32/50 - Mickelson Trail Marathon South Dakota (and a Colorado Update)

The Mickelson Trail - a few miles from the finish

This trip included the Mickelson Trail Marathon on June 5th then the Revel Rockies Marathon on June 12th, marking my 9th marathon in as many months. Having been humbled in Oregon last month by just missing my sub-3-hour goal after a long streak of sub-3-hour marathons, I was reminded again in South Dakota that I am not infallible. The key is to take these near misses in stride and remember just how cool it is to experience the country this way.

Once again, I failed to pay much attention to the course map when registering. Like the Bend Marathon, the course elevation would require some acclimation and the terrain is what we midwesterners love to gripe about... Hills. Though when looking for a race in South Dakota, there was no doubt that this was the one to do. Not only is it beloved by the marathon crowd, but this is the Black Hills - a natural beauty that leaves an impression that this land is unadulterated Old West. You can imagine the call of the gold rush, the gun fights, the lawless ways of its past.

The more kids I have, the more complicated my attempts to travel without them become. Before catching a flight to meet The Wife in Denver (only to drive 6 hours to Deadwood, SD the day before the race), I drove 3 kids to Cleveland by myself for about 8 hours. Peeing at rest stops with 3 kids aged 1, 2, and 3 years old attached to you should be listed as an accomplishment as great, if not greater, than running a sub-3-hour marathon.

Sometimes the drive is as exciting as the destination itself, though as noted above, sometimes it's three kids screaming while you try to make it to the next rest stop. Without kids, the drive from Denver to Deadwood is a peaceful experience through barely inhabited lands: Cattle. Horses. A bicycle graveyard. Carefree teenaged girls in an old red convertible. A middle-aged man alone blowing bubbles on the side of the road amidst a mountain backdrop. A Tejano band playing on a tractor trailer flatbed under a shade tree with a dozen people dancing. These are just a few of the surreal sights from this drive.

Pringles, WY - You'll find this and not much else

We made it to packet pick up with 30 minutes to spare. The start of the race (the next morning) is at 5,300ft. I like to think elevation doesn't affect me, but it does. Not in sickness, or dizziness, but in dehydration and in physical performance, if just slightly. Since I teeter on that 3-hour mark, this really heightened the suspense. That's the only thing I had to worry about now that I just booked the last room on Main St. in Deadwood at the Celebrity Hotel (awesome location and hotel, by the way). To the displeasure of my wife, I like to do everything last minute, and look, it worked out! This time.

The Mickelson Trail is a 109-mile rail trail that traverses the heart of the Black Hills through mountainous forests and open prairies, over bridges, through tunnels, and alongside creeks. The race starts at the last quarter of the Trail near an old roadside church right out of Little House on the Prairie and follows the Trail to its end in Deadwood. Holy crap was it cold before the sun rose! I usually don't check a bag so here I am blue-lipped and shivering on the side of a road for an hour and half before the start. The M&Ms were a nice touch though.

What's common about these small races (400 marathoners) is the ability to pick the leaders. This time, they found me - two guys that ran for and just graduated from University of Souix Falls. What we didn't realize was there was one more kid straight out of college that also ran track & cross country. We met him around mile 17 when he passed me and one of the guys then the other to win the race in 3:06:35. The elevation, the heat, the hill, and the trail whittled away at all of our hopes of a sub-3-hour finish. I finished in 3rd place with 3:10:24. Garmin details HERE.

Mickelson Trail Marathon pic - It may have gotten a bit warm

I was last in Deadwood in August 2012 for the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally. It's still two months away, but Deadwood is buzzing with bikers. The city attracted some of the most nefarious outlaws of the 19th century and it boasts about this history at the Adams Museum. Maybe this is the appeal for us bikers. Or maybe it's the meandering roads. Or both. If you've seen the HBO show Deadwood, you have a pretty good idea of what transpired here some 150 years ago: Wild Bill Hickok, Calamity Jane, brothels, gambling, opium, whiskey, murder, and the gold rush.

Me at the 2012 Sturgis Motorcycle Rally trying to look like a biker and not a CPA

Deadwood was illegally settled on land that was granted to the Lakota people in the 1868 Treaty of Laramie. Well, it was granted to them before we discovered gold in them hills. Our government stole back the Black Hills with the Congressional Act of 1877. After the atrocious Battle of Little Bighorn gave way to this Act, things never got better. Reading about the white man's betrayal of the native people of the Black Hills and America will make you sick. But I digress.

So here we are shortly after the race experiencing the Deadwood history via their Passport Program that encourages you to visit many of the town's historical sites including: the mountain side burial sites of many of its famed characters at Mt. Moriah Cemetery, an abandoned gold mine, and the Adams House - the home of one of the town's founding businessmen that had been left unoccupied for 50 years (every detail of the home is impeccably original). We capped the night off with whiskey, of course, at the Franklin Hotel balcony overlooking Main St.

Grave sites of Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity Jane

The next morning, we finished up the Passport after a stop at Pump House - a great coffeehouse deli at the site of an old gas station that also houses a glass blowing studio. We left Deadwood with a wealth of historical knowledge though sadly, all I physically received for my Passport efforts was this small piece of chocolate.

An Old West bamboozling

We spent the next few days exploring the Black Hills: A night in Hill City. A day hike at Custer State Park. Then onto Fort Collins, CO for beer: New Belgium Brewery, Odell's Brewery - both are great spots for a post-run beer or three at 11am on a Wednesday, uh, not that I would know from experience... Breckenridge had Hearthstone Restaurant, a historic-home-turned-luxe-eatery, to enjoy the phenomenal scenery. We rented a boat. I got some great mountain trail runs in. We hung out with a friend from The Wife's law school days.

Then, Denver. We met up with the Libertyville Running Club partaking in and/or seeking revenge on Revel Rockies marathon or half marathon. Our team, aptly named Revenge of the Donut Hoes (when the LRC came out here last year, our team name was The Donut Hoes), did it; we all walked away (or shall I say limped away?) with great races and a 1st place team finish. You know what else we did? Went back to Shoes & Brews and got our names back on the 800m challenge board. It's tradition. I forgot running shoes so I ran it in Chuck Taylors. I'm now reconsidering my goal of running a marathon in them.

Revenge of the Donut Hoes!

I made up for that 5 hour and 46 minute Pikes Peak Marathon I did in CO back in 2010. I now have a 2:54:56 in Colorado. Garmin details HERE. This was the first of a couple states I have to revisit to get that sub-3-hour marathon. Though I no longer have to attempt a CO marathon, it certainly won't be the last time I visit. I'd say the same for South Dakota because I could see myself living there, but first I have some unfinished work to do.

Doing the Stehling in Colorado with Michael Stehling