Short Version:  On 4/14/13 I ran the Crossroads Marathon in Lowell, IN with a finish time of 4:19:13.  This was a 10:49 course PR and a 2:25 marathon PR for me.  My previous PR stood since October 2009 and was set at pancake flat Chicago.  Crossroads is NOT a flat course so the fact I set a PR there really had me stoked . . . . until the tragedy at Boston.

I will endeavor to keep this brief.  There is no more joy to be had from racing this weekend for me, some coward took that away from me yesterday when they detonated 2 bombs at Boston killing and injuring all those people.  I spent the afternoon and evening trying to see if all my friends and fellow forumites running Boston were okay.  I do believe that they are all accounted for and physically okay.  We shall all have a mental scar from this for quite some time I believe.

Longer version:  Let me apologize upfront if it seems I am rambling as that is how it seems in my head that I am doing as I try to write this.

The weather for Crossroads looked favorable; low 40s at the start and mid 50s predicted by noon.  Wind was a factor once again @ 15 MPH + coming out of the south east.  This made for an uphill finish into a glancing wind.  I was joking with the race director that we need to change the race name to Crosswinds Marathon.

In the fall I am scheduled to run Chicago so it will be interesting to see what I can do on better training.  Like many snow bound runners, my winter training was crap.  I only logged 427 miles in the first 15 weeks of 2013, a wimpy 28.4 MPW.  Nothing ideal and certainly not enough quality miles.  I think part of my saving grace was the access to the indoor track at the YMCA and running many faster runs there, sometimes 2 or 3 a week.  Many of my runs there were sub 8:30s.  Almost never did I run slower than a 9:00 pace there.

The course:  http://www.usatf.org/routes/view.asp?rID=512760

Total climb: 642 feet / 196 m;  Total elevation change: 1282 feet / 391 m

A bit of a challenge, a lot of the front half is not too bad with lots of flat areas, the back half gets hilly with the constant barrage of rolling hills.  A course rookie might try to run and gun on the front half not knowing about the back half.

At about 3.5 miles or so I fell in step with Matt, this was marathon #19 for him and he was on a quest to join the 50 state club.  This was #16 for me.  We just started running together around the 3.5 mile mark, no plans to do it, just kinda happened.  We went on to finish the race together.  We talked and pushed and pulled each other for the next almost 23 miles.  This was my 3^rd time running this race, his first so I fed him information on the course along the way and we just talked and had a great time.

We were through the first half in a decent time, roughly 2:00:30 but I knew the rolling hills were coming up and we would have to start giving up time to stay on effort.  Typically I am a double the half and add at least 20 minutes marathoner.  I knew my training was crap for this cycle as well so I was questioning the double + 20 factor given that plus the hills.  We were both fine with that and felt we had enough to make the distance in decent time.  Around mile 20 we started talking about finish times and predicting where we were at.  Matt was feeling great and I was starting to get tired but felt I still had it in me to get really close to a PR.  Matt was planning a 4:45 finish but was glad to have someone to run with, neither of us were punishing the other with the pace so we decided to target a 4:20 finish.  Around mile 24 I felt that 4:20 falling away as my legs were going away but Matt said “I am not letting you walk, keep moving”  so I did and running I kept to.  If I was by myself I am certain I would not be writing about a PR right now.  But thanks to Matt, I am writing about getting a PR on a hilly course that should not have been a PR race.

32^nd out of 67 overall, 6^th out of 10 AG for the finishing stats.  Now its time to recover and get ready for Indy Mini on May 4^th.

Great job, Doug.

Great job, Doug!  Thanks for posting something happy about running.

PR on a hilly course = awesomeness.  Well done!

Nice work on the PR!  Sounds like you owed Matt a brew for helping to pace you to the finish.  Congrats!

Monumental, I honestly thought the course wasn't that great.  I can deal with weather.

Great job Doug!

congrats on your PR! Great job!