The Race

Marathon tagline I didn't know until I got there: Conquer The Mountain!

What? Conquer the what? I don't want to do ANYTHING with a mountain, much less "conquer" it!

It was in the low 60s and overcast. There will be no pics because I failed to get a disposable camera so you'll have to trust me.

The start was fine and wound around the small town, out onto a highway in the wrong direction out to a point, then turning around to head toward Coudersport.

I was doing fine and didn't mind the fact that it was a slight upgrade. At mile 8 another runner informed me that the course will start to go down at mile 17.

What?!

Yes, the course was a steady climb for 17 miles and that last mile was almost vertical. In fact, it was Denten Mountain which happens to be a ski resort.

I hit the halfway point at 1:53 which put me well into the range of a sub-4 hour marathon. I thought going downhill the last half would offset the higher miles trouble and I could at least do the same split and get under 4.

Mile 17 was no joke. Straight up and nasty.

Up and over I picked up speed and was doing somewhere between 7 and 8 minute miles. But at around mile 22, reality set in and life got real bad. There was even a few more little hills that seemed like big hills. I would have had to clock six 9-minute miles in a row to crack 4 hours so I didn't worry about it.

I sprinted in the last mile and ended up with 4:07:11.