... a race worthy of its own blog post.
I woke up at 5:30AM and laid in bed for a couple of minutes ... but there was daylight was wasting (somewhere) so I got up. I did the dishes from last night and made a pot of coffee. I made my first attempt to get my darling wife, Christine, up. I had a pre-race bowl of Cinnamon Toast Crunch and a banana along with a small glass of OJ. Christine had a bit of trouble getting up but succeeded on her third attempt. She waffled about going but ultimately decided to go. My Garmin Forerunner 310XT greeted me with a Low Battery indication when I picked it up. I thought I had engaged its charger prongs in last night. It got up to 22% by the time we left at 6:52AM. I brought the USB charger cord and charged it during the 10 minute trip down to Frontier Field in downtown Rochester.
So we were down and parked in Eastman Kodak's D parking lot with plenty of time for the 7:45AM start. My Garmin got to 40% before I put it on my wrist. I kissed Christine for luck.
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| A smile before the start - taken by Christine |
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| A lonely finish line waited for marathon and half marathon finishers |
I saw Bill Beyerbach on my way inside Frontier Field so I could hit the bathroom before the race. I did a slow warmup run down to the start line at the Andrews Street Bridge, link
here. The weather conditions were 68F, 78% RH, 7 mph SSW wind, cloudy at the start. The weather conditions definitely changed during the race.
I lined up next to Bill Beyerbach at the start. I saws and shook hands with Wilt Alston before the race. Bill said that he wanted to run a 7:40 pace so we made plans to run together. I lined up ahead of Jim McLaughlin who was the 1:45 pace leader. I told him that I wanted to finish ahead of him. He said that he would spank me with his pace leader sign if he saw me. Ha!
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| The start of the Rochester Half Marathon - taken from Facebook |
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| A huge USA flag greeted us ... - taken from Facebook |
And ... we were off! I ran with Bill for a little bit. Well, I let Bill go 1/2 mile into the race. He was simply running too fast for me. I had a hot 7:19 first mile so he must have done a 7 or so. He is such a strong runner. I am used to finishing behind him ... even if he is in my M55-59 age group.
I ran well for the first 7 miles. The miles clicked by: the turn on N Winton Rd at mile 3, the turn onto Highland Ave at mile 4 and the turn onto S Clinton Ave at mile 5.5, then the turn onto Wesfall Rd at mile 6.5 and into Brighton Park shortly afterward. My mile splits for miles 1-7 were: 7:19, 7:23, 7:25, 7:34, 7:55, 7:40 and 8:32. I walked a bit before mile 7 when I had my only Gu during the race.
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| Barry Cherney had a different hydration plan at mile 5 ... - taken from Facebook |
Now we were on the Erie Canal path from mile 7.5, into Genesee Valley Park at mile 9, up the east side of the Genesee River by the University of Rochester to the Ford St Bridge at mile 11.5. Things fell a bit apart here between miles 8 to 11. I began a run/walk. My mile splits for miles 8-11 were: 7:56, 8:16, 8:04, 8:45.
I picked it up the rest of the way in. It had started to rain so my thought was to bring it to the finish line quickly. I took off my sunglasses and held them in my right hand. Basically I sucked it up and ran. The route was across the Ford St Bridge, down Exchange Blvd during mile 12, onto S Plymouth Ave and onward past Frontier Field and to the finish on Platt St. My mile splits for miles 12, 13 and the last 0.16 mile were: 8:11, 7:35 and 6:36.
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| Ellen Brenner (Co-owner of Fleet Feet Rochester) called runners in to the finish line in the pouring rain! - taken from Facebook |
Ellen Brenner, the voice of so many Fleet Feet races, called me in when I was within 100 feet of the finish line. I so look forward to hearing her voice! And ... done in 1:43:39 according to my Garmin! The finisher medal around my neck felt nice.
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| A selfie taken inside the food tent while it poured outside. |
I met up with Bill Beyerbach just outside the finish chute. We gave each other a fist bump. I saw Wilt Alston finish. I didn't see or hear Christine so I went out to our Cruze and found her there. She wasn't feeling well and had stayed in the car. I headed back slowly to get some post-race grub. The rain on my head felt nice. It started pouring when I was in the food tent. I remarked to Wilt that I was glad that I had ran the half. He agreed. If we had run the full we would have been more than halfway while it was pouring. The rain did stop by the time by the time I had ambled back to the Cruze about a 1/2 hour later.
I changed into my dry Rochester Marathon tech shirt and put a towel onto the driver's seat since my shorts were soaked. I told Christine a bit about the race. Then we headed home. Soon I had my feet up with a hot mug of coffee by my side ... it was 10:58AM. A nice way to spend a morning! It was pouring again at noon. I thought of the runners still running ... getting drenched and getting buffeted by the wind.
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| Everyone got soaked ... |
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| A look of determination on this runner's face ... |
There was some trouble getting to the Yellow Jacket Racing results page for some time after the race, link
here. There was word on Facebook that the server that hosted their site suffered a hacker attack. Soon the results were up on the Rochester Marathon website, link
here. I did pretty well. Officially, I finished in 1:43:40, 146th out of 1867, link
here. I was 5th out of 64 in my M55-59 age group, link
here. Bill finished 110th in 1:40:19 (4th in our M55-59 age group) and Wilt finished in 175th in 1:45:22 (7th in our M55-59 age group).
Other runners that I knew: Kevin Klinefelter in 1:37:10 (3rd in our M55-59 age group), Jim McLaughlin (the 1:45 pacer) in 1:44:34, Mike Weinpress in 1:47:31, Jeff Rose (who is longing to age up to the M60-64 age group) in 1:54:02, Megan Hammersmith (who was running for two) in 1:54:31, Jim Roche (who paced his daughter to a sub 2 hour PR) in 1:58:46, Wendy Abbott (the 2:00 pacer) in 1:59:47, Bob Dyjak (a training run for the upcoming WVa Full) in 2:05:12, Bambi Jasmin in 2:08:38, Bill Noel in 2:08:31, Barry Cherney in 2:10:21, Kathy Reardon (the 2:15 pacer) in 2:14:17, Jim Norris in 2:17:19, Sue Pollard in 2:21:56, Sean Hendrick in 2:24:20, Carl Camille in 2:28:41, Courtney Abeln in 2:28:43, Bob Ciecierega (Joe Ciecierega's father) in 2:47:18 and Beth Springar in 2:58:01.
543 runners finished the Rochester Marathon that started at 7:30AM. I didn't see any of these runners finish but this is how other runners that I knew fared: Tom Dwyer was 9th for 1st masters in 3:03:32, Chris Patterson was the 3:30 pace leader in 3:29:56, Prem Kumar in 3:33:55, Chris O'Brien in 3:41:38, Andrew Ciaio in 3:47:05, Joe Ciecierega in 3:48:25, Steve Levitsky in 4:03:39, Bob Lonsberry in 4:29:59. The Rochester running community welcomed runners of all speeds ... Tina Pellegrin (who battled her hips and stomach) in 6:21:40, Amy Lord (who battled her hamstring) in 7:01:66, Tom Butler (who had ran 50 miles down in Chautauqua the day before) in 7:34:03 and Bill Murphy in 9:14:22. Bill was happy to see the timing crew and Ellen Brenner lead the applause of everyone around when he finished.
There were lots of inspirational stories from this race. I talked with Bob Dyjak the next day. He said that the rain came down so hard that he couldn't avoid puddles so his feet were soaked. Chris Patterson was the 1:30 pacer (1:29:45) in the
Mighty Niagara Half Marathon the day before and was the 3:30 pacer (3:29:56) for the
Rochester Marathon. I ran by a man around mile 11 who was just receiving medical attention. It turned out that he was OK according to a Facebook post on the Fleet Feet Rochester page. He had been dehydrated along with low blood sugar. Chris O'Brien said that he wasn't really rained on during the race. The same with Bill Murphy. I guess it all had to do with where you were and what time it was where you were as to how wet you got ... it was about timing.
Lots of people battled the Half Marathon course and the Full Marathon course, themselves and the elements. Here are some news links:
here and
here.
I remember seeing some funny posters: Run like you stole something; Faster, Faster (That's What She Said); You Have Great Stamina (Call Me); Slap here for More Power (I saw three and slapped two); Keep Calm; PR or ER; Chuck Norris Never Ran A Marathon and Don't Poop Yourself and Don't Trip. There were others but I can't remember them.
Later, I watched the San Diego Charger manhandle the Buffalo Bills at the Ralph. The Chargers dominated 22-10, link
here. Well ... the Bills won't go undefeated!
Much later, we watched some old movies off of the DVR. The first was 1949's "
Neptunes' Daughter" with Esther Williams, Red Skelton and a young 29 year old Ricardo Montalban. The second was 1969's "
True Grit" with John Wayne, Kim Darby and Glen Campbell The results was a late bedtime. Oh well ... that's what Monday morning coffee is for!
