It is actually the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center/City of Pittsburgh Marathon. And in 1998 it hosted the USATF Men's National Marathon Championship. In addition, the UPMC Pittsburgh Marathon was selected as the men's year 2000 US Olympic Trials site, and the 1998 marathon also served as the first qualifier race for the year 2000 Men's US Olympic Marathon Trials. That is a lot for one race to do.Race headquarters were at a nice old downtown hotel, the Westin William Penn. I stayed at the adjacent Ramada that boasted a complete full-scale health club with pool, and a 7-11 store. The Saturday morning before the May 3rd Sunday Marathon, a Pittsburgh friend drove me over the complete course. It was good to see large white footprints at each of the turns and permanently painted mile markers on the pavement at each mile. I managed to make a quick visit to the Andy Warhol museum (complete with a room full of floating helium-filled silver pillows and another room covered with cow wallpaper) prior to the afternoon race conference. We were treated to a mile-by-mile slide show of the complete race course and a talk that convinced me that they had a most astounding array of medical personnel just waiting for me to collapse on the course. This was followed by a lively presentation on race preparation by Florida's only USATF certified coach, Chuck Cornett, who was in more than his usually fine politically-incorrect form. Chuck publicly predicted that Keith Brantly (former UF runner, FTC President, and Olympian) would win the marathon. Saturday evening was spent eating plates of pasta with my Pittsburgh friends and chatting with two grizzled veteran Pennsylvania runners who regaled us with their marathon tales.
Race time was 8:30AM and I was up early as usual to eat lots of calories, stretch and warm up, and to get rid of what was left of last night's pasta dinner. It was 57 degrees and overcast; perfect marathon conditions. I made the easy walk from my hotel to the downtown staging area and joined the other runners in line at the port-o-potties. Lining up for the race was casual and I sidled into position a few feet behind the elite runners. My Championchip time showed that it took only 6 seconds to get across the start line/timing mat. After an adrenaline-aided 7:20 first mile I settled into a sub 8-minute pace that I felt I could maintain. This was also a comfortable pace for a 58 year old urologist from Akron, and we ran together and chatted for most of the first half. This included a few miles down Penn Ave. past outdoor markets and shops where we were entertained by a Jamaican steel band and other music groups. For those of you who don't know about Three Rivers Stadium, we were in the vicinity and crossed bridges over each of the three rivers that flow through Pittsburgh. The 16th Street Bridge over the Allegheny River at mile 4.5 is an architectural gem of yellow girders flanked by carved stone columns. We then passed through a lively section of the city, the South Side ("Never Ordinary, Always Extraordinary"). Following a series of turns we navigated the third bridge, followed by a dip and a steady rise of 350 feet at mile 12 for the only major hill of the course. It was at this point in the marathon, we later learned, that Keith Brantly sprinted by the rabbit and threw in an uphill 4:58 mile, dropping the rest of the lead pack.
This brought us up Forbes Avenue to the Oakland section of the city, and the University of Pittsburgh, with its Tower of Learning. The half-marathon point was at the Carnegie Museum, where we crossed one of several ChampionChip timing mats. The website race results conveniently list each runner's time for these points, and the race clocks on the course displayed each runner's current place in real time. Miles 14 and 15 took us through the gently rolling hills of the Shadyside neighborhood, full of small upscale boutiques and crowds that surged into the road creating a narrow path for the runners. My friends emerged from the crowd at mile 16, urging me on with noisemakers. And that was when it began to rain. The road had been wet for much of the way, indicating showers preceding us, but the scattered showers caught my section of the course, soaking shoes and shirts and creating puddles. We emerged from the rain at mile 23 and a downhill section of the course, and my time and spirits picked up. The end was nearly in sight and the rest of the course was flat. After passing through the Penn St. neighborhood for a second time we emerged to finish in a pleasant park. At mile 26 I taunted adjacent younger runners (do you really want to be beaten by a 60-year-old man?) then sprinted to the finish with a GU-propelled final burst of energy. I was pleased with a 3:31:28, an 8:05 pace, 7/75 in my age group. For my reward there was a space blanket, a finisher's medal, bananas, oranges and drinks. I was happy.
Keith Brantly, on the other hand, was even happier. He came in first of 2373 finishers, passing the half-marathon mark in 1:05:33 and finishing at 2:12:31, for an average pace of 5:04 minutes/mile. Instead of earning $20,000 for the first place finish, since this was a course record, Keith collected $100,000. Readers of the Gainesville Sun were treated to a headline and a large picture of Keith as he propelled his rain-soaked body through the finish line. I sent a congratulatory email to Keith on behalf of the Florida Track Club, and he responded with his willingness to visit us again some time in the near future.