Monthly Archives: March 2021

#9 Alabama

Posted by dwill

State #9

Well. It’s been a while. I knew I was having to take a step back from traveling for a while, but I had no clue it would take this long and have a global pandemic blocking my return. But after nearly six years, I’m still here. And after six long years, I’ve finally completed the ninth state. Will I make it through all fifty? Ha! I’m not even going to speculate any more. Sure, I have hypothetical plans and ideas on how to finish all fifty perhaps by the time I’m 50 now, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves. At this point, it’s going to be fun just trying to see how far I actually do get. I may have to check out Mainly Marathons for a few series runs to help fill in gaps I might not normally or easily fill in. One step at a time.

Today it’s all about Montgomery. The Montgomery Half Marathon. The 2020 version was actually cancelled supposedly 20 hours before it’s start because at this time last year, the novel coronavirus, COVID-19, was just being labeled a global pandemic and one by one various local and state governments were starting to shut down life as we knew it. One by one, basically everything was cancelled.

Fast forward to March 2021. Covid-19 has infected more than 370,000 in Louisiana killing over 9,000; infected nearly 30 Million in the United States killing over 545,000; and infected more than 119 Million worldwide killing over 2.5 Million. And it continues today. However, things have improved as well. Some people are able to continue on with life safely wearing masks and taking proper precautions while praying that the idiots who aren’t don’t make us regret it. In addition, vaccines are here and are currently in the process of being distributed. Will they work? Well, the hope is that they do. The early data is promising. I’m sure we’ll have to get through the next winter to know for certain.

So back to Montgomery. Montgomery is one of a handful of places/events that are taking place so far this spring. Two known others the previous weekend were the Louisiana Marathon series (which I did the quarter run) and The Woodlands Marathon over in metro Houston. A number of others have already cancelled either until later this spring, later this fall, or outright for the year. Montgomery decided that they felt like they could safely hold their event. Overall I’d say they did a pretty good job, no better or worse than what Louisiana did last weekend. Packet pickup was simplified, even more so than the Louisiana marathon. There was no expo at all. Just give your name, pick up your bag and that was it. On race day, Montgomery went even one step further and had an open start line. They turned the clock on around 6:50AM and you had the choice to start whenever you felt like it between then and 8AM.

Overall, people were a little more spread apart before the start of this race than in Louisiana the week before, but Louisiana did standard corrals where they tried to space people out in between. For every three people trying to abide by the distancing, there was at least one who wasn’t. it’s to be expected now I guess. There’s always someone who feels rules, policies or even mere suggestions don’t apply to them because they’re special. In Montgomery, the race leaders opted to start the clock ten minutes earlier than expected which originally was 7am. And a few elite runners took off immediately. Then there was a huge lull where I think others didn’t know exactly what to do next. So I followed a few people who decided now was a good of a time as any and we crossed the start line around 6:54AM. Good thing too, because even though you could wait to start the race at 8AM, it felt like the 4-hour limit actually started at 6:50. And I needed as much of it as I could get.

This course had a lot of hills. I even drove about 85% of the course the afternoon before so I saw them first hand. I’m not sure if I’m happy or not that I drove the course before. Usually, I don’t do that. I like to be surprised. I feel like I’m kind of glad I drove it first. Because if I hadn’t, I may have risked overdoing it early on and who knows then. It’s not like I’m in the best of shape now anyway, not after twelve months of pandemic for sure. Last March I was feeling pretty good. I had just done a 5K, a 10K and a 15K as well as a 2-3 mile second line parade and then a 7.5 mile actual mardi gras parade, so I was ready to go for it. I had signed up for The Woodlands Half Marathon, Oklahoma City, the Viking in Greenville, MS, and was looking for more. But the pandemic put all of those plans on hold for at least another year.

So here we are in Alabama. The races starts out pretty well, but it’s a good uphill almost right from the start. The first of many. I’ve already decided to basically walk up and take advantage of gravity down to hopefully make up some time and for the first four and a half miles it seemed to work pretty well. I really didn’t want to look at my fitbit as much as I did but I was always concerned about pace because I did not want to end up taking 4 hours to finish. I was actually impressed with my times going into mile five. At one point up to then, I could see that I was on pace for a sub 3-hour finish, which I knew wasn’t going to happen because I was barely a third of the way in, plus hills. And in mile 5, there were two pretty good hills, one ridiculously steep. This was through the Alabama State University campus. Once we made it out of the campus, I actually felt a short lived second wind. Mile 6 was really good but mile 7 was the longest mile probably on the course. For some reason it just didn’t feel right in terms of distance.

There were rolling hills through the nice subdivisions there. There were a few families out cheering us on from their yards. The water stops were set up pretty well overall. Some stops they put the water bottles on the table and you picked it up and opened it or did whatever. I’d carry mine pretty much to the next stop. One table they were actually opening them for the runners which was probably good for faster runners or people who wanted to chug the lil bottle right then but it was terrible for me who wanted to run with it a ways. So I had to stop, take a drink and toss it. The stop at mile 7 had bananas. But nothing could prepare you for the hill in mile 10 up Perry Street. That long single hill easily cost me a good fifteen minutes because I was dragging all the way up it. And you get a good view of just how high you are once you’re at the top. The street drops off the other side but we took a more gradual decline down some side streets. Unfortunately I was just about gone at that point. I think I only ran three or four other times after that: once down a hill, twice to cross streets when a guard was stopping traffic and one final half-ass jog at the finish because you have to. Lol. I’m positive that without that hill, I probably finish closer to 3:15. And remove all of those hills and make it a flat course, I think I finish closer to 3:00 like in New Mexico.

So, moral of the story… hills are the devil. I hate hills with a passion now. I’m going to try to never register for a course like that ever again if I can help it. Ha ha. But it was a pretty course. And I can imagine the finish line party is probably a lot more fun in non-pandemic years. The weather for this race was nearly perfect, if not a little warm. The start was in the mid-50s but it quickly warmed up into the 70s and finished near 80. I probably should have put on sunscreen when I thought about it but I decided to chance it. I came out of it feeling a bit warm to the touch and a little red just around the neck where the neck gator wasn’t protecting. That was probably the best part about wearing the gator they gave us; it protected my neck from the sun.

Other key points: I can still do a half marathon, albeit slower and more sensitive to elevation. Lol. But I guess it gives me hope to continue onward. I’m just not signing up for anything with sub three hour time limits anytime soon.