We arrived in Missoula on Friday afternoon after detouring to pick up Kristyn at the airport in Helena. Before checking into our hotel, we explored Missoula. Naturally, our first stop was Runner's Edge, which is owned by the person who started the Missoula Marathon four years ago. We met several nice people there. Jessica and Kristyn bought some new apparel for the race. We then got coffee (not me) at Liquid Planet and food at Mackenzie River Pizza.
After Jessica's and Kristyn's run on Saturday morning, we went to the race expo, where we picked up our race packets and posters ($5 each). While the race t-shirts are pretty sweet, I'm not sure why they decided to print them on black t-shirts. The expo was outside, and it was hot. Then it started to rain. We took cover for a few minutes and then caught the tail end of the farmer's market across the way. We bought some snap peas. Overall, the expo was pretty good in that it was small, but there wasn't much in the way of free stuff. Despite the small expo, I think we did too much walking around on Saturday, as we walked not only around the expo but to it from the hotel. By the time we got back to the hotel, I was wiped out. I wasn't feeling well, so I took a nap. When I woke up, I still wasn't feeling well. I thought I was coming down with the flu. Nerves? After eating (we had a cookout in the parking lot of the hotel), I started to feel better.
We woke up at 3:45/am on Sunday morning. I had a bowl of oatmeal with fruit for breakfast. By 4:15/am, we were out the door, on our way to the bus stop. Runners were bussed from Missoula to Frenchtown, where the marathon started, starting at 4/am. The bus ride was 20 minutes long. When we got to Frenchtown, it was still dark out. It was in the 50s (perhaps colder?). When the cannon boomed at 6/am, the sun had started to come up. The first 8 or 9 miles were straight and flat on a country road with mountains in the distance. There was a 200-foot climb at mile 14, which was kind of nice to break up the monotony of running straight, flat roads. After coming down the other side of the hill, the course made it's way through neighborhoods and then finally back into Missoula. The finish was downtown after running over a bridge. There wasn't much in the way of crowd support (only at the very end). I took water at all 17 aid stations. I took GU at 0:45, 1:30, 2:15, and 3:00. The first one definitely worked. I'm not sure about the other three, though.
I ran pretty conservatively. The first 10K were just as difficult as the last. I couldn't find a rhythm. I finally found one at mile 8 or 9. Then I settled in. My legs felt pretty good through about 20 miles. The last few were the most difficult of the race. I got a cramp in my right leg with a half mile to go. I stopped for 5 seconds, stretched it out, and ran as fast as I could to the finish. The finish was awesome. I loved running over the bridge, being cheered on by so many people. It was a great experience.
Jessica finished in 3:33 (BQ). She placed fourth in her division. Based on her time slip, she was third. We never figured out why that was. Where the results were posted, there were two keypads attached to two computers. Punching your bib number into a keypad produced a slip of paper with your time, place, etc. on it. I had never seen that before. Pretty nifty. Kristyn finished in 3:42 or 3:43 (on no marathon-specific training). I finished in 4:02.
After the race, we drank, ate, and got our (free) pictures taken. Each runner was entitled to one free picture. We got a total of four pictures taken. As you can probably imagine, the line for the free pictures was long. Even though Kristyn didn't register for the race, she got a free picture (and medal and bandana after crossing the finish line), too. Regardless of whether they knew, Missoula really is a great marathon. Jessica and I paid $25 each for our pictures. We're still waiting for our codes so that we can download them. Instead of paying hundreds of dollars for the pictures online, we get them all (15-20 electronic pictures each) for $25.
