Number 20 - National Guard Marathon, Lincoln, Nebraska
For our return trip to Michigan this year, we took a Northern route through Colorado, Nebraska and Iowa before hitting the familiar roads of Illinois and Indiana. It was a pleasure to see Pike's Peak in the background when we started our second day of driving. The destination for day two was Lincoln, NE where I signed up to run in the National Guard Marathon. A major snow storm had just passed through western Nebraska two days before we came through. We got to see just traces of snow as the temperatures were up in the fifties.
Lincoln is the home of the University of Nebraska, so everything is about the Cornhuskers. We stayed downtown, which I recommend, as it is within a mile of the race start and finish. There were about 7,000 signed up for the combination of half and full marathon, which appeared to be 80% half marathoners. There were quite a few guardsman running the race; this is a major event for them. If you are in the Guard, this is the one to do. The local guardsman supported the race, much like the Marines in Washington, D.C.
The course traversed through several very nice neighborhoods (probably where the faculty live), back through downtown for the half finish and back out again to a park and return. Jan met me with treats at the half way mark and again at mile 18. The course was reasonably flat although from mile 14 to 18 it was slightly uphill, and this day with a wind in our face. The hill and wind did me in. I did not train as hard this past Winter, and I put my core building exercises on the shelf since the last marathon; and that really hurt. I ran the first half on my goal pace of 9:00 minute miles, but the last half turned into 11:00 minute miles, finishing in 4:24:01. I was 25 out of 47 in my age group and overall 754th of 1,170 marathon finishers. This was a far cry from my last race. I hope I am not getting old.
Not sure where the next stop will be, maybe Hartford, CT. I am currently working in Hartford and will run the marathon here in October if things continue as they are, and God is willing.