don’t see often enough. 

Two back-to-back marathons coming up in a few weeks... you just might hear from me again soon!