After work, I took a red eye flight out of LAX with United Airlines. There was about a 15 minute delay since our plane arrived late. Fortunately I was upgraded for free to first class. It was so much easier to sleep in one of those comfier seats! To further facilitate some sleep, I had a coffee with Baileys before takeoff.
Saturday 7/11
The flight attendant gave us a muffin before we landed in Newark. I had about a 3.5 hr layover, so I slowly made my way over to my gate. At first I thought I was supposed to take the AirTrain, but instead the signs said to take the bus to get from terminal C to A where I was to catch one of those regional planes. After a short flight, I arrived in Burlington, Vermont. I got my rental car with Budget. They gave me a black Kia Rio. It took my phone a while to acquire a local signal. I learned from my time in Casper, Wyoming to memorize some maps just in case, so I knew which freeway to take to head in the right direction.
I drove straight down to Waitsfield. I found a parking spot at the Waitsfield Inn and walked over to the grassy area to pick up my race packet. The weather was very nice but pretty dang warm. As I picked up my race bib and shirt, I asked the lady if she had any restaurant recommendations. She asked where I was staying. My hotel was in Waterbury which happened to be where she lives. I told her that I knew about Prohibition Pig. She told me that everybody loves that place, but she prefers The Reservoir next door. For pizza she recommended The Blue Stone.
Bib and shirt pick up
The start and finish of the race at Mad River Green was about 30 minutes from my hotel, The Best Western, which was just off of the 89 freeway. I stopped by the Shaw's Supermarket across the street from my hotel to buy some drinks before I checked into my room. I got a room just directly across from the side entrance. I went through the race brochure that they've provided and relaxed a bit before going back out for dinner.
For dinner, I decided to check out The Reservoir per the suggestion that I got earlier while I was picking up my race packet. I found a seat at the bar and for my first beer, I went with the bartender's recommendation, a pale ale brewed by Simple Roots Brewing, a small operation that started out of a garage in Burlington. Not bad. For my meal, I ordered a 1/2 pound Vermont Burger with pepper jack cheese and finished it off with the famed Alchemist Heady Topper. The Heady Topper definitely lived up to the hype. During my meal, I started talking to the guy next to me. His name was Alan. He used to be an elite marathoner. His running days are over, but nowadays he rides his bicycle. He told me that if I come back tomorrow for dinner after the marathon he'd buy me a beer. Apparently he also knew the guy that worked at the front desk of my hotel.
Simple Roots Pale Ale
Alchemist Heady Topper
1/2 lb Vermont Burger with pepper jack cheese and an Alchemist Heady Topper
After getting back to my hotel room, I laid out my race gear for tomorrow's race. I watched a bit of TV before turning in for the night.
Flat runner
Sunday 7/12
After getting ready, I made the drive down to the starting area. I was able to get one of the last spots at the small little parking lot next to the cemetery just across from the finish line. I got out of my car and gathered my stuff for the race. As I was starting to walk over to the portapotties at the Mad River Green, I bumped into a few familiar Marathon Maniacs. As the start of the race approached, all of the Half Fanatics and Marathon Maniacs within earshot of the finish line announcer gathered at the finish line to take a pre-race photo.
Typical race morning view
Marathon Maniacs/Half Fanatics pre-race photo
Although I was able to get through the Casper Marathon and Seattle Rock n' Roll Marathon relatively okay, I knew that my foot was still sore and that my legs were not ready for this type of course or the warm weather! During my last training run before this race, I saw that I had lost a lot of fitness. The only positive was that my achy foot had been getting better. I started the race in the second wave and started off running slow. It was crowded at first, but eventually everybody spread out and the half marathoners broke off. My strategy for this race was to run the flat and downhill sections and just hike the uphills. This strategy might have led to my quads being destroyed by the end of mile 17. I guess you could count them as severe leg cramps. I was able to loosen them up a bit for a couple of miles, but the cramps came back much worse. As I was lamenting on how slow I was moving, I eventually came across a down runner. A couple of cars had pulled over and was providing aid until the ambulance showed up. It was warm and the uphills seemed to go on forever for a road race! This was one of the times where I had to walk across the finish line. I tried to force a jog, but my legs would have none of it.
I normally don't take pictures during a race unless I'm taking extended walk breaks. Goes to show just how much I had walked during this marathon.
Mad vs. Boston :)
There goes the legendary Bart Yasso!
My favorite aid station! Beer!
1: 8:47
2: 12:43
3: 8:25
4: 8:28
5: 9:33
6: 9:51
7: 10:05
8: 10:55
9: 14:31
10-11: 29:04 (14:32)
12: 13:48
13: 15:01
14: 14:06
15: 14:29
16: 14:55
17: 16:42, my quads were done.
18: 19:35
19: 17:09
20: 15:50
21: 13:51
22: 16:13
23: 21:10
24: 19:55
25: 17:47
26: 19:29
26.2: 4:41
Finish: 6:17:07
Finish line
That was a very beautiful course! Could be the most beautiful out of the 155 marathons that I've run. It was also one of the more grueling races that I've run. It felt a lot like a trail race to me. Eventually I made my way across the street to the beer garden. I chatted a bit with some Marathon Manics while enjoying a nice cold beer. I like any race that gives out something other than Michelob Ultra.
Beer garden
14th Star Brewing Co. A. Dog Ale
I was a bit late going back to the Reservoir as I had fallen asleep after taking a shower. I found Alan at the bar, but he was in the middle of a conversation with people so I just sat next to him. I started with an Alchemist Focal Banger and a Firehouse Burger. He was finally done with his conversation and was just about to settle up his bill until he noticed that I was sitting next to him. He had one more beer to keep me company. The Focal Banger was also a very good beer. It made me realize that some or most of the IPA's that I have been drinking were just not my style. The Firehouse Burger was very filling and had a nice spicy kick to it.
Alchemist Focal Banger
Firehouse Burger
Monday 7/13
After checking out of my hotel, I drove down to finally eat at Prohibition Pig. I found a seat at the end of the bar. I started with one of their own brews, a vanilla bean porter. Not bad. I then ordered their House Burger and topped it with an egg over easy. Instead of fries, I got a side salad to go with the burger. I finished it off with a Lawson's Sip of Sunshine. Now this was a very good IPA. The salad went well with the burger.
Vanilla Bean Porter
House Burger topped with egg and a side salad
Lawson's Sip of Sunshine
It rained pretty hard along the way from Waterbury to Burlington. However it was pretty sunny and hot in Burlington. I gassed up the rental car before returning the car and headed inside to see if I could fly standby on an earlier flight. My original flight was for 7 pm. I was able to get on a flight that was delayed a few hours and took off from Burlington at about 3:30 pm.
We landed in Dulles at about a quarter after 5 pm and exited the plane onto the tarmac. My left foot almost gave out on me on the last step. I guess it's not quite 100% yet and I was pretty fatigued from the marathon. I made my way to the AeroTrain to get to concourse C. I then went to the United Customer Service counter to get on the standby list for the next flight home to LAX. The flight was leaving at 7:30 pm and was pretty crowded, but I was first on the standby list and was hopeful that I would be able to get a seat. I was able to get an exit row seat and the couple sitting next to me were runners. The husband had qualified and ran the Boston Marathon. I started talking to them because he was wearing a Boston Marathon shirt. I was wearing my Mad Marathon shirt. I showed them a picture that I saw that showed that the Mad Marathon had cows and covered bridges, two things not at the Boston Marathon. They were originally from Michigan and now live in DC. During the flight I watched two movies on my tablet via United onboard wifi. The two movies were Kingsman: The Secret Service and Robocop. Kingsman was full of cool fight scenes, but the Robocop remake was not very good.
I landed in LAX at about 10:30 pm instead of the original itinerary where I would have been landing at about 1 am. Thank goodness for the few extra hours of sleep! I hate being a zombie at work!
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