I mostly ran the Missoula Marathon last Sunday on July 13. But, before I get to that I want to mention the most important event of that weekend. I met btb and his family in person! For those who are wondering how our long lost friend is doing, he is in great shape and fully recovered from his spring injuries and ailments. Btb and his family are among the most generous and caring people I have ever met. I also want to mention that his DD is just an amazing girl! She is a pre-teen who shows as much empathy and caring for others as any adult. I know btb and his DW are very proud of what a wonderful women she is growing up to be. How did a guy from CT come to run a race in MT? If you followed my trials and tribulations this past spring then you know I managed to injure myself at the end of March and wound up on the DL during the Boston Marathon. I certainly could not let all that marathon training go to waste! Only one solution: find another to run. But it had to be far enough in the future that I could heal up and then get back in shape for it. That meant after I got back from Hawaii in July. Also, it could not be much past early August as I did not want it to interfere with my training for the NYC Marathon in early November. This left about four possible weekends. Finally, I wanted a “normal” course. Most summer marathons are apparently plotted out by people that think a regular old 26.2 mile course is way too easy! A typical route seems to be involve running up the side of a mountain and then circling it a few times! Knocking out all of these killer courses left just marathon that would work: Missoula. That turned out all for the best anyway as I managed to talk btb into going as well as a colleague of mine and her DH into doing the HM. Race Day I had three possible goals. First, I wanted to finish the race running. That was more important than anything. This was going to be fun if it killed me! Second, I wanted to break 3:20 as that would give me a new PR. I knew going into this a 3:20 time was probably too ambitious. Post-injury my times have not returned to what they were and there was no reason to think I could do this. Still you need goals! But I was also willing to deep six this at the first sign it would cost me my first goal. Third, come in under 3:30. That seemed quite realistic. At dinner the night before the race I had a very pleasant surprise. My colleague’s mom had come to watch all the racing and offered to meet me with supplies on course! With some fear I took her up on the offer. If she came through I could manage the race while carrying a minimum of supplies. On the down side if she turned out to be unreliable I would run out of my energy supplies and then have to rely on the aid stations, which I very much dislike doing. The race starts at 6am. I picked btb up at the front desk of the hotel and drove us to the buses. We decided to get on the 5am ones to beat the crowds to our respective starting areas. Good call! At the starting area the porta-potty supply was way short. What do RDs think? When the gun went off many people had to sprint off the still long line to get started. Fortunately, do to my early arrival; I was not one of them. At precisely 6am, and I do mean precisely, the gun went off! My goal was to run the first mile a bit slower than 7:38 and then go down to my goal pace starting the next mile. Instead I went out in 7:12. Still it did not feel fast and I felt pretty good. Nevertheless I slowed down and hit the next mile in 7:34. Good on pace! Alas it least one mile marker was off and I ended up clocking a 6:32 pace followed by an 8:55 one. I am really sure my pace never swung that much! But it did a number on me as I lost my pacing and it took some time to settle back down. By the time I hit mile 10 I knew my 3:20 goal was shot. From here on in the goal was to run all the way in unless I recovered enough to make my 3:20 goal. Some things just die hard. Just past mile 12 I see my favorite spectator with all of my supplies. I was so happy! I grabbed two Gu’s and she said she would see me at mile 19. To my ever lasting gratitude she was there too. Yes! Just past mile 12 is a hill that goes on for about 1.4 miles. It starts at 3,093 feet and rises to 3,279. Since the course was pretty flat to this point it was good to give my quads a break. Still, hills never do anybody’s time any good and this one was no exception. I ended up recording one mile on the way up at 8:27 and then making up a little bit of time on the way down with a 7:26. Next up was the 15 mile mark where the marathon and HM courses meet up. At this point, my 3:20 goal is really done. I knew it and my legs knew it. From here on in I planned to take walk breaks at each mile marker and walk all the water stops. At first I thought 30 second walk breaks would do, but I quickly realized 40 seconds would be necessary. This landed me with the final mile splits in the 8:25 range. Not great, but still on pace to crack 3:30 and perhaps 3:25. At mile 22 btb showed up to help run me into the finish. (I told you he is an amazing guy!) Let me just say he is not the most talkative runner you have ever met! Oh well, it was still nice to have my own mobile cheering section. I pulled out goal 2 and ran in the last two miles non-stop. My last mile turned out to be my fastest of the race with a time of 7:02! I am really happy with that and my final time of 3:25:46. It was probably better than I could realistically have hoped for, and most importantly I had a great time running the race. If you are looking for a summer marathon I highly recommend Missoula. Other than the porta-potty shortage the race support was excellent. The Missoula weather in early July is spectacular! At the start it was about 55 and at the finish it was even a few degrees cooler. The humidity level is really low too. My only advice is to make sure you have on a lot of sun block and that you wear a visor. By the time I hit the 15 mile mark a visor would have been a tremendous help as the sun was high enough to eliminate most of the shade. So ends the longest RR ever written! My apologies to all that made it to here start to finish. If you “cheated” and skipped most of this novel well then you got what you paid for!

Well, it sounds like you ran really well, even though not the sub 3:20 you were hoping for. Is 55F really normal for that place in July? And a few degrees cooler at the end? If only that were always the case! You did a fantastic job even with the walk breaks. I didn't know fast people could walk and still get such awesome times. I am envious too that you got to meet Btb in person.

Well done, Twocat. You were right between your two goals. It sounds like a nice course and a nice day. Thanks for the btb update. Congratulations on a great marathon as you return from the injured list. TomS

nice

A great race and report to go with it, Twocat. I didn't mind the length at all. I was just hoping from the title that it wasn't the length of the marathon that was the longest ever.

Nicely done! it's good to see you running healthy and having a good time doing it. Onward to NYC!

Nice report! Glad you got the editor off your back.

Nice race and race report! OOOhh that 55 degrees sure sounds good! But then you had to come back to the lovely sauna-like weather in Connecticut. Bet that was a shock to your system ;-(. Thanks for sharing!