The ARR Desert Classic Marathon was about an hour drive from home. Karen and I were going to car pool and I asked her to be responsible for the navigation. I have grown so much worse at this as I have gotten older. I picked her up at 5 AM and we drove the almost desolate dark streets to the start. The packet pick-up went very smoothly. The shirts were nice and the line for the porta potty wasn’t too long. It was colder than I would have liked and I had to keep moving. I wore my Marathon Maniacs singlet which is a magnet for other club members to chat. I like being part of this club. At the start, we bumped into my Maniac friend Craig. He’s a good conversationalist and we ran the first twelve miles together talking about our families and our work and the beautiful desert. The sun rose behind us as we ran and the full moon sank in front of us. Sinking behind the White Tank Mountains, I thought it looked like a big shining coin sliding into a piggy bank.
My goal for the day was to negative split, that is, run the second half faster than the first. We trotted along at about 9:20 minute miles. I didn’t have a Garmin on, but tried to do the math in my head. My head wasn’t calculating very well. It was an out and back course, so we could see the runners from the turn around coming towards us. Around mile 11, we saw the first woman. She was tall with her long blonde hair bound in a pony tail, black running tights, a crop top, and spectacular abdominals. Two miles ahead of me. “Training run. Training run. Training run.” I repeated silently to myself. Trying not to be too obvious, I gently picked up the pace. Would my buddies match my stride? They seemed to notice and joked about it. “Don’t let me hold you back. Go ahead.” Karen said. Or something like that. Craig just laughed. I didn’t want to go too fast and ruin my chance of doing anything at Austin which is two weeks away. I held back. Finally, after another mile, I couldn’t stand it any longer. They were engrossed in conversation as I picked up the pace. About 20 yards ahead, I turned to wave and kept going.
I pealed off my jacket, tied it around my waist and put in my iPod. Is there anyone on the planet who doesn’t enjoy running to Counting Crows? I think “Films About Ghosts” is one of the finest albums ever made and it did not disappoint me. I caught the first woman in my sights and it was just too easy. I set a new goal and reeled in the next set of women ahead of me. One after another, I was gaining ground and feeling good. Around mile 15, I had my first Gu. This did not make my body happy at all. My stomach suddenly cramped and all I wanted to do was curl up in a ball on the ground. One foot in front of the other I kept going, but I was listing to the left like a crippled ship. I told myself to focus on my form but half my brain kept asking “Why do that?” It was something to think about. Things got better after mile 17, but I had lost some precious ground. There was a woman in orange in front of me, as well as a woman in a white shirt with unrestrained brown hair. I could get the woman in orange, but the woman in white clearly had momentum in her favor.
I passed a man in blue who asked me how many stars I had. Marathon Maniacs are awarded stars for various feats, such as running three marathons in two weeks or 12 in 12 months. I said I had four and I was very happy about it because I just got them. He said he had three. I asked him what number he was and he seemed befuddled by the question. This should have been a clue. Marathon Maniacs are given a number as they join the club. Lower numbers joined earlier than the higher numbers. Turns out, he isn’t actually a Marathon Maniac, but if he were he would have three stars. I passed the woman in orange at about mile 21. I had been chit chatting just a bit with runners as I passed them and she was no exception. She was 48 and from Canada. I told myself not to let her beat me. Luckily, her husband was driving ahead and stopping to take pictures. I used him to gauge how far behind me she was. I ran through the aid stations, taking just a gulp as I went. The volunteers were wonderful and the aid stations were great. I would have enjoyed stopping to thank them, but it was more important to me at that moment to keep Ms Orange behind me. I thanked them on the run. I wondered if Orange’s husband was telling her that I was running through the aid stations. I would leave enough in the tank for a kick if I needed it. I fantasized about out kicking her in the chute. This was hard. It’s a lot easier to run with buddies to provide distraction. I wondered how they were doing. I hoped everyone was having a good day. “Films About Ghosts” had ended and I was now listening to some woman who wasn’t as tough as I needed, but I didn’t want to take the time to mess with the iPod.
My feet started to hurt and 26.2 seemed so very far away. I hoped I wasn’t slowing down. I didn’t feel like I had hit any kind of wall, but 26.2 is just a long way. With one mile left, I told myself “There are really five miles left.” That illusion seemed to help. I think I need to run farther to make marathons feel shorter. As I crossed the finish line, I heard the announcer say my number and then I heard “CATHERINE WYMAN!!” I knew it must be Rick. His wife, Lynne, had told him I would be there, so he came to look for me. He handed me a water and we walked for a little while. He told me the awards ceremony would be in about fifteen minutes, but there were no results posted yet. I didn’t care so much about my results, I had just finished in 3:55 and negative split by nine minutes. What I cared about was who was in front of me.
I went to the car to get something warm on and made my way back to the finish/awards area. I saw Craig and Karen. They had run together until the last 10K or so when Karen found a kick. Both felt good about their runs. Rick started to announce the awards. “We’ll start with the women overall.” He gave out the top prize to the tall blonde with spectacular abs. If I had abs like that, I would wear a crop top, too. Then he gave out the third place award. I smiled. I knew I must have second place and he was just messing with me. No one else seemed to notice, but it made me feel special. He announced my second overall and first age group. I have never won second overall before. This was nice. Karen got second in her age group and she was so alarmed. That was nice, too.
The official results were emailed last night and it looks like I got third overall instead of second. Perhaps it was the woman in the white shirt with the unrestrained brown hair. The woman in second place on the official results beat me by three minutes and she is 21 years younger than I am. I emailed the race director and offered to surrender the second overall medal. He said he didn’t know if the third place medal was still available. That doesn’t matter. What matters is that this woman who really placed second gets the award she deserves. I still have my first age group award and I treasure it.
This was a great race. Well supported, terrific volunteers, beautiful scenery, great weather. I strongly recommend it for anyone looking to run a marathon in Arizona.
When I got home and added up my week, I realized I was 30 minutes short of a 600 minute week. I had to get out there again before Midnight. My sister had told me years ago of people who had this sort of compulsion and I thought they were nuts. Now I have it, too. I feel as though over the past six months or so, a switch has been flipped. My training is going well. My times are faster and it seems more effortless. Running a marathon is hard work, but it’s not as difficult as it was or perhaps I have developed callouses on my nerve endings. I am enjoying this.

