I was trying to decide how best to go about uploading photos from the Independence Series. I briefly considered just updating the initial draft posts with revisions but felt that betrayed the spirit of the daily notations. The initial drafts reflect the contemporaneous reactions to the events of the day and should remain.
Sadly, the notations I scribbled down on various stray slips of paper have not-surprisingly vanished. I’m sure they’ll turn up eventually but I’ll do my best to remember what I wanted to mention in a more detailed course overview.
Day 1: Lums Pond State Park, Bear, Delaware.
Sixteen loops. That’s a lot of loops. Mentally I can handle 14 loops infinitely more easily than I can 16 or 18 or that one time we did 22. It’s still 26.2+ miles, as Race Director Clint Burleson has a tendency to make the courses long to ensure they count for 50 States Marathon Club et al. And there’s plenty of mileage to be discussed regarding the kerfuffles created by short marathons. For example, the Anchorage Big Wild Life Marathon from August 2015 was 0.96 miles short and while the Boston Athletic Association was willing to pro-rate the times, the 50 States Marathon Club disallowed that event as a marathon for their club. Potato, potatoe — let’s call the whole thing off.
Having said all of that, I think this particular course of Mainly Marathons wound up being slightly short. I don’t have my napkin scribbled notes with my Garmin’s mileage but I seem to recall it being just under 26 miles. Not 100% sure, but that’s how I recall it at this moment in time.
In any event, here are shots from the starting line as the sun rose.
The course itself included all kinds of terrain — grass, mud, forest trail with tripping roots, gravel — it made for quite an experience.
Given the overcast conditions and the mud, it was a decent day for running although a less-than-ideal sightseeing day. Still, slowly I looped and looped the course and finally finished fifth overall with a time of 3:43:48.
Here are a few shots of the good people both on the course and providing support to the runners.
Years ago, Brian Wright introduced me to the 50<4 Marathon Club. Since then, it seems like every few races I catch up with him… not literally as he’s far too fast for me on the course. But after the finish we try and grab a quick photo when we can.
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Here’s me with Mainly Marathon’s Norm Duesterhoeft and George Rose.
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Michael Grehan is from England and has this incredible ability of getting faster and faster with each loop. I usually go out far too quickly and build up a bit of a lead and see him nip at my heels and pass me before the race is done. Each loop we low-five each other. He’s a great runner (and last I checked had run something like 415 marathons!)
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On my way out of the State Park, I noticed this live bait vending machine and couldn’t resist snapping a photo. What must it be like to resupply this — does one truck handle both the Coke and live bait vending machines? Surely not. And don’t call me Shirley.
By the same token, if Keg Beer is not allowed in the park, one has to wonder if pony kegs would pass muster… or if one brought one’s one still to a beach party, would that be considered ok? The mind boggles… particularly after looping round and round 16 times!
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Post-race, I took a minor detour to the Apex Medical Center as 537 Stanton Christiana Road, Newark, DE. This is the home of a huge doctor’s bag sculpture. It IS pretty big but I’m not 100% sure it was worth a detour. Oh, who am I kidding? OF COURSE it was worth the detour — just look at it!
I did appreciate that at all four corners of the bag there was a sign reading, “Please KEEP OFF Doctor’s Bag.” For some reason, it struck me as hilarious. Again, in my defense, I had just run round and round 16 times.
Did I mention it was 16 loops? Well, it was. Sixteen loops.
Here’s a dramatic recreation using the course: