Mendy and I went to St. Louis this weekend to run in the Lewis & Clark Marathon. Hurricane Ike decided to roll through town as well. The downpour put a serious kink in my pre-race plans and almost caused us to not even start - little things like the parking lot being under two feet of water and runners having to push their flooded cars out in the dark before the race even began. Eventually we found some high ground to park on and decided to brave the elements.
Despite running through ankle deep water, pounding rain, and gusts of wind that hard enough to knock over some of the course porta-johns, I was pacing pretty good. I really didn't know how fast or far I had gone at any point because the course markers had mostly been destroyed or blown away, and I didn't wear my Garmin watch for fear of ruining it, so I was mildly disoriented for most of the event, but feeling good running-wise.
As it turns out, the last half of the course was under water and the race directors had to move the finish line up to the 10 mile marker and started shuttling everyone back to the start and parking area from there. 80% of the runners were only signed up to do the 1/2 marathon (13.1 miles) so getting to 10 miles wasn't all that bad given the conditions. I, however, was running good, wanted to get my miles in, and was disappointed that the race had been shut down. So instead of boarding the buses with the rest of the masses, I turned around and did the 10 miles again in reverse. So, only 20 miles today instead of the full marathon, but a good war story none-the-less.
Next month - 50K Trail Run in the Ozarks put on by Bass Pro Shops and North Face...here's hoping for better weather.
video clip of the weather conditions at race start
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