BISMARCK MARATHON
Bismarck, North Dakota
September 6, 2003
If it weren't for running a marathon in each
of the 50 states I probably never would have
gone to Bismarck, ND. For that matter, I
probably never would have visited places
like Okoboji, Iowa; Coeur 'd Alene, Idaho
or Tupelo, Mississippi. These are places
most people, at least most people I know,
wouldn't plan to visit. And, visiting these
places with some very good friends is just
an added bonus or icing on the cake.
Bismarck, the capital of North Dakota is
a beautiful little city of 65,000 that lies
on the shores of the Missouri River. It is
a very clean city, good roads, little traffic,
clean air, nice parks and a great place to
visit if you are into hunting, fishing, retracing
the Lewis and Clark Trail or marathoning.
The weekend of the marathon coincides with
an annual local Native American Pow Wow.
Our pre-marathon tour of Bismarck started
with a visit to the YMCA, race headquarters.
Since there was no marathon expo we decided
to get an early start and drive the marathon
course. At about mile 5 we found ourselves
behind a fairly large group of Native Americans
out for a horseback ride. We then visited
the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center,
which was a much smaller Interpretive Center
than the one we visited in Casper a few weeks
ago. We then toured the State Capital where
we met Karen Van Rite from Milwaukee who
was completing her 31st marathon and 11th
for the year. From the top of the capitol
building we were able to view the entire
Bismarck area including much of the Missouri
River, Fort Abraham Lincoln, Mary University
and Bismarck Airport. After the capital we
took a ride to Fort Abraham Lincoln where
we also toured General George Custer's last
house prior to being killed at Little Big
Horn. Now all this tourist stuff may seem
a little mundane or boring but doing the
tourist thing with Linda and Craig Thompson,
Ken Winn and Bob Panzak is just a lot of
fun. I don't have the time or space in this
article to explain everything we did and
in most cases you just had to be there. But
suffice to say, I have a great time with
them.
Bismarck and much of North Dakota were in
the midst of a heat wave marathon week. Temperatures
were averaging 25 degrees above normal with
lows in the high 50's and highs in the mid
90's. Marathon morning greeted us with 58
degrees and 74% humidity. Not ideal conditions
but certainly better then it could have been.
The temperature felt comfortable for the
first 3 hours. Temperatures were in the high
70's by the time we finished and 84 degrees
after the last of the 140 marathoners finished.
The course starts and finishes at Pioneer
Park on the shores of the Missouri River.
The out and back course runs along the Missouri
however the river is only in sight during
the first and last two miles. And, with the
exception of the first and last four miles,
which runs through Bismarck, the course runs
through farm, ranch and rural Bismarck. Again,
since the course is near the shoreline of
the Missouri, the course is relatively flat.
The few hills that we did run were very gentle.
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| Linda Thompson, Ken Winn, Bob Panzak, Karen Van Rite and Marty Winkel |