GREEN BAY MARATHON
Green Bay, Wisconsin
May 24, 2004

My last marathon was supposed to be the Eisenhower Marathon in Abilene, Kansas on March 27. Too much speed work and refereeing high school soccer games put me out of commission for 7 weeks with a strained hamstring. The injury forced me to drop my mileage down to 1 mile a day for 5 weeks followed by two weeks of 2 to 3 miles a day. I then built up my miles over the next 6 weeks with 2 long runs of 14 miles. With the relatively small amount of running I was doing I planned to just taper for 1 week. But with 2 weeks prior to the Green Bay Marathon I felt tired and my legs felt heavy. I needed to taper over the next 2 weeks.

The trip to Green Bay was uneventful; the expo was nice but nothing out of the ordinary. The pasta dinner was in the same convention center as the expo, which made it very convenient. Weather prediction for marathon morning was thunderstorms with some hail, winds 10 to 20 mph with gusts up to 30 mph and temperatures in the low 50¹s. The weather forecast was fairly accurate with the exception that there wasn¹t any hail. But the lightning was bad enough for race officials to delay the start of the marathon for 30 minutes. The delay wasn¹t too much of a concern since we were able wait inside the convention center.

At 7:20 1,400 (registered) marathoners and approximately 2,000 half marathoners walked to the start line in the rain. Up until today Bob Panzak would give me a hard time when I wore a garbage bag to the start line in bad weather, but I think his attitude changed a little on that day. We both wore garbage bags to protect us from the rain, cold and wind. The course was relatively flat with just a few non-challenging hills. I wouldn¹t consider the course very scenic with two exceptions. Mile 8.5 through 14.25 ran on an asphalt trail along side the Fox River. But I would consider running into Lambeau Stadium and running around the perimeter of the football field as the highlight of the course.

But getting back to the start line. With so little training, not feeling very rested and the poor weather conditions I figured this would be a 4-hour plus marathon. Actually, prior to even going to Green Bay I was predicting a time between 4:10 and 4:20. Other then my third Boston Marathon, the 100th Boston which coincided with my last running injury, Green Bay was the first marathon where I actually thought I could not run under 4 hours. So with no hope of running under 4 hours and another marathon planned in 2 weeks I decided to walk 30 to 60 seconds at each of the 22 water stations on the course. The first 8 miles was run in the rain with splits of 9:03, 8:34, 8:29, 8:59, 8:45, 8:35, 8:52, 8:50. After two miles of no rain I decided to run with my arms outside of the garbage bag. I decided to keep the garbage bag on not knowing if the rain would start again and concerned about turning into the wind as the course meandered around Green Bay. Mile splits 9 through 13 were 8:57, 9:01, 8:44, 8:59 and 8:50. My half marathon split was 1:55:15, projecting a 3:50:30 marathon. Mile splits 14 through 25 were 9:00, 9:12, 8:55, 9:01, 9:06, 9:10, 9:08, 9:13, 9:14, 9:23, 9:27 and 9:30. Although I was slowing down over the last 11 miles I couldn¹t help but too slow down a little more as we entered Lambeau Field at 25:25 miles. When I exited the tunnel and got into the stadium itself and started to run the perimeter of the field I just had to slow down and enjoy the Œmoment¹. Circling the field, looking at the goalposts and reading the names on the grandstand walls of the greatest Green Bay Packers of all time was just too much to ignore. Mile 26 was a most enoyable10:43. My last 0.2 split was 2:09 giving me a 3:57:56 gun time and a 3:57:21 chip time. I placed 9th in my age group and 379 out of 936 finishers. Bob Panzak, who also ran the entire marathon in his garbage bag ran 3:56:20 with a chip time 3:55:54 and placing 362 overall.

55 marathons completed in 44 states and Washington DC. Next marathon will be in two weeks, Deadwoods Marathon in South Dakota with Linda Thompson, Ken Winn and Dave Farrall. Bob Panzak will be running Bayshore Marathon in Michigan in one week, May 30 (Bob ran 3:53:11).

Rest if you must, just don¹t quit, Marty