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.

48/50 - Wrightsville Beach Marathon

March Madness: Libertyville Running Club vs. North Carolina

We - Nate, Stephen, Me, Jeremy, Ted, and Andrew "The Duck", as he came to be nicknamed on this trip - all had big goals for this race. We flew into Wilmington, NC just after 9pm on Thursday (minus Ted, who joined us Friday) with a hankering for food in a town that's not open late. Oh look, a brewery! Bill's Front Porch Pub and Brewery would have been a welcomed oasis had I not given up beer. Based on how good the food was, my pang of desire was strong.

Sadness overwhelms a bear without a beer

A Friday morning shakeout run led way to breakfast at Sweet & Savory Cafe. I made a lot of blueberry pancakes these past 4 months and their blueberry pancakes special raised the bar. The day was pretty low-key with a trip to the expo, then a nap, then dinner.

We were a bit underdressed for our reservation at Roko Italian Restaurant. Strolling in with powdered sugar on our faces from the donuts we just ate in the parking lot (there was a Duck Donuts next door, that place is great!) probably didn't help us look any more dapper. I also gave up desserts but without beer the night before a race, I needed these.

These didn't stand a chance

Giving up drinking and desserts wasn't an attempt to get all "race weight" serious; I was replacing those carbs with mostly good carbs. I'd had 48 (!!!) beers or glasses of wine in the 3 weeks leading up to my PR race last year so maybe the opposite would yield better results? Nutrition became a focus again when I got a new Fitbit Ionic for Christmas. I'm obsessed with its food log and sleep tracking and I get the most random compliments on it: from a guy in a truck stop bathroom, a TSA agent.

I tried a lot of other new tactics while training for this race: increasing my cadence, drinking protein shakes to aid recovery, drinking 100oz or more water per day, and eating the right foods for my next run. In the 5 days leading up to this race, I attempted to eat 4 grams of carbs a day per pound of bodyweight. Do you know how hard that is? At 160lbs, that's a lot of damn sweet potatoes!

I used to love you, sweet potato!

Over the course of 16 weeks, I devised and executed an adaptive high mileage plan by setting goals and key workouts for the coming month then writing the next month based on how that previous month felt. To my surprise, this resulted in 3, 100-mile weeks at its peak and I never succumbed to burn out or injury, just a loathing for the bitter cold. Curious what this looks like? There's a SPREADSHEET!

All this was an attempt to beat my 2:44:30 PR from last year at the Lower Potomac River Marathon.

We walked over to the race Saturday morning in ideal conditions: cloudy, little breeze off the ocean, and 50F, albeit humid. The marathon and half marathon runners started together and I soon had a pack of half a dozen runners within my targeted 6:16 - 6:06 pace per mile. My hope was that someone would go with me after the half marathoners turned off at mile 8.5.

This map had me worried I'd be alone and make a wrong turn

I needed competition to hold this pace and I was left with no one. Around mile 10, the course veered off the road and onto a tight, winding bike trail that zapped the energy out of me. Though I made it through the half in 1:21, I struggled to get back on pace for that PR. Shortly after, I started doing the math on bringing this one in under 2:50. I ran the last 8 miles with the lead woman and her lead bike.

Starting to look like a caveman again

North Carolina became my 43rd sub-3-hour state marathon, finishing in 2:48:53 (4th place overall and my 4th fastest out of 67 total marathons). Am I happy with that? Hell yeah! Was it worth giving up the beer, wine, and dessert? Hell no! Donuts are fuel, beer is recovery, and everything in between is just running.

I ran back to the finish line excited to see what the others would do. Soon, Nate came barreling down the homestretch to his 1st sub-3-hour marathon, The Duck, then Ted followed, both claiming age group awards, Stephen bested his PR, and Jeremy followed with a HUGE 27-minute PR!

Growlers for age group awards, now we're talking!

While it's not what I hoped for me, this weekend was everything I could have hoped for LRC: good times (literally and figuratively) with friends, my reunion with beer courtesy of Dogfish Head at the finish then Waterman's Brewing Company for the after party, and sugar - we went back to Duck Donuts after the race... and I ate Nate's masters winner prize from Nothing Bundt Cakes.

This song was in my head all weekend; how am I the only one on this trip that knew this song?! North Carolina, RAISE UP!

Next up: The New Jersey Marathon

47/50 - Marshall University Marathon

We Are Marshall!

It took me 3 attempts to get to this marathon: in 2016, I was too exhausted from hosting LRC's Run of the Dead event the week before and in 2017, my car died 1 hour from arriving at Marshall University (that story HERE). This year almost didn't happen; injuries plagued me for much of 2018 and shortly after my worst marathon in 9 years at the Sandia Crest Marathon, I was low on confidence. I then stopped running for 2 weeks because of TFL pain in my hip. That left me with 3 weeks to train for this race.

Thirteen friends from Libertyville Running Club joined me on this trip. A few of us planned to fly into Columbus, OH, stay a night in the Brew Dog hotel and brewery, then drive down to Huntington, WV where the university is located. By the time I committed to running this race, the flight had risen to $600 and so I drove.

This brewery with onsite hotel opened this summer and I had to go. They have a punk rock credo in their anti-business business model that appeals to me. We enjoyed a night of beers, perused the brewery museum, had dinner in the brewery, then a rousing game of doubles ping pong. They have a great outdoor space that connects to a trail system we used the following morning for our shakeout run. Board games were disbursed all over the hotel lobby and their European-style breakfast buffet was better than most hotel breakfast buffets.

Brew Dog's outdoor drinking field with fire pits, Jenga, and a dog park

The interior view from our hotel room; beer and art everywhere!

Each room has a kegerator, a mini-bar, and a shower beer fridge stocked with beer. Their gift shop had a great flannel that I bought without hesitation; if you read my Fargo Marathon post (HERE), you'll understand the joke about why I can't say no to a brewery flannel anymore.

#bartusching - an aerial pic coined for a friend who perfected this art form

Jason, Michael, Laurie, and I shared a room and got ourselves psyched for the race by watching We Are Marshall, a movie about the 1970 plane crash that killed 75 people - most of the Marshall University football team, friends, and flight crew - and how the university and community rose from the tragedy.

Jason, Michael, Laurie, and me

The 2.5-hour drive to Huntington is beautiful and thrilling. We drove 2-lane highways meandering through the countryside. At multiple points, we approached hills, blind to what was on the other side, and lost our stomachs as we crested them. We leaned into turns a little too fast. We stole glimpses of autumn foliage and dwellings that reveal an America beyond the cities and privilege so many of us are accustomed to.

This is the 15th anniversary of the Marshall University Marathon and the retirement of its race director. His passion for this small marathon with a big heart is apparent. He asked that we bring canned goods for a food drive so we stopped at Kroger before the expo. This race provides so much swag that you wonder how they make any money: a beanie, jacket, and duffel bag were all included in the marathon registration. I bought the long sleeve race shirt just to feel like I could support their efforts.

We also made shirts depicting our running buddy Marshall (Laurie's dog)

The LRC's separate travel groups planned to convene for dinner at La Famiglia at 6:30pm but that didn't stop our band of 4 from eating at Butter It Up at 4pm. Call it carb-loading. Runner problems, you know? Before dinner, we visited the memorial for the plane crash victims located in a cemetery that overlooks the university.

A somber memorial visit

Dinner was good, all-be-it slooooowwww. Though we didn't get out of there until about 9pm, we had the benefit of Daylight Savings Time the next morning. It was nice to have almost all of us together, enjoying a pre-race dinner.

The LRC Famiglia

This course, one loop for the half marathon run twice for the marathon, is fast. I love these 2-loop marathons; you get a good sense of the terrain and are able to strategize for the second loop. The weather was a near perfect 40 degrees and sunny at the start. I approached the start line feeling better than I should considering what little I put into this race.

Bib #46 but 47th state marathon... that's bananas!

The start cannon went off without a countdown, taking us all by surprise. Startled as we were, we ran a reasonable 6:42/min first mile then picked it up a bit. We noticed Michael was no longer in site on an out-and-back section at mile 6. "He'll catch up," we assured one another.

Jason and I had a rhythm: we walked every aid station (about a mile apart) and we ran together and alone, pushing each other. The first loop went by with relative ease. Never did I doubt this would be a sub-3-hour marathon. Kudos to Jason for driving most of the second loop. Around mile 18, I told myself to hang with Jason until mile 20, then mile 22, then mile 24. He looked back often to make sure I hung on until mile 26. Laurie - who just finished her half marathon - came out to cheer us in from about mile 21 on.

We entered the stadium for an out-and-back on the football field. At the entrance, you can accept a football to run with... I fumbled it. I had spoken of my plan to throw myself the ball and jump catch it over the finish line so Laurie picked up my fumble and handed it to me as I came back to approach the finish. It was epic... then I fumbled it, again. Regardless, a 4th place finish (1st in age group) in 2:54:14 (my 15th fastest of 66 marathons - not bad, considering the poor training) with a silly finish photo made for a successful 42nd sub-3-hour state marathon.

My dramatic end zone finish, GO SPORTS!

Incomplete pass, no touchdown! 

With 2:58 on the clock, Michael entered the stadium to sneak in a sub-3-hour marathon. With all of our half marathoners finished, we lingered to watch Carolyn finish her marathon. Five of us won age group and overall awards - our choice of locally blown glass bowls, pitchers, and vases. Beers, food, and cake were all waiting at the finish line.

I had one more race for the day; my favorite punk band in high school, the recently reunited Jawbreaker, was playing at the Aragon Ballroom in Chicago. A sub-3-hour marathon in West Virginia, then an 8-hour drive to Chicago for 2 hours of nostalgia with old and new friends capped off a great weekend. Oh, and Jill caught the drumstick and gave it to me! Perfect weekend.

Still rockin' and I'm still standing after a long day

46/50 - Sandia Crest Marathon

Ooh look, a camera! Me during the race, sometime before things fell apart.

This wouldn't be fun if it were easy, right? That's what I keep telling myself. I've been after this goal of running a sub-3-hour marathon in every state since my first in 2009 at the Boston Marathon (1st blog entry linked). This recent 3:14:55 at the Sandia Crest Marathon in New Mexico didn't meet the mark. In fact, it was my worst since that Boston race. But setbacks are inevitable. Tenacity is what will get me to another start line, and 9 of those start lines remain.

In 2018, I've run my best and worst marathons. Shortly after running a personal best at the Lower Potomac River Marathon in Maryland in March, I got injured and lost my mojo. With continued training and racing since then, I was mentally and physically exhausted going into this race. On the plus side: Michael was with me for another state, our 7th together. He's a great training and travel partner!

I was excited for this trip because I had never been to New Mexico. We flew into Albuquerque on Friday afternoon for the Saturday race. Modeled after the successful Revel Race Series downhill marathons, Merit Race Series created the first downhill option in New Mexico and this was its inaugural year. It's difficult to run a sub-3-hour marathon in this state if you live at sea level and don't like heat - factors I tend to ignore... until they affect me.

We landed and I directed Michael to the closest brewery for lunch - surprising, right? Green Jeans Farmery is a collective of eateries, brewery, and shops constructed entirely of shipping containers. We grabbed pizza then a beer flight from Santa Fe Brewing Co., New Mexico's oldest brewery. Nativo Lodge, a Native American-styled hotel featuring a series of rooms displaying murals by Native American artists, made our stay in Albuquerque unique and authentic.

See, pre-race beers make you happy

After packet pickup, we rode the Sandia Peak Tramway - a 2.7-mile ride up the mountain yielding breathtaking views of Albuquerque and the mountainside's flora and fauna. You know what the state animal of New Mexico is? The black bear! Though we didn't spot one, the mountain is home to many. Once on top of the 10,378ft Sandia Crest Peak, we hiked for a couple miles aiming for the Kiwanis Cabin (a stone cabin overlooking the Rio Grande Valley built in 1930 by the Civilian Conservation Corps), but took a wrong turn, and to our surprise ended up at the start line of the next day's marathon.

The Tramway down at sunset is spectacular

That 3:15am alarm came quickly. We were on a 1-hour bus ride to the top of the mountain at 4:45am. We've learned to be early after my bus never made it to the start of the 2015 Revel Rockies Marathon, and our bus to the start of 2016 St. George Marathon was late, delaying the start time.

There were about 250 runners at the start of the marathon. Compared to the Revel Rockies Marathon, the descent was aggressively faster, hotter, and with more uphill stretches. After mile 4, there was a mile-long uphill. It was too early in the race for me to have doubts, but they were creeping around in the back of my head nonetheless. The next uphill, also about a mile long, came at mile 12. I still wasn't exactly feeling it, but I told myself to get to mile 18 and reassess before the last long uphill at mile 20. When I got to mile 18, I walked.

I just wasn't having fun. The sun was hot and I felt so out of shape. I walked and ran my way to the finish and I wasn't alone - it was oddly reassuring to see folks in this pace range walking at this point. With less than a mile to go, I heard Michael approach and I started running again so we could cross the finish line together, and we did. I've been hoping for that experience at one of these races!

FINALLY, a finish pic together! 

In the finish chute we found donuts and chocolate milk, Chris Brown (a friend from the Libertyville Running Club who now lives in San Diego), and an ice bath. It's a party now!

Michael doesn't drink but I kept sneaking in brewery visits, this time, for lunch at Nexus Brewery with Chris and his wife, Moira. It was good catching up and getting to know Moira. We took a private van tour of Albuquerque which helped us make sense of this seemingly sprawling metropolis. There is something unique about New Mexico: the art, architecture, turquoise jewelry, culture, atomic bomb history (inspired by a discussion at Bosque Brewing Co., I'm now reading The Making of the Atomic Bomb and it's dense AF!).

I promised Michael a post-race milkshake and 66 Diner didn't disappoint

Albuquerque is the ONLY place where Route 66 intersects itself. Strange, right?

If you didn't know already, Albuquerque is where Breaking Bad was filmed and when you're here, you will be reminded of it constantly - it seems to be one of their top tourist attractions. The Candy Lady candy shop in Old Town made the crystal meth prop for the show and you can buy it - it's rock candy.

Meth or candy? 

Look familiar? It's Jesse Pinkman's home from Breaking Bad

Albuquerque is having a renaissance. It's becoming hip and trendy with new restaurants, breweries, and construction everywhere. This will be the next Portland or Austin or at least, it'll try to be.

On Sunday, we had enough time for breakfast at Frontier (an old Albuquerque staple), a hike through Petroglyphs National Monument (fake, totally fake!), and Rude Boy Cookies, which, for a ska-themed cookie bar, really needed to have a black and white cookie.

The first text The Wife sent to me after she saw the race results was "I can't wait to bring the whole family back to New Mexico!" Not hitting my goal and having to go back is made a little bit easier with a bit of light-heartedness and the knowledge that I'll be coming back to a true gem of a state. See you again soon, New Mexico!

45/50 - Missoula Marathon

A cirque - formed by glacial erosion or a giant ice cream scoop

And then there were 9... Montana just became my 41st sub-3-hour state (2:59:38) and 45th state marathon. Close one, eh? With 21 seconds to spare - and not intentionally - this race was nothing short of suspenseful.

I grew up watching The Price Is Right. Who didn't? At around mile 20 of each of these races, it's as if Bob Barker calls upon me to, "Come on down!" to join Contestants' Row to see how close can I get to 2:59:59 without going over. My strategy of late is this: 2:14:00 or better at mile 20 allows me to slow the pace to about 7:15/mile for the final 10K. In this case, Montana was set to be my 8th sub-3-hour marathon in the last 10 months and I'm beginning to feel worn out.

But enough about running for a bit...

I had been looking forward to this trip since I pulled out of it last year because of a skateboarding injury during my taper (I know, I'm a dummy. It wasn't even during a cool trick or anything). I flew into Missoula on Thursday and found myself sitting creekside at Highlander Brewing Co. a few minutes later. It's a 5-hour drive to the Swiftcurrent Motor Inn on the east side of Glacier National Park, most of which is breathtaking. While Going-to-the-Sun Road is the star roadway in the area, driving along the coast of Flathead Lake is also quite pleasing; you'll see plenty of cottages, cherry farms, and a smattering of cute towns.

Found it!

Going-to-the-Sun Road is the main artery crossing the Glacier National Park. Its 50-miles of winding white-knuckle turns, idyllic overlooks, glacier lakes, wildflowers, waterfalls, trailheads, and wildlife give you a great introduction to such a magnificent area.

With so many hiking options and so little time, I opted for a 10-mile guided hike to Iceberg Lake that left Friday (the 13th) morning from the Swiftcurrent Motor Inn. This hike took us through bear country, and presented sweeping views of glacier cutouts and, finally, a glacier lake. Having a National Park ranger as a guide really enhanced the hike.

Iceberg Lake - the water is about a degree above freezing, touch it!

Without a room booked for Friday night, I leisurely made my way back to the west entrance, stopping here and there to admire how glaciers sculpted the land, and the pristine waters of Lake McDonald at its impressive namesake lodge. But at $300 a night, I drove on in search of a brewery and cheaper accommodations.

Ooh, bear claws... Oh, not the pastry.

In driving toward Whitefish, I happened upon Backslope Brewing in Columbia Falls. With 30 minutes before last call (Montana state law prohibits breweries from serving past 8pm), I realized I probably wasn't going to make it to a brewery in Whitefish and pulled on over. Priorities, ya know?

I sat next to a woman from Palatine. She saw my IL driver's license and we struck up a conversation. She left IL a few years ago for the scenery of Montana. Every time I travel west, I wonder why I don't live there. I admire those that take the chance and move. I've suggested it more than once to The Wife, and hopefully one of these days I'll finally convince her...

For now, I found a room at the Glacier Inn Motel down the road from the recently opened Gunsight Bar & Grill, where I caught a band in their beer garden. And with that, the day ended pretty abruptly; I was tired.

Blues band, beer, and mountain air

A local recommendation led me to Buffalo Cafe in Whitefish for breakfast. Huckleberries, a top food source for bears in the area, pop up on nearly every human menu as well (in beers, pancakes, coffees, and milkshakes). Seeing as I am A Bear On The Run and have two bears tattooed on my arm sleeve, I ordered the huckleberry pancakes and wasn't disappointed.

It's 3 hours back to Missoula, and by timing it right, I was able to stop at Flathead Lake Brewing Co., to grab some roadside Flathead cherries, and then arrive at packet pickup with 30 minutes to spare. The view from the brewery's patio overlooking the lake is worth the stop.

And then I settled into Imagine Nation Brewing with Thai takeout from Pagoda across town - well worth the long wait. This brewery is everything I find many breweries to lack: a focus on community over profit. Their story tells it best, read it HERE. So while their beers followed the same old New England IPA trend du jour, the names of their beers (including No Human Being is Illegal! and Freedom Fighter) and a community calendar supporting education and activism (even hosting free HIV testing events), leave an impression far greater than most breweries I've visited across the country.

And then I remembered I was here to race.

I had to be on a bus at 4:30am to make the 6am race start. It's a point A to point B course running west to east. The first half of this race is great: I loved the sunrise, temperature in the 50s, and peaceful two-lane road that runs along a mountain range and river at 3,300ft above sea level. The second half is where it gets a bit challenging. There's a nice hill at mile 14 then not much shade along an undulating road from about mile 18 - 22. The day was forecasted to be 90F and the sun really began to take its toll at 8am.

At mile 20 I hit my 2:14:00 strategy goal. Unfortunately, my legs couldn't stay under 7:15/mile from there on: mile 21 - 7:25, mile 22 - 7:28, mile 23 - 7:26, mile 24 - 7:22... Sure, a few seconds here and there doesn't sound like the end of the world, but with a margin of error already calculated down to the very last second, it can be catastrophic. At mile 24, the 3-hour pacer passed me and I knew I was in real trouble. Then my mind started to focus on the financial and training cost of doing this trip again, and that became a big motivator. I gave it everything I had, grunting and all, to catch that pacer, and at mile 26.1, I did! You know what's more exhilarating than Deena Kastor putting a finisher medal around your neck at this finish? Not having to come back to try it again!

You see that 3:00 pacer behind me? 

This race ends on the Clark Fork River and there's nothing more refreshing than a post-race river bath. I settled in to Missoula Club, a dive bar that serves milkshakes and cheeseburgers with pickles, PBR mustard, onions and that's all. What more do you need? The rest of the day was a blur of breweries (Kettle House, Draught Works - I'll never forget your Tomatillo Sour!, Bayern, and Imagine Nation again), and The Big Dipper for an unnecessary amount of ice cream - 6 scoops (including a huckleberry flavor, of course) with all the fixings.

I mean, it WAS National Ice Cream Day

Weird, yet it worked

Before flying out Monday afternoon, I had to visit Big Sky Brewing for their Moose Drool Brown Ale (more for the memory of first drinking it on a trip to Jackson Hole, Wyoming years ago) and others (which are mostly better). It's a worthy stop so close to the airport, and a nice way to wrap up another great Western Experience.