DEADWOOD MICKELSON TRAIL MARATHON

Deadwood, South Dakota
June 6, 2004

I was reading the June issue of Runners World while flying to Rapid City, South Dakota. Page 28 has a short article in the REAL RUNNERS column about Jerry Jorgensen who is the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at South Dakota State University. Jerry started the Lean, Mean, Dean's Machine team in 1999 to inspire other faculty and students to discover the benefits of running. The teams philosophy is "We don't run for great times, we run to have great times". Little did I realize how applicable this philosophy would be to me in my South Dakota Marathon.

But prior to getting into the marathon I need to mention that Billy Mills, the 1964 10,000 Meter Olympic Gold Medalist and a non medalist in the Marathon was at the Tatanka Kids 1/4 Mile, 1/2-Mile and Open 5K Saturday morning and was at the marathon expo in the afternoon. Billy Mills is a Lakota Indian and is a motivational speaker. He was signing autographs and talking with anyone that wanted to talk with him. He was answering questions and telling stories about his running career, the Olympics and life after the Olympics. He was great with the kids, is well spoken, intelligent and a warm and friendly individual. In addition to running the marathon and visiting Mount Rushmore, meeting and talking with Billy Mills was the highlight of South Dakota.

Prior to Deadwood I only ran three marathons over 4:00 hours (this excludes my third Boston, the 100th Boston, where I ran a mile a day for 12 weeks (due to injury) leading up to Boston). The three marathons were Colorado Springs, 4:04:34, Ridgerunner in West Virginia, 4:08:21 and the Mid South in Wynn, Arkansas, 4:08:34. The Deadwood Marathon combined the altitude of Colorado Springs, the hills of West Virginia and the heat of Wynn, Arkansas. Now add the fact that I ran the Green Bay Marathon just two weeks prior to Deadwood and you have the making of a slow marathon. I knew about the altitude, the hills and not being rested so I was willing to run a slow marathon, may be a 4:10 or at least a sub 4:20. I just didn't project the heat. Being a trail course would also have a small impact on my time, maybe 5 to 10 seconds per mile.

The sun is up at 5:00 AM and Linda Thompson, Ken Wynn and I are getting ready to board one of the busses to take us to Rochford (population of about 47 people). Dave Farrall is here somewhere but we don't meet up with him until we get off of busses at 6:00 AM and we are on the port-a- let lines, I have a trash bag with me in case it is cold but I am feeling comfortable in just a short sleeve Lycra t-shirt. The temperature is probably in the low 60's but it doesn't feel that cold due to the thin air and low humidity. Approximately 600 plus runners are projected to start the marathon.

The first seven-tenth of a mile was down hill and took us to the Mickelson Trail. The Mickelson Trail is a well maintained Rails to Trail that starts in Edgemont approximately 90 miles south of Rochford and ends in Deadwood, approximately 25 miles to the north. From where we got onto the Mickelson Trail to the 13.1 mile mark is almost entirely uphill. We climb 900 feet to the half marathon point. Granted the hill or incline is not very challenging but 900 feet is still 900 feet. Factor in this is a trail and you don't get the recovery or spring you get from a road and that you at an altitude of 5,300 to 6,200 feet. There are only 12 water stations on the course and we never know just where they will be. We only know that they are about every 2 1/2 miles. Since I know this will be a slow and tough marathon I plan to walk about 1 minute at each water station. My mile slits are 7:40 (too fast, but felt good), 8:07, 9:35 (first water station), 10:29 (I realize this may be a slower marathon then anticipated), 9:55, 10:09, 9:40, 10:12 (hoping to make up time on the downhill over the second half), 10:24, 10:25, 10:44 (I'm expecting Dave Farrall to have passed me by now), 10:45, 10:41 and a half marathon split of 2:10:50. I can feel the sun on my back, it's starting to warm up. I don't know it at the time but the temperature is in the mid 70's but we are now on a good downhill. Like the uphill, it isn't steep, it's a good downhill grade. Mile 14 is 10:06 due to a water station walk break at 13.1 miles. As soon as I pass the 14 mile mark I get passed by Dave Farrell who comments how nice the down hill is and that he was feeling good. I tried to stay with Dave but gave up after about 100 yards. Mile 15 through 17 was all down hill. My splits were 9:34, 9:16, and 9:26, Mile 18 was a surprise to me, it was all up hill and probably the steepest up hill on the course. Mile 19 was all down hill and was the steepest down hill on the course. This down hill section also had the only bad surface on the course and I slowed down quite a bit so not t get hurt. Mile 18 and 19 splits were 9:51 and 11:34. Mile 20 split was 10:46 and I realized I wasn't sweating anymore and my shirt was almost dry. Although I was taking two cups of fluid at each water station I was still dehydrating. I decided to slow down a little by adding more walking breaks, It's 3 hours and 20 minutes into the marathon and the temperature was reported to be in the mid 80's at 3 hours (10:00 AM). Mile 21 through 25 splits were 9:48, 10:47, 10:55, 11:30 and 11:30, It's over 4 hours into the marathon and the temperature was in the 90's. THe trail ends at about the 25 1/2 mile mark and we are on paved road. This feels refreshing as I feel a little spring to my steps. Mile split was 11:44, walked quite a bit since I knew I would finish under 4:30. We turn onto Main Street in downtown Deadwood and you can see the finish line in front of the Bullock Hotel just 2-tenths of mile away. Finish time 4:27:32, I don't run for great times, I run to have great times. 15th out of 44 in my age group, 149 out of 476 finishers. Apparently over 125 runners did not finish. Dave Farrall finished in 4:13:27 finishing 7th in our age group and 102 overall. Dave ran a negative split by approximately 7 minutes. Linda and Ken finish in 5:12 when temperatures were hovering around 100 degrees.

Although I ran a slow marathon and it was a hot day, the marathon course itself is very nice. The course is very scenic and hills are not near as bad as the Ridgerunner. I would certainly recommend this marathon. If you go to Deadwood, plan to stay a few days. There is a lot of history in Deadwood and Mount Rushmore, Crazy House and Custer State Park are near by. I didn't get a chance to visit Custer State Park of Crazy Horse. I guess I'll have to run the Mount Rushmore Marathon and revisit the area.

56 marathons completed in 45 states and Washington DC. Next marathon will be Humpy's Marathon Anchorage, Alaska on August 15. This will be my first marathon in the 60 to 64 year OLD age group. Plans are to be well rested and trained with hopes of running between 3:30 and 3:39.

Rest if you must, just don’t quit,
Marty