Cold, windy and rainy. That pretty well describes how things were when I woke up on February 8th in my Columbia, South Carolina motel room. It was the kind of day that I wouldn't normally even go out for a training run. But I needed to warm up for the marathon, so I walked down to the hotel Health Club where I found Hal Rothman well into his workout on the treadmill. Hal had been awakened early by rain driving against his hotel room window. He was in Columbia to cover the USATF Women's Marathon Championship for the show Running and Racing that airs on ESPN. Hal began early in the morning taping plastic covering over his video camera to waterproof it against the elements.After the warmup I returned to the room for the next phase of my pre-marathon ritual: a bagel, banana, a carton of GO, and a bottle of carbo-loading drink. I was joined by roommate Joe Conrad in some stretching, stretching and more stretching (according to Aaron Maties and Jim Wharton). Joe had made the 370 mile trip to Columbia to compete in the 10K race which was part of the Southeastern US Grand Prix Series.
Joe and I left the warmth of our room to watch the 9AM start of the Women's Marathon. It was 47 degrees and drizzling. After seeing the women off, we beat a retreat back to the room to more comfortably watch the race on television until our own races began. There were nearly a thousand entrants joining Joe in the 10K, including a group of recruits from the Fort Jackson army base who arrived in sweats, marching in step and shouting cadence. I am happy to report that Joe brought a glass trophy back to Gainesville for winning his 70-74 age group, and added more points to his Grand Prix total (in addition to the 200 earned a few months earlier for winning his age group in the Rocket City Marathon).
In preparation for the marathon I put on a hotel shower cap under my broad-brimmed cap, to keep my head dry for the next several hours. Shortly before the 10AM start I ventured forth and warmed up some more by running up and down in the starting area, dodging puddles. I joined a congenial group of 259 men (and 85 women who didn't meet the qualification time for the Women's Championship). There was no jostling at the start and no delay in reaching the starting line. The course had a downhill slope at the beginning -- the early race adrenaline was flowing -- I didn't see an early mileage clock -- and suddenly I arrived at the 3-mile marker in 21 minutes, 3 minutes ahead of my plan for a sensible evenly-paced race. It was clear even at this early stage that I was going to pay dearly later. I ran the next several miles with a steady pair of experienced runners but decided that their 7:40 pace would be hard to maintain on this hilly course. This brought me to the half-marathon point in a faster time than any of my previous 14 marathons, and the quads were already beginning to hurt. Water was dripping from the brim of my cap and it was necessary to periodically wipe my gloves across the front of my glasses so that I could see clearly. Eventually I tossed the gloves away, finding that my hands were warmer without a drenched cotton covering. Running was accompanied by a squish squish squish from my waterlogged shoes. I was wondering how my beleagured feet would come through, but miraculously this was the first marathon in years in which I developed no blisters and lost no toenails!
Although I knew that the elite women in the Women's Championship were out on the course somewhere, I was nonetheless surprised to see the number 1 and number 2 women runners in the opposite lane, passing us on the return part of the course. I was even more surprised to be hailed by Hal Rothman who was riding on the motorcycle accompanying the lead runners. Hal was to explain later how difficult it was to film the runners and change batteries and film in the rain when your hands were frozen. He also had to wipe rain droplets from the camera lens after 5 seconds of filming.
The course took a 150 ft. drop from miles 2 to 6, and then from miles 7 to 10 there were 2 100 ft. hills. This was followed by a run through an area with older homes and quiet streets followed by another drop of 150 ft. on the way to Fort Jackson Army Base (miles 12-19). The base was mostly pine forest, but included a 170 ft. elevation gain. Then at mile 21 there was a 120 ft. elevation increase. That would have been fine, but I wasn't prepared for the steep 80 ft. climb at mile 25 as we came back on to the University of South Carolina campus. I was never so happy to see the 7-block straightaway to the finish. I was closing the gap on another runner as the finish line rushed up to us. The race results show that the only two Florida runners in the race finished at 3:35:58 (Phil Little, Apopka, FL) and 3:35:59 (yours truly), in positions #81 and #82. I rated this a 3-GU packet marathon, with the Marine Corp and Jacksonville only requiring 2.
Julia Kirtland, a native of Maine, won the Women's Championship in 2:37:46. This was worth $12,500 and a trip to represent the US in the World Championships in Athens. Kirtland trained in Columbia, SC, for two months prior to running the marathon. Of interest to us Floridians was the fact that Mary Alico, from Winter Park, FL, took third.
Joe and Hal and I had a good time driving back to Gainesville together. We remarked that it would be a nice thing if more FTC members shared information about what out-of-town races they were planning to run, so that we could share transportation, lodging and camaraderie.