Midsouth Marathon Recap

Another thing that you all should know about myself and Scott is that while we are both Average Joe runners, we are very different in our approach to running in general.  Scott is a very calculating and disciplined runner.  He picks a race, builds a running plan, executes the plan, and comes into the race healthy and generally the best prepared he can be.  I on the other hand sometimes pick races, sometimes build running plans, never executing the running plan very well, and come to races as a bit of a wildcard.  Scott always has a training schedule printed out and hanging on his refrigerator while I never have a printed copy taped anywhere.  BTW, Scott wins 80% of all races that we both enter, but I don’t know that he enjoys it anymore than I do.

So, crazy thing did I do this time?  Friday night at around 9PM I decided that it would be fun to run the Midsouth Marathon in Wynne on Saturday.  I checked the weather, highs in the 80s with 20MPH winds.  Not exactly the perfect running weather you would want in a marathon, but I decided to go on.  So I got up at 4am and made the trek to Wynne to run the marathon.  Not too smart, but here is the recap.

I arrived at the race in plenty of time and registered.  I didn’t get a t-shirt as they had just given away the last one to the person in front of me.  I received my bib and headed to the start line.  I was the last to register, #201, so it was my first marathon with such a small number of people.  I started at the very back of the pack and ran a nice and easy pace for the first 10K.  It seemed to be a steady climb for the first 2 miles then downhill for 3 or so.  The next section from miles 5-11 seemed to be all uphill and the temperature kicked up.  I spent more energy in this section than I should have.  Next we continued on to the turn-around point at 13.1 and made the turn back to home.  I arrived at the split at 2:23 and felt ok.  The next few miles from 13-17 I started mixing in some walk breaks and lost pace just a bit.  By mile 20 it was obvious I had no shot at a sub-5 full and decided to enjoy my race mates.  I took extended walk breaks and chatted with a lot of other runners.  It’s good that I did this as the temperature closed in on 80 and the wind was full on in my face for most of the last 5 miles.  I finished in 5:28, my personal worst, but enjoyed the race still the same.

Pros: I liked the small number of runners.  There were plenty of aid stations and they were all stocked with water, Gatorade, oranges and bananas.  The race organizers and aid station workers were all very positive.

Cons: The rolling hills are harder than you’d imagine in flat eastern Arkansas.  The course is a little boring and you run with quite a bit of traffic.

Course: Midsouth Marathon Garmin Map