Air Force Marathon-Dayton, OH
September 16, 2023
5:15:05 732/1070 Overall 6/15 in 70-74
After
training all summer in Fresno where the temperatures most mornings were in the
low 70s, it was refreshing to feel the chill in the air race morning of 47
degrees! I even had a long sleeve shirt and gloves on before the race started
because my summer-acclimated body felt cold. The Air Force Marathon is a fairly
large race with about 8500 total runners in all of the events. I was instructed
to arrive 1.5-2 hours before race start due to the parking congestion and the
one mile walk to the starting area. It was indeed stop-and-go traffic getting
into the extensive grass fields where we parked. I saw the fireworks go off for
the 10K which started in the dark at 6:30. I made sure to mark the number of my
parking area and take a picture of my rental car. (Of course, by the time I got
back, most of the cars were long gone.)
Anyway, I used the mile walk as a
bit of a warm-up and wake-up as I got up at 5:00 EDT (2:00 Fresno time). I had
tapered a lot the last 3 weeks and had a great massage on Tuesday, so my legs
felt really good as I started off. After the first mile, we went up about a
mile long fairly steep hill where I did a lot of walking. After the opening
hill, most of the first half was flat and I did 4 min run/:30 walk. I was happy
that my comfortable run pace was back at 10:20-10:40 after the last 4 marathons
not feeling comfortable at all at 11-minute pace (all warm-weather). I kept
leap-frogging with a pace group doing 1 minute run and :30 walk. They were
really irritating (as are most pace groups) because they took up the whole road
and I had to weave to get by them. They were running sub 10 when they ran so
weren’t very helpful for what I wanted to do.
I got to half-way in 2:29 feeling
pretty good, but by then the temperature was getting into the 60s and soon the
low 70s. I went to 3/:30 and then at about 16 to 1:20/:40. I just didn’t feel
like running for long stretches, but the good news was that when I ran, I still
was in 10:30 range and sometimes saw some 9:55s. However, in the last 6 miles,
there were 3 or 4 more extended hills that I mostly walked. I was getting
really bored and tired of the whole thing when the 5:15 pacer (different then
the 5:00 pacer earlier) who was doing 1 min/:30 and running my pace. It helped
a lot to have company as she had 4 or 5 other runners and I could think about
something besides how I wanted to be done. Lol
When I finished, I felt really tired and just wanted to sit for awhile. I found a chair and did that as I sipped a recovery drink. One of the bad things about finishing later is that there isn’t much food left and not many other runners or spectators so it’s a bit lonely. Finally, I recovered to make the mile walk back to the car and do the 25-minute drive back to the hotel. When I got there, I just took off my shoes and socks and took a nap. That nap really gave me renewed energy so I could get my ice bath and shower.
Meanwhile, Jodi had
texted me near the top of Cloud’s Rest and I was able to encourage her to make
the last scary ascent at the end and she did indeed make it. Here’s her
description on Facebook:
“Yesterday I conquered Clouds Rest hike in Yosemite. With the help of some amazing people I faced a lot of fears: traveling through the darkest mountain roads with no service, getting murdered at the Lodge, scaling rocks at nearly 10,000 feet of elevation, heart pounding and unable to breathe, and then making it back down without falling and breaking a body part, completing my longest hike of 13 miles. It was all through prayer, determination and grit.”
Back in Dayton, I set out to get a good burger and then ice cream. I did both with great success at the Buckhorn Tavern with huge burger and then found JD’s Old Fashioned Custard where I got Pumpkin Pie Concrete (like DQ blizzard). Since my primary thought during the second half of the race was about burgers and ice cream, I got my wishes in spades. (Maybe I should just skip the run part. 🤔)
I flew into Cincinnati on Thursday
and drove to Wright St University arena for packet pickup. The next day I
visited CarCarillon Park and learned so much about the Wright Brothers who
originally ran a bicycle shops in Dayton. Even though
they didn’t finish high school, they were inventive geniuses who worked
tirelessly to invent a machine that would fly using mathematical principles
they learned from their bikes and other flying machine inventors. Dayton also
was the headquarters of NCR which sold new and better cash registers and much
more and DELCO and it’s many automotive innovations. Downtown there is another
museum honoring them and the black poet Paul Laurence Dunbar and a walk of fame
with plaques of some I noted. One was for Cathy Guisewite who created the comic
strip “Cathy” for 34 years.
The National Museum of the Air Force
is where the pasta dinner was held and next to where the race started. We got
to hear from a general and a Lt. Col who gave the inspirational talk. I walked
around the museum that night and then for a couple hours Sunday morning. It
features planes used starting in WWI and WWII and going into Stealth bomber and
3 presidcential
planes. They also had ICBM missles on display and great displays on spacecraft.
I was fascinated to learn about the importance of the food the astronausts had
to eat and to learn how GPS makes it possibleel
for our Garmins and map apps to work.
This
was Marathon #182; 41 states+DC on 2nd go-round; All 10 Canadian provinces.
Next marathon: ?
Marathon photos: https://photos.shutterfly.com/album/1777413844664420
