Part 2 Wisconsin/Kalamazoo Marathon Double Weekend May 5-6

Part 2 - Kalamazoo Marathon
May 6, 2012
Kalamazoo, MI

Cool time lapse of photos of the marathon start.

I am holding Sock Monkey. BTW he has 400 friends on FB!

One of the tougher things for a double marathon is getting out of bed the second day. You are stiff and you know what lies ahead. They were honoring late check out, so I just got my stuff organized that I would want after my post race shower. I made some in room coffee using the coffee maker to make hot water and Starbucks Via coffee. My go to when traveling and you know that where you are going has bad coffee. It was a short drive across town to the race start and the parking system was very well organized. I was very impressed already, even before the race started. I made my way over to the 50 States Challenge tent near-ish to the race start for the group photo. They did not get all 50 states for the second time, so Steve Boone of the 50 States Club said he would actively recruit the states they were missing both years. I am confident that next year they will get them all! Another race that pushes for this is the Hatfield McCoy Marathon in June in KY/WV, though they do not comp race entries or give out free shoes.

Holding Sock Money (Photo: Paula Boone)

This course meandered through town and campus of Western Michigan University. A little hilly and started to get a little warm after a few hours. I should have written this race report sooner, but what I recall is all the spectators on the course for being a small marathon. I also remember my IT band bothering me on a long downhill somewhere near the 17 mile mark or so but this went away on the next flat section. I wore very different types of running shoes for each marathon, so perhaps some of this was a change in the motion control characteristics of the shoes on fatigued legs.

The bummer was when I finished, I realized I had forgotten my meal ticket that we got as part of the 50 States Challenge back in the hotel with the rest of my stuff. Bummer. But I quickly planned on stopping at a Panera that I had seen an hour outside of town for some salty tortilla soup! Yum!

A quick shower at the hotel and back to the road for 5.5 hour drive back to Milwaukee. Thank goodness for the toll tags for speeding up the trip and for not needing to carry cash!

Great race, I would do this one again as it was well organized and was a good size. This weekend was a repeat of both Wisconsin and Michigan for me, but it was a great training weekend for the Vermont 100 July 21!

Next up: Delaware Marathon (new state) one week later.