Saturday morning arrived, and worse than predicted, it was raining fairly heavily. I took my time getting ready, making sure I had everything needed both for keeping warm before the start, as well as dry warm clothing (in their own bags inside the main checked bag) for putting on after the finish.
Mercifully, despite bracing myself for a slightly miserable walk, after about 1-2 blocks, a car pulls over, backs up, and asks if I'm going to the starting area. (It was pretty obvious, since I was wrapped in a mylar blanket and holding the gear check bag.) While I wouldn't normally hop in a stranger's car like this, it was clear he was racing also, having moved his gear check bag from the passenger seat to the back. Wonderful - save me about 20 minutes of walking in chilly light rain. Very nice guy from Poland who was running in the half marathon. He dropped me off just before the area where the traffic for the marathoners was building up, and went on his way towards the half marathon start line. Much better walking only 1/4 mile than 2 miles in those conditions.
Relatively quickly I made my way to the bus queue and boarded. Within a couple of minutes, we were off. The bus was reasonably toasty, so I dried off and warmed up quickly enough. And, with the way that Mesa Marathon works, event though they have fire pits (on dry days) or heat lamps (on wet days, as it was) set up in the starting area, they allow the runners to stay aboard the buses until the race starts. (They don't do that for the half marathoners.) So, I stayed on until about 5:45am, whereupon I made my way to a portapotty queue, dropped by bag off at bag check (awkwardly positioned right next to the queue for the last portapotty), and lined up for the starting corral. (I was trying to listed for the announcement for the standard Marathon Maniac photo to join, but I never heard one. Not sure if it happened.)
Several of us were huddled around one of the lamps between the banners for 3:10 and 3:20 pacers. As time ticked by, amid our chitchat, we noted the time and wondered why the National Anthem hadn't yet been sung (or had it, and we just didn't hear it because of a lack of speakers near the front?). Start time (6:30am -- about 45 minutes before sunrise) comes and goes, and we're still standing around. WTF? After a few minutes, someone hears one other person (not a race official) say that the start would be delayed by about 30 minutes.
While the delay was ultimately less than that, I wasn't totally surprised. During the time that I was sitting on the bus upon our arrival, I was close enough to the front to hear all of the chatter among the other drivers who were still out. Many of them missed one of their turns. Several others were prevented from making a turn because of the road having been closed off by the police. And yet others were still in the vicinity of the bus pick-up -- a 40 minute drive away from the starting area -- trying to figure out how to get underway, and also wondering where any of the other racers were to board the bus. Apparently, the logistics for the buses was an enormous cluster, despite the fact that (according to our driver) all of the drivers were provided turn-by-turn instructions in advance of how to get to the marathon starting area. Sigh.
Finally, without any fanfare or warning, two sparklers light up just on the other side of the starting banner. Oh! We're off!
Largely a great profile for a race, I zip on out on the initial 4-mile downhill at the planned effort level (and just a smidge slow pace-wise, likely because of the slightly extra mileage I had run -- no worries, I could make it up).
The 1.5 mile uphill is always killer to me, but I had trained reasonably well for it, and it looked like my splits were about what I wanted. And the next (and steepest) downhill on the course went swimmingly, I thought. But, it turns out such was not the case. Bit by bit, as my splits would eventually demonstrate, I progressively slowed down.
For some reason, despite there being several other spots where I know they took my photo, they seem to be nowhere to be found, including the one on the steep downhill about Mile 6 where I decided to go airborne for the photo. Dang!
Nope, that was definitely not me approaching the tape. There are only two ways I'll ever get a view of the finish line tape: be standing off-course with a view of it as the winner approaches or download a photo of it after the fact (like I did here).
Despite my BQ- and NYC-related goals for the race (3:16 to be confident in a solid BQ-9:00 to use for 2025, and sub-3:14 to have a time qualifier for NYC for 2025), I finished in 3:37:05. Ouch! Sure, an inherently good time, but far off the desired mark. Oh well. I may have to settle for the stress of my current time and squeaking in (or out) for 2025. Time will tell.
After getting through the finish chute with all of the goodies they provide the runners, I made my way (rather cold) to the tent where several physical therapists were stationed to stretch everyone out. Thankfully, the line was non-existent. Afterwards, I made my way around to the pen where our checked bags were sitting (out in the rain, uncovered). It would've been nice had they had the numbers for the bib ranges visible to the runners. They faced all of those signs inward, so we didn't know precisely where to line up. (Come on. Really?) Upon getting mine, I gladly made my way into a nearby portapotty to change my wet shirt to a dry long-sleeved MCM mock and put on my fun flannel elf pajama bottoms that I had gotten a few years ago as a throwaway for start lines, that I keep on keeping. They're too comfortable and warm to sacrifice. But given how cold and wet I was, it took a few minutes of shivering through the changing to get everything together. Not to mention it was a bit cramped in there, after all.
Finally, the coup de grace for the recovery zone: getting a Char Burger and fries from Habit Burger. The line was long, but it really only took about 15 minutes, so it wasn't so bad. I was very happy to have a burger that close after the race rather than a few hours later (after showering, changing, and setting out). While it wasn't anything special, it very much hit the spot.
Lunch finished, I set back out to get to my hotel - 2 miles away. But rather than go directly there, I walked along the last mile of the course (until the last possible intersection that I would finally need to turn on) cheering on all of the runners (marathon, half marathon, and maybe even 10k) still on the course proceeding to the finish. I sat down on the fire hydrant there and cheered for about an hour, until I saw the 6-hour marathon pacer pass by. I took that (and the lack of anyone immediately in view behind) as my opportunity to finish the trek to the hotel to shower, change, and rest up before heading out for dinner.
Clearly I was so hungry by the time I got to the restaurant (despite having had additional post-race snacks), that I dove into the food immediately without even thinking about taking a photo to put here. Oops! Trust me, though, the BBQ was quite good. And even better were the fried doughnuts that they brought with the check. Mmmm!
After missing the initial return bus by about 1 minute (I saw it leaving the stop), I sat in the cold, breezy bus stop for about 20 minutes before the next bus arrived. A total of 75 minutes waiting/commuting/walking time later, I was back at the hotel to pack everything up for a crazy early departure the next day. And two final legs of flying on Southwest in the middle seat -- ugh!
Next up: Coast Guard Marathon and Boston Marathon in early-to-mid April.
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