50th Sub-3-hour Marathon State: Redemption in New Mexico

Predicting sub-3-hour state number 5-0! 

Here I am at El Patio in Albuquerque, again, and entirely by coincidence... Michael and I ate here after a failed, and quite miserable, attempt to run the 2018 Sandia Crest Marathon in under 3 hours... Melissa directed us here after landing in town. 

That inaugural 2018 event was hot, sunny, and awfully uphill for an aggressive downhill marathon. This year's event was two weeks later in hope of avoiding some of that desert heat; while about 10 degrees cooler, it was still sunny and dry, with a forecast of 82 degrees. 

My Strava notes: '16 Revel Rockies vs. '18 Sandia Crest

From El Patio, we drove to Santa Fe, the oldest US capital city. We settled into our room at the adorably southwestern Pueblo Bonito Bed & Breakfast Inn, then enjoyed a drink from the Bell Tower Bar as the clouds broke, revealing an inspiring sunset behind the Jemez Mountains. We took advantage of the cool, desert evening with a stroll around Santa Fe Plaza, discovering the historical sites that make this city unique. 

Cute Bed & Breakfast, right?

Buying jewelry from the Pueblo craftspeople that sell on the Santa Fe Plaza

The sunset view from Bell Tower Bar on the rooftop of La Fonda Hotel

Friday morning, with 24 hours to go, Bill and I hit the Acequia Trail for a shakeout run. We're feeling a bit of the 7,200ft of elevation here in Santa Fe. I've found the sweet spot is to run your race at elevation within 48 hours of landing. The beauty of these downhill marathons is that you don't really feel the difficulty of running at elevation... until the uphills. 

Miracle stairs of Loretto Chapel - learn about them HERE

On the drive back to Albuquerque, we avoided highways, routing us along the Turquoise Trail, a Scenic Byway. The quirky town of Madrid - a coal town, turned ghost town, later revived by hippies - and desert scenery into the mountains make this the preferred road to traverse. From there, we drove the Sandia Crest Scenic Byway to the start line of tomorrow's marathon.

Madrid photo park

Bill likes baseball, really

We used to be cool

We drove the course home, reliving every painful memory of where things went wrong 3 years ago: the 1-mile climbs at mile 5 (elevation 8,600ft) and mile 12 (elevation 6,900ft), the goal time slip away at mile 16, walks at miles 18, 20... and 21 through 26 where Michael met me, in an equal amount of pain, to unceremoniously cross the finish line together in 3:14:55, my worst marathon in 10 years.

Vegos for dinner, though delicious, would prove troublesome later. I overindulged in burritos, eating Melissa's other half in bed while watching murder mystery shows, in addition to my burrito. It felt so right at the time. 

Bill and Melissa were staying at a separate hotel for the evening, either to avoid my burritos or my 3:30am alarm. I was given a VIP pass that included a separate coach bus, with a toilet, that would shuttle me from my hotel to the start line. I'm going out on top!

As seen from my bus to the start - IT'S A SIGN!

I know this course well now. Aside from that mile of climb after mile 4, it's stupidly fast and quad-busting through mile 11. At that point, Melissa and Bill were waiting to leapfrog me in the car for the remainder of the race, tossing me BodyArmor sports drink - a last minute event switch from Powerade due to supply shortages (everything new on race day!) - in between the 2-mile gaps of the race aid stations. I knew from 2018 that I would feel dehydrated without it. Bill ran up the hills sprinkled throughout the course and the last 3 miles with me. 

Bill assisting me up the mile 12 climb on another lonely course

The 6:22 pace per mile through mile 16 was anticipated. From there, I could slow to a 7:30 pace per mile to bring this in at 2:58:30. That was a comfortable plan that accounted for the long climbs and hot sun of the second half. It did NOT, however, account for that extra half a burrito that sent me to the port-a-potty at mile 22, my only bathroom stop during a marathon in 75 marathons! 2 minutes lost on a number 2 at mile 22... Shit. 

This was going to be a close fight. I didn't know my overall average pace or distance since I mistakenly stopped my watch around mile 18. Then my headphones stopped working. Making matters worse, the mile markers were way off. 

I fought hard but was making plans to return. Bill was doing everything to keep me in it and as a result, I stopped taking walk breaks. Approaching the finisher chute, I could hear Melissa screaming her head off. I pushed as hard as I could, not knowing if I would make it; the clock was obscured by the glare of the sun. 

"That was Mike Brunette from Libertyville, IL who just completed a marathon in under 3 hours in all 50 states, let's hear it for Mike!" Did the announcer just say that? Was he sure? Melissa asked him if the clock was accurate when I heard Bill shout, "48(seconds)!!!" I jumped with elation on battered legs and scurried to find them for some big-ass hugs. 

3rd place overall

This goal began in Boston in 2009 with a 2:59:06 and finished here with a 2:59:12, 3rd place. Consistent, right? However, I can assure you it has been a wild ride with some amazing ups and downs in these 11 years: a 2:44:30 PR and that 3:14:55 low point, injuries, missed race starts, the COVID-19 year, tears of joy, and fears of this being unattainable. 

A Bear On The Run is now a bear done! 

I'm delightfully pleased to be finished with this 50 sub-3-hour marathons goal, which is fitting because I'm in the Land of Enchantment. But, what to do next?

Enjoy the moment. Celebrate. Return to Boston to bookend this goal with a victory lap at the fall 2021 race. Then, throw this stupid GPS watch into a lake!

My awesome friends staged a surprise party the night I returned home

49th Sub-3-hour Marathon State: A Successful 3rd Attempt at Vermont

One of us has 2 thumbs, had fun, AND beat the other by 2/10th of a second

The COVID year messed us all up. Sure, it was fun for a bit. Then winter came. Then it got lonely. Then I realized how much I was drinking. Coming back from that to prepare for this race began March 1st with a 26-week plan, broken into 8 weeks of base building, body weight workouts, and attempting to quit drinking. Then, 18 weeks of Pete Pfitzinger's Advanced Marathoning 70-85 miles per week training plan, body weight workouts, 75+ miles per week of cycling, and actually quitting drinking. I'm putting that out there now in case you're here for the breweries... 

We landed in Boston on Friday and no sooner found ourselves at Jack's Abbey, a brewery. Then, on to Treehouse, another brewery. The latter was a good place for the club to rendezvous (a few dozen of the Libertyville Running Club were here) and to test my commitment to sobriety - it's one of my favorites. They have cold brew coffee and seltzer now and have community guitars to play. Now THAT'S a great idea, especially since I learned to play guitar while simultaneously drinking coffee and seltzer during the pandemic. 

Coffee at Treehouse's brewery / adult outdoor play land in Charlton, MA 

They trust us with not shitty guitars, they also limit patrons to 2 beers

Five of us rented an idyllic farmhouse, built in 1810 but newly remodeled, in Shelburne Falls, MA. We awoke Saturday morning to the sound of a brook that ran through the backyard and Laurie burping. We're accustomed to one of these things by now. After a shakeout run in the High Ledges Wildlife Sanctuary, we explored the three things Shelburne Falls has for us: a dam, potholes (geological, not the Chicago variety), and the Bridge of Flowers, ending with dinner at West End, a cute restaurant overlooking the river. 

Our house

Getting high on a shakeout overlooking Shelburne Falls

Damn, look at that dam

Flowers on a bridge

The Bridge of Flowers

Like back home, this area was having a hot, humid weather streak. Fortunately, that broke on Saturday and promised to stay overcast and just below 80 degrees for the race on Sunday before getting hot again. We woke at 3:30am for blueberry pancakes we made the night before. We were on a bus at 5:15am to the port-a-potty lines (runners, amirite?) and then the start line in Marlboro, Vermont.

LRC is handsome in every state we travel to run

I've said it here before, New England runners are fast; 18 are in front of me from the start in a race field of less than 300. The course is downhill for much of the first 10 miles, in fact, the course profile is similar to the Boston Marathon with more downhill and gravel roads but without the fanfare. The only high-five I (almost) got was from a stray cat that didn't budge when I put my hand out. I think her name was Wellesley. 

Somewhere around mile 9

I had planned to run the half in 1:25:00 (made it in 1:24:30), be at mile 20 at 2:10:00 (made it in 2:09:46), then relax. After mile 18, I was alone. I finished my 9th fastest marathon (out of 74) in 9th place in 2:52:36. Yay, I won a coffee mug! Aside from my quads feeling defeated, I was thrilled to have finally conquered Vermont after the 2011 Shires of Vermont Marathon and the 2019 Vermont City Marathon thoroughly enjoyable misses.

We hung out to see all of LRC finish then off to one last brewery, Whetstone Brewery, in Brattleboro, VT, which overlooks the Connecticut River. On the drive there, we found Apex Orchards. Laurie may have hinted that she wanted to go pick peaches. We had to stop.

This stop inspired a Songs About Peaches playlist for the drive to Whetstone

The views of Howie from Whetstone's patio were as dreamy as the river

Continually reinventing myself throughout this challenge has kept me motivated to run. To learn how one's body adapts to different scenarios, age, and experience is exciting. Also, I'm happier when I'm not doing the same thing over and over again... like running a marathon OVER AND OVER AGAIN. Ok, but the surroundings are different and Vermont is pretty. So is New Mexico, which I'll see again at the end of September and hopefully for the last time, for a while anyway.

I'm getting pumped for my last state

36/50 - Snickers Marathon

Albany, GA - Birthplace of Ray Charles under scandalous pretenses

First of all, the Snickers Marathon and Half Marathon in Albany, GA is very well done. I'm a race director and though I sometimes take for granted the effort that goes into staging races, I do notice the little touches that make a great event. Albany is not a city you would immediately think to visit when you think of Georgia. However, the routing of this course showcased the diversity and beauty of a city steeped in civil war and civil rights history. Translation: a lot of turns! And though I ran 24 of these miles completely alone, I was never confused. That's pretty remarkable.

After a solid run of 12 marathons in as many months, I finally succumbed to a strained hamstring in October and took some time off to rehabilitate. I wasn't sure I would be healed in time to run this race so in true fashion, I waited until 2 weeks prior to book anything. Of course, no plans are the best plans.

Arriving in Atlanta Friday afternoon, I made the 3-hour drive to Albany via highway roads dotted with pecan farms (a beautiful site to see), small cotton mill towns, giant mossy oak tree-lined streets, and the occasional plantation mansion. Most hotels were booked but I found one yesterday and it worked out just fine: takeout from a great little Italian place nearby, the ID Network's murder mystery shows, asleep before 8pm. This is what escaping the chaos of my everyday life looks like.

Pecan orchard - the uniformity alone is beautiful

With 8+ hours of sleep the night before a race, 45 degrees and sunny at the start, and a leftover cannoli in the fridge, I really had no excuse to not meet my sub-3-hour goal. These trips are not cheap to have to revisit and with 29 completed going into this one, I'm feeling the pressure to fund my kids' 529 plans. I had a goal of starting with 7-minute-miles then running comfortable to a 2:55 finish time. I'll spare you the suspense: I nailed it - 2:55:30 for state #30. Well, except for the "comfortable" part. I felt the hamstring sing from mile 16 on and dealt with an unexpected calf pain for 24 miles. Still, I wasn't about to redo Georgia, as beautiful as this state is.

Taking it in stride

With Snickers and Miller Coors as sponsors, this race has some impressive prize money and as such, draws a fast field for 500+ marathoners. My time, which would normally put me in the top 5 for a race this size, landed me in 20th place! Prize money be damned, I was more interested in the free post-race massage and let me tell you, I am going to be chasing the dragon here - best damn massage I've ever had! Unreal. He worked the hell out of those issues I mentioned above. I miss him already.

What now? It's a beautiful day and a 3-hour drive to Savannah, I'd be stupid not to! So off I went. Now if you've stayed in Savannah on a weekend, you know the hotels in the Historic District are $250+ and mostly booked. Hell, it's hard to just find parking. See my comment above about "no plans are the best plans". Let's see how this unfolds, shall we?

There are so many nooks and crannies in this city that the best way to experience it is to walk, so for the next 8 hours, that's what I did. I walked to the south end of Forsyth Park then zig zagged my way back through all of the Historic District neighborhood through its 21 squares, stopping to take in the sites and shops at will. Did I mention you can walk the streets with alcohol? Well, you can. And of course I Strava'd it, 9 miles. HERE.

Forsyth Park - 30 acres of serene park space and open alcohol

I've been missing playing in a band lately so I set out for some live music. Damon and the Shitkickers ripped it up with some outlaw country at The Jinx, a cover band on the street went from Prince to Rage Against the Machine seamlessly, and In Business closed my night with some solid booty-shakin' funk at Congress Street Social Club. Parked 2 blocks away in front of the post office, I passed out in the car for 5 hours until sunrise, pleased with the extra $250 in my pocket.

"This shit ain't gonna kick itself!"

A room with a view

As part of my adventures that evening, I mingled with a mother and daughter at Moon River Brewing and regaled them with stories of how an alligator becomes a designer handbag (the daughter works for a NYC designer and I worked for a family that farms alligator skins for those bags). THEY bought ME a drink and told me to visit Tybee Island. So when I woke up, I drove to that sleepy old school beach town for a stroll on the beach. I then headed back to Savannah for breakfast at Clary's Cafe before the 3.5-hour drive to explore Atlanta until my 9pm flight.

The view from under Tybee Island pier at sunrise

Atlanta is a great city with too much to see in one day. With that said, there are two things I love: history and hipsters. The Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historic Site is emotional and given America's current state of affairs, the history within is frighteningly foretelling. Follow this up with a visit to Margaret Mitchell's gravesite at Oakland Cemetery and it would drive any Gone With the Wind lovin', equal rights advocate to the brink of a stiff drink. And so I headed to The Porter Beer Bar in the Little 5 Points neighborhood - an eclectic mix of restaurants, resale shops, and bars. Before splitting for the airport, I stumbled upon The Vortex for a great burger with a side of shut-the-hell-up-this-is-the-way-we-do-things. Seriously, it's on the menu - peruse their Policies tab on the website to see what I'm talking about.

Yep, that's apt

34/50 - St. George Marathon

After all, this is Utah

I love the state of Utah. There is something different, almost otherworldly, about it that sets it apart from others: the red sandstone arch formations, colorful gorges & canyons, the Great Salk Lake, the Mormon religion... In & Out Burger. All of it fascinates me.

Our story begins after a flight into Las Vegas, lunch at In & Out Burger, and a 2-hour drive to St. George, UT the day before the race. The St. George Marathon is held on a Saturday - as are many races in Utah - for reasons I can only assume have to do with the followers of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) and their more disciplined observance of the Sabbath.

After the expo, we toured the winter home of Brigham Young - founder of Salt Lake City and 2nd president (after Joseph Smith) of LDS. Brigham Young was responsible for relocating the church from Illinois to Utah after Joseph Smith was killed by an angry Illinois mob. Just imagine, Illinois could have been the land of Mormonism! Nothing makes you feel like an outsider more than refusing a free copy of the Book of Mormon from the Elder (who claimed to have done mission work in Libertyville, IL) facilitating the tour. Instead, I asked to see the golden plates. He wasn't so accommodating after that.

Brigham Young's winter home, now a place for the LDS hard sell

St. George is not a party town on a Friday night. We opted for a good night's sleep since we had an early morning bus ride to the start. Similar to the bus debacle at the 2015 Revel Rockies Colorado marathon that Michael (who, along with Cheryl, joined me for this marathon) and I attempted, getting to the start looked to be questionable when we arrived to load the buses at 5am.

In hindsight, we should have known better given that they were incentivizing runners with some great raffle prizes if you loaded the buses between 4-4:15am. So here we are with about 6,000 of the 7,500 participants standing in unorganized chaos hoping for more buses to arrive. In the end, they did arrive and the race was delayed by only 8 minutes. We were on one of the last buses.

Michael and I started off conservatively. In true fashion however, I didn't really look at the map until the day before. This fast, downhill course also has quite a bit of long uphill. We were introduced to that at mile 7 at which point Michael turns to me and asks, "are you ok?" Shortly afterward I see that obnoxiously bright yellow/green Libertyville Running Cult shirt he is wearing fade into the distance.

I was just not feeling it. I decided early to run this smart and secure another sub-3 hour state. I have two more marathons in the next month and just ran one three weeks ago. I successfully ran nearly even splits - 1:27:30 for the first half and 1:27:36 in the second half. Michael on the other hand had the race I knew he was capable of since I first met him two years ago, 2:45:56 - a 5-minute PR! Incredible. I think he fully recovered and ate lunch by the time I finished.

Flashing The Stehling

Swimming at the hotel pool in those short hot pink shorts will turn a few heads, even more so in Utah. Afterward, we cleaned up at the hotel and staked out a spot at the finish line to see Cheryl finish. It was approaching 80 degrees and not a cloud in the sky. Cheryl, Michael, and I all had a great race. The course showcases a beautiful display of mountains and canyons, farms and small towns along a mostly downhill highway. The field of runners is FAST and largely Utah residents. These folks are fit; no surprise given the playground they have to train on.

A best-places-to-eat list of St. George doesn't run too deep so we opted for the best for a celebratory lunch at The Painted Pony before a short drive to Zion National Park to hike the splendid canyon country.

Vantage from the Emerald Pools hike in Zion National Park

Before driving back to Las Vegas Sunday morning, we walked to the LDS temple then enjoyed coffee on top of some cliffs within the Red Cliffs Desert Reserve for sweeping views of St. George. This is a great way to start or end a trip to this area and clearly a popular spot.

The Temple... Of doom?

The Libertyville Running Cult does Utah

There was one recommendation from the 2015 Las Vegas marathon I didn't make it to that we could now remedy before our flight: Frank's Tiki Room. This old school tiki room located off-strip is housed in a dark room with Polynesian-punk kitsch everywhere. Naturally, we bought mugs to commemorate this successful trip.

How can you not want one of these to take home?

Finishing with a cartwheel

33/50 - Salmon Idaho Marathon

The Salmon River and me (not pictured) naked as a bird in its icy waters

"I'm gonna win, win, win. I'm gonna win in Hawaii, I'm gonna win in Arkansas, I'm gonna win in Oklahoma, I'm gonna win in Idaho. And some of you are friends and you are going to call and you're going to say, Mr. Brunette, please, we can't take it anymore, we can't have you win like this, Mr. Brunette, you're driving us crazy, you're winning too much, please Mr. Brunette, not so much and I'm going to say I'm sorry, I'm going to keep winning because we are going to make running great again!"

Salmon, in central Idaho, isn't the easiest location to get to but it sure is worth it! We flew into Salt Lake City and drove about 5 hours to Hailey, ID, which is located steps from the Sawtooth Mountains. Hailey, along with the towns of Ketchum and Sun Valley, make up the Sun Valley region. In short, it's beautiful.

After settling into The Inn at Ellsworth on Thursday, we found a brewery. Hailey, unlike Ketchum and Sun Valley, lacks that ski resort town appearance and instead feels like a small town that people have called home for most of their lives as evident by the cute elderly couple we spotted leaving the brewery in this 1955 Bel-Air on what appeared to be date night.

On their way to Make-Out Point, I'm guessing

Hailey also has one of the most impressive public skateboard parks I have ever seen

Before breakfast at the B&B, we enjoyed a hike up Buttercup Hill - a 20-30 minute steep hike to the top offering 360 degree views of the mountains, town, airport, and alfalfa fields (no potato farms spotted yet) below.

Mike "Buttercup" on top of Buttercup Hill

The drive to Salmon from Hailey passes through Ketchum and Sun Valley then traverses the Sawtooth Mountains via a steep and harrowing, at times one lane, dirt and fist-sized rock road (quite similar to the marathon's terrain, in fact) through portions of open range cattle farmland for 40 miles (who cares, not our "luxury sedan" - a Hyundai Elantra) before reaching the base of Idaho's tallest peak, Mt. Borah (elevation 12,662 feet). This drive leaving Hailey added 4 more hours to arrive in Salmon and STILL no potato farms. After checking in, we did find another brewery, then a place to have salmon... In Salmon.

Trail Creek Road through the Sawtooth Mountains

The Stagecoach Inn, located on the Salmon River, is convenient. The buses shuttled us from there to a one-room school house in Tendoy (birthplace of Sacagawea) for the race start (elevation 4,900 feet). The course is a rocky dirt road that winds along the Lemhi River around mountain sides, through cattle pastures and horse farms, and ends on the Salmon River in Salmon (elevation 3,900 feet). Though a mostly downhill course, there were two decent climbs (significant if you're from the midwest) at mile 7 and mile 15. 

This being a small race (about 150 registered marathon participants), there were 6 of us leading the pack, then Bob and me. Bob is a high school cross country coach and post-collegiate runner, two things I am not. At mile 5, he took off and I was left with that familiar feeling that 2nd place isn't all that bad... Until I passed him at mile 13. The second climb at mile 15 is an out-and-back leg where I was able to see a young kid closing my lead to about 30 seconds. I panicked. 

There is a certain motivation in knowing that there are runners ahead of you to pick off. In this case, there was a constant fear that I was that motivation for someone else. I would stop at every aid station, drink a water (and the occasional HEED - it's not that bad!) and look back to see where he was. I never saw him again but over the last 11 miles, I imagined hearing foot strikes and heavy breathing and envisioned my defeat. Holding this pace solo with no one to pick off and a race to lose was particularly difficult. Couple this fear with a dull, nagging hamstring pain from a past injury and constantly scanning the road for sizable rocks and I never felt comfortable until that last turn.

And the winner is... Actually, the guy who ran in jean shorts is winning at life.

As I made the turn and saw the finish line, I once again experienced winning without breaking tape; it's tradition now. An overall time of 2:51:49 earned me the course record for 9 years of this race's history. Great, now I'll have to defend that! All in all, it was a fantastic race and I'm glad that I'll have some lasting (hopefully) ties to it. The race directors and other participants were all extremely friendly and welcoming, and the course was beautiful. You can't ask for much more.

We mingled a bit, had some beers, then spun the idea of making it to Bozeman, MT for a marathon the next morning. Stupid idea, right? Thanks to our friend Michael who planted this idea just the day before, we contemplated every conceivable way to make this happen and still be home to get the kids before Monday morning. Ultimately, we passed because we couldn't find a flight home that would work, so instead we used that time to find a clothing optional hot spring! I've been looking for one of these in my travels for the past 20 years - not one of those man-made spots which are fed by hot springs, but real, remote, natural hot springs.    

About 45 minutes south of Salmon, off of highway U.S. 93, is an unmarked dead end road that leads to a trailhead. The 2-mile hike up to Goldbug Hot Springs that followed is a moderate hike that rises about 900 feet and ends at a grouping of about 10 hot spring pools being fed by hot and cold mountain springs. Due to its proximity to nothing, this was not a crowded site. Since these are public lands, hikers are free to set up camp along the trail and can also drop trou for a naked dip in the pools. We did, of course. After 48 marathons, this was the best post-run activity to date!

Clothing optional means SAYONARA SHORTS!

You know what's great about traveling without your kids? Everything. Thanks to grandparents (hi, Mom! You're wonderful!), we were able enjoy this hot spring on our way to The Grand America Hotel in Salt Lake City (a must-stay if you're ever in SLC) for one more relaxing night and morning before flying home. Err, before going to In-N-Out Burger then flying home (no picture from In-N-Out because we couldn't wait three seconds to start shoving food into our mouths).

Whoever said America isn't great needs a weekend by the Grand America pool

Oh quit it, the kids also enjoyed us traveling without them