Vermont Again! Marathon #69

Vermont, you elusive land of nectar, you! 

"I'm ready enough," I thought. Then came the storm delay, the humidity, the sun, the heat, the hills, the self-doubt... the excuses. This was my second swing-and-a-miss in The Green Mountain State; you're lucky you're pretty Vermont because this 3:04:41 won't be the last you see of me!

After The New Jersey Marathon, I was physically and emotionally wrecked. Sprinting down the homestretch to 40 years old, stressed from operating an all-consuming run club, and all of the sudden my hips hurt, then a strained calf muscle kept me from redoing South Dakota on 5/11. So, in the 4 weeks between NJ and this race, I rested. The mileage wasn't there but the pains were subsiding.

But enough about running, let's talk about why we're really here...

I flew into Burlington Friday morning and drove the 1.5 hours to Hill Farmstead Brewery intent to fill their noon to 5pm hours with beer, a book, good conversations, and the views from the remote farm on which this brewery is located. I met some great people from Los Angeles and this book on Chernobyl is fascinating, all-in-all, a rejuvenating visit.

Hill Farmstead's location is its true charm

Dinner and drinks at The Reservoir, next to the bed & breakfast we had in Waterbury, turned into hours of conversation with the locals. At the end of day 1, I had more adult interactions than I get as a stay-at-home dad in a week!

The following morning, I woke up to pillow talk with Laurie - yes, the same Laurie from NJ... she was saying something about all the pillows each of our beds had. What did you think I meant?! She arrived late, after I had passed out.

I forgot my toothbrush, I improvised

No trip to Vermont is complete without a stop at Ben & Jerry's and the highlight is the graveyard of retired flavors.

R.I.P. luscious flavors of the past! 

The Alchemist Brewery has a cult following in the beer world with Heady Topper double IPA. They recently built a facility with a beautiful outdoor space to meet the demand of New England but after we had a few beers contemplating a round of disc golf from their patio, I felt it just isn't the same as having to follow their delivery truck schedule to head off a delivery at Warren Store like Melissa and I did in 2014 on this NH & ME double marathon trip - that's how crazy it was back when they were small and didn't have a taproom.

Calling it what it is

At the Trapp Family Lodge doing our Sound of Music pose

You know what's happening down the road this afternoon? Bernie Sanders's 1st Vermont rally of this election cycle! We thought about it...

The only thing missing from this trip was Michael, who was with us in NJ, so...

Now, back to running.

Our Hotel Vermont room is rustic chic and perfectly located close to the start line where we watched as a storm rolled in off Lake Champlain, delaying the start by 45 minutes. We were in for a warm, humid morning.

This race is a big deal for Burlington and the townsfolk do a great job of volunteering and supporting the runners. There were several homes with their own aid stations handing out Freeze Pops (I had a few), Vermont maple syrup (it's quite good as a gel substitute), and high fives from children. After conquering the rolling hills, peaking on a not-insignificant climb up Battery Hill to mile 16, the remainder of this course is fairly flat. However, I was drained and when my average pace per mile crept over 6:53 at mile 20, it was time to change the narrative.

Mile 24 - being happy with "failure"

This is my 1st race as a Master and new Boston-qualifying standard which I thought was 3:05 (turns out it's 3:10) - new goal for the day! I finished with enough time to shower, drink a beer, grab one of the hotel bikes to see Laurie at mile 25.5. She succeeded in breaking a habit of dropping to the half in her last couple of marathons and finished in 3:51. I was happy for her; we both made it a great race!

It was a fun weekend. Plenty of great conversation followed at one of my favorite VT breweries, Lawson's Finest Liquids. It was perfect weather to be outside: I took Laurie to Warren Store to grab dinner and wade in the nearby stream before heading back to Burlington's Foam Brewery and Burlington Bay Market for their Maple Creemee and a Lake Champlain sunset.

Getting artsy

Lake Champlain

See you soon, Vermont!

49/50 - The New Jersey Marathon

Welcome to the Jersey Shore! 

New Jersey, The Garden State, lays claim to legends such as Jon Bon Jovi (I once played drums in a Bon Jovi cover band), Bruce Springsteen (you know him, you love him), and Les Paul (beautiful iconic guitars bear this musician and solid-body electric guitar and sound recording innovator's name). Oh, and Snooki from The Jersey Shore; we "met" Snooki this weekend but I'll get to that later...

Non-Jovi circa 2008 w/ Brandmeier playing live on his 97.9 Loop radio show 

The Gibson Les Paul guitar in all its beauty

It's also notable for landmarks including the George Washington Bridge that spans the Hudson River, Asbury Park - famous for its beach, boardwalk, the recently-demolished Palace Amusements indoor amusement park built in 1888, and the Paramount Theatre and Stone Pony - venerable music venues - along the Jersey shore.

Remnants of an old casino along the boardwalk in Asbury Park

Laurie, Michael, me, doing the obligatory touching of the ocean

Art over dilapidation on the Jersey Shore

New Jersey will be remembered as my 49th state marathon and 44th sub-3-hour state marathon for a goal that began at the 2009 Boston Marathon 10 years ago this month. Though I'll have a few states to redo for sub-3-hours, Alaska in June will be my 50th state marathon and culmination of an enjoyable, expensive, and hard-fought tour of the States. Visiting 250+ breweries along the way has helped ease the pain as much as it contributed to the expense.

Where it all began: Me and Melissa celebrating after the 2009 Boston Marathon - my 1st sub-3 

Michael, who has joined me on 10 of these state marathon trips (second in number of states only to my wife), Laurie, and I arrived in New Jersey on Friday morning. Michael loves Kevin Smith and I love taking pictures of Michael taking pictures of the things he loves.

Film location of Kevin Smith's Clerks

Kevin Smith's comic book store

Given New Jersey's contributions to music, it was fitting that the race expo was in the Paramount Theatre, featuring an oblivious punk rock DJ spinning old 45s while we drank espresso shots offered by Diadora - the Italian running shoe company staging a comeback in the States.

Afterward, we sampled through the beers at Carton Brewing in a loft space on relaxed couches to a punk rock soundtrack from my 1997 youth. New Jersey feels familiar, and I like it.

Between all the laughs, we found time to grab dinner at Sirena (that's Italian for "mermaid") Ristorante on the oceanfront with table-side views of a thunderstorm developing off the ocean. It was fancy, and we were not. We retreated to our hotel with warm cookies and HGTV's Property Brothers, Michael's favorite channel... Sorry, I didn't get a pic of him taking a pic of an episode.

Sandy Hook is a peninsula steeped in military history once serving as a test site for the Nike Missile. For us, it was the location for a windy Saturday morning shakeout run and near encounter with Gunnison Beach, a nude beach located on National Park Services land. Who says our National Parks are not beautiful?

No naked people but here's Laurie mounting a Nike Missile

Why do people love lighthouses? My brother used to paint lighthouses and collect trinkets of them as a joke in high school. I left Navesink Twin Lights lighthouse and museum, home to America's first Fresnel lens and site of the demonstration of the wireless telegraph, with an appreciation for lighthouses and their contribution to naval history.

DOUBLE LIGHTHOUSES!

Saturday continued to be low-key with a visit to one of New Jersey's 600+ stainless steel-clad 1950's diners, dinner at Pasta Volo after our encounter with Snooki... ok, it wasn't Snooki, but that didn't stop the look-a-like with newborn and husband from proclaiming to be her to an excited group of tourists that approached. Look, Snookie would NOT drive a Volvo! Besides, she's still pregnant and not due until next week according to her Instagram... we checked.

Sunday morning, 7:30am race time: we arrived at Monmoth Park horse racetrack at 6:30am. It was a bit cold and windy, Michael was shivering while I dragged us from porta-potty line to line. With 5 minutes to start time, we entered our corrals.

The New Jersey Marathon had a 2:55 and 3:00 pace group and according to my training since the Wrightsville Beach Marathon 7-weeks ago, I estimated a 6:40 - 6:45/per mile pace, something the 2:55 group would achieve. We started behind the 3:00 group which felt claustrophobic ( this race had close to 100 sub-3-hour marathoners in addition to starting with the half marathoners!), so I left Michael and moved up to the 2:55 group by mile 5.

Running alone sucks. By letting the 2:55 group set the pace, I was able to settle in and not work so hard. This strategy worked until mile 17 when I moved ahead of the group that had dwindled from about 20 to 6 runners. At mile 19, the course turns back to run along the shore, much of which is on the boardwalk, with a noticeable crosswind and my hips reminding me that 68 lifetime marathons is beginning to take its toll. I finished in 2:55:49, a 6:42 pace - nailed it!

4 and 4 for my 44th sub-3-hour state marathon

I stood at the finish line waiting in bated breath for Michael to finish in under 3 hours, and with 3 seconds to spare, he did! As if that wasn't enough of a close call, after showers at Laurie's sister's home, celebratory ice cream at New Brunswick's Thomas Sweet Ice Cream, we arrived at our flight's gate with about the same wiggle room... another squeaker!

2 days later at home...

Michael and I have a fascination with numerology. We spent much of the weekend searching and only once we stopped trying, did we see this: My 2:55:49 started from wave 2 and resulted in 55th overall finisher and 49th overall male for my 49th state. Crazy, right?

But here's my favorite numbers game of the weekend:

Number of Bon Jovi songs heard vs. Dunkin Donuts locations spotted (they're everywhere on the east coast) = 6 to 7.5*. Dunkin for the win!

*We gave half-a-point for a new Dunkin, mid-construction.

42/50 Rehoboth Beach Marathon

Here we are, briefly submerged in the frigid waters of the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Delaware in December. This is what happens when a race offers 3 free beer tickets. We were in the water less than a minute, approximately equal to the time I had remaining on the race clock - I barely completed my 36th sub-3-hour state marathon. You could call it a post-race ice bath, but mostly, we were in the ocean because I told a friend it was a tradition he must oblige for having just run his fastest marathon. A fitting celebration for both of us!

2017 was my rebuild and regrowth year: I was coming off a hamstring injury when I pulled a calf muscle skateboarding this summer AND I haven't cut my hair since last year. I planned to run 10 marathons (though I canceled the Missoula Marathon after the calf incident). Of the 9 completed (GA, KS, OH, ND, WY, SD, CT, VA, DE), 2 of them missed the sub-3-hour goal: WY (the stupid yet glorious reason why was documented HERE) and the SD redo (I got sick race weekend) that I never did write about but remains a highlight of the year; just a great road trip with Libertyville Running Club friends - sorry for getting y'all sick! Third time in SD will have to be a charm.

I was planning a solo trip to Delaware when I mentioned to friends that this race is located near Dogfish Head Brewery... and then there were 3 of us. Nate, Ted, and I flew to Baltimore on Friday and found ourselves, surprise, surprise, in Chesapeake Brewing Co. by noon. After years of tasting flights at breweries, this one, owned by a former pilot, delivered on the wordplay.

Could have named the beers after the Top Gun cast for a 5-star review

The drive from the Baltimore airport to Rehoboth Beach, DE is about 2.5 hours. Did you know Delaware was our first state? Now you do. Rehoboth is a large beach town in the otherwise sparsely populated SE region of the state notable as the original location of Dogfish Head Brewery, which happened to be demolished last week. However, it has been replaced by a new building, where we found ourselves having dinner and beers after picking up our packets. We were back at the condo and in bed around 8:30pm.

A pink bib without my trusty pink shorts?! Amateur mistake.

The race is Saturday morning, 7:00am, with nearly ideal weather: sunny and 40 degrees at the start with no wind. I didn't pack my sunglasses so I borrowed Nate's. Nothing new on race day, right? I stepped out of the bathroom at 7:00am; this is about as close as I've cut it! The race started 2.5 minutes late, luckily, giving me enough time to queue up in the corral.

I tried starting this one conservatively, but soon enough a group of us formed, including someone I had met a few years ago that's also attempting this 50-state-sub-3-hour feat, chatting while peeling off the miles at around a 6:30 pace. That was unnecessary so around mile 14, I dialed it back a bit, knowing I'd miss the company but not wanting to screw this up.

The course is a mix of roads, paved bike trail, a long-ass frosted-over metal bridge(!), and dirt and crushed limestone trail in and out of the Cape Henlopen State Park and the surrounding residential area. Yes, it's pretty flat but most of the second half of this course was on the dirt and crushed limestone which seemed to prevent me from finding that top gear. Mile 20 to the finish slowed considerably. I knew I would do this in under 3 hours but maybe I cut it a bit close this time with 2:59:03. Never a dull moment!

Probably somewhere after mile 20

It was great seeing Ted - who ran the half marathon - out there at miles 18 and 26. He and I walked back to cheer Nate in for a 3:09:34 - his 10th marathon and best to date! Which brings us back to the Atlantic Ocean story...

This race has rave reviews, largely stemming from its afterparty located at the finish. It's a pricey marathon ($160 at its peak) but the food is stocked and Dogfish Head Brewery is on hand pouring your free beers. Throw in a DJ and this party started looking like a wedding reception. After those beers, we walked to the beach for our baptism, armed with a blanket I just found and a couple foil wraps.

Fashion statement with Ted, Me, and Nate

We returned to the afterparty for a few celebratory beers then retreated to the condo for a nap. It was 2:30pm and there was a brewery behind our place that we planned to reside in all evening.

Revelation Craft Brewing Co. was probably the highlight of the weekend, beer wise. One of the owners was a former Dogfish Head brewer and it showed in the quality and variety of beer. They offered 15 beers that we sampled our way through. I can't say that I've done that before; drank every beer a brewery offered on tap in one sitting. Throw in a wood-fired pizza truck and sparse but chatty patrons and this made for a relaxing night. Cheers!

I had 3,000 calories to replenish, DON'T JUDGE ME!

On our way back to the airport Sunday, we set course for the main Dogfish Head location in Milton, DE. Unfortunately, they were closed so the staff could toy shop for Toys for Tots - bummer, but we're cool with that reason. Instead, we took our adventure back to Baltimore for a kick-ass funnel-cake-battered crab cake from L.P. Steamers with our beers at Diamond Back Brewing Co.

Ted can't even fake disappointment

East Coast carnival food? Delicious!

Oh look, Du Claw Brewing is located in the airport and we're 3 hours early. What to do, what to do?

With all this crab and beer, I'm excited to get back to Baltimore in March for my MD marathon. But next up, I'll redo FL in January at the Celebration Marathon.

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!

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.