Little Apple Marathon, Manhattan, KS, Oct 31, 2020

 

Little Apple Marathon, Manhattan, KS

October 31, 2020

4:49:52 82/116 Overall   2/4 in 70+ 

            On Halloween morning with a blue moon (2d full moon in a month), I ran my 169th marathon in Manhattan, Kansas. It was in the 50s and windy with blue skies and sunshine, a welcome change from the smoke and heat of CA. The course was 4 loops of Tuttle Creek Park with a lake and fields to see. I stuck to a run/walk pattern of 4 min run and 1 min walk for most all of the race. As a result, I ran strong the whole way and had negative splits and did not feel exhausted when I finished. I was excited to see that I place 2d in my age group.

            It was the 31st state that I’ve done at least twice and my 3rd marathon of the year.

First day in Kansas was spent in Salina where I visited the Smokey Hill Museum. It had some very interesting displays from Kansas history and a special display of the items from the 1950s. Check it out for fun history lessons.

            After running the Marathon, I visited the campus of Kansas State Univ. where I saw their magnificent football stadium. It is quite an impressive structure and features a statue of their longtime coach, Bill Snyder. I also found the statue of Johnny Kaw, a Paul Bunyan-type character.

Sunday I headed to Abilene where I had run a marathon in 2009. Famously, I ran 3:46:03 and missed qualifying for Boston there by 3 seconds (back when you were in for sure if you made your BQ time) because I got a calf cramp in the last mile and stopped twice to try to rub it out.😞 I did BQ later that year at Detroit Marathon.

            I wanted to revisit the town of 6000 and see a couple of museums there. The Dickinson County Museum had local-area history and also featured some telephone history since Sprint started in Abilene. There was a school room that had desks just like I had in the 1960s and a cabin called the Volkmann cabin. I also revisited the Greyhound Hall of Fame next door to where the marathon started 11 years ago. There was also a Trump parade of over 200 cars, trucks, and tractors that went right by there.

This was Marathon #169; 31 states on 2nd go-round; All 10 Canadian provinces.

Marathon photos: VIEW PHOTOS

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