The Governors Cup Marathon, in several ways was a lot like the Tucson Marathon. We were bussed 26 miles out of town to a remote location. For the Governors Cup, we were bussed to an old time western ghost town, Marysville. The town had its hey day in the 1880’s through early 1900’s when they mined $60,000,000 in gold. Several of the old buildings are still standing along with several, more modern, occupied houses. Since the sun rises at around 5:30 AM (sets around 9:45 PM) it was daylight when we arrived at 6:00 AM. The temperature was probably in the low 50’s, but about 20 of the 400 plus marathoners stayed warm around a campfire.

At the 7:00 AM start time and at 5400 feet, the temperature was still cool, sunny and a slight wind almost to our backs. The first 6 miles runs almost entirely down hill and on the original horse and buggy trail that resembled Tucson, I felt OK on the downhill, at least for the first 4 miles when I started to feel my quads getting a little sore. Considering I have done no hill training and I went out at a sub 7:30 pace, I guess it was understandable that I would have to pay for the relatively fast pace.

The next 15 of the remaining 17 miles was also similar to Tucson with mountains off in the distance, to the left and right of us. However, in place of desert we saw green ranch land. At about 6.5 miles we turned into a head wind for 2 miles. Fortunately, this was about the only flat section of the course and I was able to draft on a few runners. I was only able to run an 8:45 per mile pace into the wind. Starting at about mile 12 we hit the up hills. Granted, we still have more down hills in front of us then up hills, but there were enough short and long up hills to wear out a flat Landers legs. My half marathon split was 1:44:20. But by the third up hill, mile 15, I had to start walking a portion of the up hill. Mile 15, 9:33 and 16 at10:42. 17 and 18 were more down hill and I ran 8:30 and 7:51. Bob Panzak, who ran the Couer d’Alene Marathon a week earlier (3:55) caught me at about the 18 mile mark. The next few miles we walked the up hills and ran the down hills and flat. Average pace was about 9:15 per mile. When Bob left me just short of mile 22 we were still at a sub 3:48 pace. I continued walking the up hills for the next 2 miles and during the last 2 flat miles I was alternating walking and running about every 100 to 200 yards. I wound up running a 10:26, 12:35, 12:30, and 11:40 over the last four miles.

In spite of running my third worst marathon based on time, I still managed to place 6th in the 50 to 59 year age group. If they would have had 5 year age groups like most other marathons (and shorter races), I think I would have placed 2nd. Other then 10 year age groups and no expo, the marathon course and organization was excellent. Excellent weather, very nice Finisher Shirt, medals were OK and food after the race was adequate. Bottom line, if you are looking for a marathon on Montana, do consider Governors Cup (Ghost Town).

Excuses; Too many hills, up and down. Only 4 weeks rest between marathons (3:33 at The Avenue Of The Giants), Weight was up about 8 pound (158, should be 150). Insufficient training and no lower body weight work. No speed work. All these excuses will be corrected prior to running Duke City Marathon in Albuquerque on September 30 and St George Marathon on October 6.