Medicine Bow Half-Marathon Recap

A Runner's Ramblings: Volume 20; 10th Edition 
131.3 miles run in 2025 races
Race: Mother's Day Half-Marathon
Place: Laramie-ish, WY
Miles from home: 848 miles
Weather: 46 degrees; 46% humidity 

I am going to try to keep this recap from bleeding into another post about finishing all 50 states with a half-marathon but it will be difficult to do so as they are so intertwined. That said, getting to the starting line of this race allowed me to take a deep breath for the first time in months.

I had a knee replacement in February of 2025. I was able to finally start doing my first mile  a few months later in July after almost 16 months of not running. Combining almost two years off because of surgeries with time off from not racing because of COVID throughout our country left me with very little time to finish an overarching goal of running a marathon and a half marathon in all 50 states before I turn 50. In fact, I hadoriginally intended on finishing two weeks ago in New York until a few monthsago I realized that I did not have a race in Wyoming under my belt. How that had slipped past all of my plans is beyond me but it left me with this particular race as one of my only viable options.

What kind of race would that be? It would be the second highest I have ever started a half marathon and the highest by far that I've ever finished one. A few months ago when my running was going stellar on my return from knee surgery this might not have been nearly as challenging as it was. However, since late January/early February I've been dealing with some muscle imbalances that caused me great pain and forced me to barely run at all in that time period. So I showed up to the starting line out of shape, overweight, and still trying to get back to where I was a few years ago. But getting to the starting line meant that no missed flights, no broken down cars, no anything was now going to get in the way of me finishing this 50th state just one week before I turned 50.

Race Morning:

I awoke at 5:30 for a 7 am start time while my hotel was just a scant 8 miles away on easily drivable highways. I wanted to get in some stretching exercises my physical therapist had given to me to assure my quad and calf worked with me. Exercises done, showered and dressed, and I still found myself sitting in my car at the starting line with over a half an hour to kill.

The temperature was a lovely 46 degrees and while it was already sunny (the sun had been up before me which was shocking when I opened the drapes) there was a slight chill in the air and it was the least humid run I would have done since November.

I decided on one last bathroom break which required me to hike to the rest stop area.  Yes indeed,my final half-marathon state race was the first race I have ever did that beganat a highway rest stop!

I got back to the starting line with a minute to spare, shook out my legs, and away we went at the starter’s pistol.

To Mile 4:

Right out of the gate a guy with a dog ROCKETED down the hill. Like complete breakneck speed. I was astounded. I knew I wanted to use the mostly downhill of the first four miles ot put a little extra time in the bank. Even with a small uphill in the first half mile when I crossed the first mile I saw a 7:13 on my watch. That was pleasing. But I could feel my lungs protesting at the 8500 feet elevation we were at so I quickly slowed it down.  Almost immediately two runners passed me. The next mile was a more respectable 7:45 and another runner passed me as I continued to lay off the throttle. At this juncture other than the guy with the dog everyone was running the half marathon so I sat in fourth place. 

Not long thereafter a runner passed me running the marathon and I fell in behind him, passing the 3rd place half-marathon runner at the same time. Even as we continue to run downhill I could feel I was slowing up a touch, with my third mile being a 8:07.  I had really hoped for another sub-8 at the effort level I was doing but alas.

The sun was mostly blocked to our left buy some trees so I stayed in the shade as much as possible. Even in the cooler temps and humidity, I was still sweating profusely. 

I couldn't see what was happening at the front of the race to determine whether the woman or the young fella who had passed me at the beginning were in first place but I figured it would all shake out in the end. And if not the end I would at least see where they were when we turned around and came back home at the halfway point. Perhaps I still had a chance to win this thing.

We approached the fourth mile and after that soon was the first aid station. This was a cupless race meaning you had to carry your own container to get liquids. I appreciated the one gentleman volunteer who was out there but he didn't even have the water bottle open as I approached him looking to get my cup filled. I used that brief respite after we had crusted a small hill to drink my fill and get ready for the rest of the race.

To the Turn Around:

After a fast but steep downhill I noticed that the female runner wasn't all that far in front of me. The young buck was out of my sight as we twisted and turned through the Wyoming landscape. My perusal of the course profile showed me that we had a slight uphill to deal with before the turn around but not long after I caught sight of the female runner we began to make a series of steep climbs. I was using her as a yardstick as to when I would walk and when I would run because it was definitely too steep for my basically sea level lungs to handle running full out at this elevation.

On and on we climbed for the next mile and 1/2 and I was astounded how much more elevation there was.  I guess I had misread the rudimentary map on the basic website. A marathon runner passed me with about a mile to go before the turn around and soon left both me and the female runner in front of me in his dust. Pretty impressive.

We continue to climb and I wondered where the actual turnaround was because it was clear that it was going to be more than 6.55 miles away.  That would make this longer than 1/2 marathon for sure which I assuredly did not need. Not long after this realization, the lead runner headed back our way and passed me running down the hill. I felt I might have a chance to cath him if I could just get my lungs under me. Then a half-marathon runner passed me. I was now in 4th place. Within a few steps another runner passed me but this was right when the course finally flattened for half a second.  While I grabbed water from the aid station (again from an unopened jug of water - I guess they were expecting people to make quick pitstops) and while I grabbed water from a seemingly unexpected person at another aid station I made sure not to let those two runners get away from me.

To Mile 9:

At least I knew what to expect as we began our trek back to the finish line. I quickly passed the one man who passed me and was soon within sights of the second man. As I gingerly crossed a cattle grate (one of three I think we had to traverse) I could see that I was more or less keeping pace with the gentleman in front of me. I wasn't making up any ground but at least I wasn't losing any either! He was a pretty good downhill runner as well. I was more than pleased to see that I ran an 8 minute mile here even with a small uphill in the middle. I thought that maybe I was completely cooked from earlier but it was clear that as long as it was downhill or flat I could still run a pretty good speed. 

This section felt great as I continued even to run up the small uphills and began to think that perhaps I would shock myself with a negative split on this course. I looked behind me on a curve and saw no other runners. I had cleared all those who has passed me and none from behind were making up any ground. This was going ot be an epic finish!

However, when the downhill finally ended and there was a little bit of an incline as we began our climb back to the aid station that was at mile nine, I found myself really beginning to search for air.

To the Finish:

I stopped at the aid station to throw some water on my head as I was a little warm and to fill my cup. A half-marathoner passed me who had seemingly come from nowhere.  Damn it. I figured it would be a battle between us the rest of the way but little did I know that the next 4 miles would basically be me running until I felt like I was going to pass out and then walking until I was able to potentially run again. 

That's more or less how I spent the last four miles of this race as it climbed 500 feet back up to 8700 feet above sea level. A handful of other runners passed me here and there and I did my best to keep them in sight but sooner or later they all pulled away.  It was demoralizing. But I also couldn't breathe so that mattered more than my ego.

I began to wonder if I should really push hard to still break 2 hours for this half marathon or just accept the fact that this is probably going to be my slowest half marathon ever. The latter soon became my state of mind as I was just in survival mode.

Even the slight downhill with half of a mile to go gave me little respite as I could find barely enough energy to run down the hill. That's when I know it's bad. With the last quarter of a mile to go after I had already hit 13.1 miles it was clear this race was definitely going to be long. Worse than that it was the steepest part of the entire course that would take us to the finish line. I did my absolute best to jog but it was really no faster than a fast walk so I quit even trying.

I was able to muster enough strength to jog the last 100 yards or so to finish in my absolute worst time ever of 2:17:34 - nearly anentire hour slower than my half marathon PR. I finished in 9th place overall and couldn't have been happier to be done.

Three major notes of interest in this race.

1. There was a 9 year old boy completing his first marathon with his Dad and it was incredible.  Looked like he was having the time of his life and I am just flabbergasted that this difficult course was theo ne they chose to break that seal.  Great job, Ezra!
2. The guy who ran out like bat out of hell I think was the one who won the 50k in an blistering time of 3:48.  Given the elevation and hills, this time is ridiculous.
3. At the packet pickup, of this small race, the guy who was next in line behind me was ALSO from the Twin Cities and ALSO finishing his 50^th state.  The only thing more amazing than that was how completely un-gobsmacked he was by this fact while I stood there completely in shock.

So the 50 states are done. It is quite funny that the final half is the slowest ever.  Now I am going to take some time off and see if we can get everything healed and ready to potentially take on some more challenges. Or do nothing at all!

Mother's Day Half-Marathon Recap

A Runner's Ramblings: Volume 20; 8th Edition 
118.2 miles run in 2025 races
Race: Mother's Day Half-Marathon
Place: Rockaway Beach, NY
Miles from home: 1227 miles
Weather: 55 degrees; 79% humidity 

 This race was supposed to be two things:

1. New York was  supposed to be the final state in my quest to run a half marathon and marathon in all 50 states before I turn 50. (I finished the marathons in February after sitting at 49 states for a decade.)When I was planning out the remainder of this year a few months ago I noticed that that I did not have Wyoming as a half marathon run. I had to scramble since there are not a lot of races in Wyoming in the early part of the year given the weather. Even fewer fit my schedule of already necessary races. Fortunately, I found a race just one week before my 50th birthday to hopefully finish this journey. It's a little bittersweet considering I wanted to dedicate this comeback to my mother on Mother's Day but alas.

2. I was also assuming that this race was going to be my return to running fast again. From when I first started running in July after my knee replacement until January I had almost nothing but an upward arc in getting faster and stronger. Then I suffered a few setbacks at the end of January and for the better part of three months I have barely run (have literally run only 25 times on that time period with 7 of those runs being races) because of extreme pain in my left quadricep and my right calf. I really think if that had not happened I would be back below 1:30 for the half-marathon at this race. 

As it so happens I'm nowhere close to that right now but the good news seems to be that I have finally worked out the muscle imbalances in my quad and calf. Now I simply have to continue working on my physical therapy, and combine that with getting back into running shape again and maybe sometime this fall I will get the times that I'm hoping for.

This was a super quick trip for me. I flew in on a Friday and was leaving barely 24 hours later. Luckily, I told my best law school friend a while back I was running it and Felix came down from Brooklyn to have lunch with me. Even though we hadn’t seen each other in 21 years (hell, I haven’t even been to NYC in 18 years!) we picked up right where we left off: hitting a mid-day Fight Club against only old Jewish women. (Just kidding. This is like the 300th race report I have written and I have to spice them up a bit.) It was so great to see him and I cannot believe we forgot to take a picture together. (We actually look pretty similar. I also only recently got ed of that sweater.)

I then had dinner in my hotel which was about .9 of a mile away from the start of the race, relaxed in my bed, and got ready for the race which was mercifully at 9 a.m. Of course, just two days prior I realized this would make it impossible for me to catch my flight at noon and had to change that.  Some rare bad travel planning on my part. Nevertheless it was like the fourth race this year where I was just going to barely make my flight home. I find it helps you run faster when you realize you will miss your plane if you don’t.

Race Morning:

With packet pickup only being before the race, I had to get up a little earlier than I would have preferred even for this “later” race to go grab my bib number. I sauntered along the “boardwalk” we would be running on (the entire thing is concrete, which was far better than the potentially slipper wooden planks I thought it was going to be) after getting my bi and went to the bathroom at a building a few hundred yards down.  By the time I made it back, the runners were lined up, not on the boardwalk as I expected but rather on a narrow winding ramp that lead up to the boardwalk. I had to quickly jump through a few people to get close to the start. I knew I wasn’t going to be in primes running form but I also knew I was going to be faster than most of the people who stood between me and the cones.

Barely a word was said and we were off.

First 3.55 miles:  

The course was a looped course that we ran twice with the starting/finishing point being in the middle. We would run down about 1.78 miles west before turning around and heading home.  There were two small right angle turns on this westerly portion which means we would hit them three more times.  Fortunately it was an extremely wide paved boardwalk and there were not a ton of pedestrians out on this overcast but humid day.

I thought that the 5K and the half marathon were delineated by the different colored bibs and as such began to count where I was in the pecking order as we streamed away. I knew the man who was very first was running the half marathon simply because he said he had been to another friend when we were in the starting corral. After that it looked like there was one other guy and then a really young fella in front of me. So I was currently sitting in fourth as we made our way down to the first turn around.

My first mile went by in a shockingly fast 7:38. I haven't run that fast in over three months. That's when I decided I needed to slow it down just to keep within what my hopeful goal for the day was which was right around 8 minutes per mile. Doing so, a man and a woman running together and another woman passed by. It seemed to me that the man was running the 5K and his companion was running the half marathon but it was hard to tell. I knew I would figure it out when we got back to the starting line because that's where their race would finish.

As we got closer to that finishing point about 15 things happened in quick succession that surprised me. The solo female runner had pulled way ahead and now it was clear she was just running the 5K. The couple running together were both running the 5K I surmised as they left the course and down the "chute". A woman who had come up from behind me with about 1/4 of a mile to the finish did not go into the finishing chute but instead showed me that she was running a half marathon. About 1/4 of a mile later another woman passed me like a rocket and now I went from thinking that I was in 5th place, to watching two people finish their race and think I was in third to two others passing me and realizing I was in fifth again. Regardless, my second and third miles had been 7:59 and 8:07 respectively and I felt really good. I might actually run faster than my goal.

To the halfway:

Now with the first half of the loop done I was looking forward to seeing what the other half had in store and just get ready to do it all again. We had a bit of a headwind heading this direction so I didn't mind terribly well my next two miles were 8:16 and 8:22. However as we headed back on the other side of this loop I was passed by two other women in quick succession. I realized they weren't speeding up; I was slowing down.

I began to wonder if I had ever been beat in the standings by four consecutive women. I'm fairly certain it's never happened in my entire racing career and it looked like if things continue to play out how they were right now that's exactly what would happen. 

The woman who had shot by me as we came to the start/finish line previously was now flat out cooking. The young fella I had noticed earlier was clearly done having run the 5K and one of the other runners who I thought was running the 5K was obviously running the half marathon. At this juncture I hadn't the foggiest idea what position I was in. Plus I was beginning to feel a little tired even with a tailwind. My sixth mile showed me that I was right in what I was feeling as I only could muster 8:25.

To the 3/4 mark:

Even though it was in the mid 50s I was completely drenched with sweat. Anyone who passed me in either direction looked like they might be perspiring a little bit and I wondered how it is that my body will sweat as much as it does. I could tell that the second-half of this race was going to be quite difficult for me as I simply am not in shape to run the speed that I want to right now for this distance. As two male runners passed me near the turn around at the western end I simply let them go by without a fight. Usually, I at least speed up a little bit and make people work for it when they pass me but I did not have it in me today.
One of the women who had passed me earlier was passing me again. I had seen that she had stopped to use the bathroom and was surprised it took her this long to catch up. It made me feel perhaps I wasn't slowing as much as I thought me because she looked strong as heck.

The boardwalk was filled with more pedestrians now and for the most part they noticed that a bunch of people seemed to be running in close proximity wearing bib numbers and tried to stay out of our way. Of course, as you can probably assume, others did not and almost looked bothered that we dare get in the way of their meandering.

I was now about 20 to 30 seconds slower per mile than what I was hoping for and it wasn't getting much better. I grabbed a small water bottle that the volunteers handed out and crushing the entire thing in my hand, jet-blasted 8 ounces of water straight down my throat.

To the Finish:

The remaining part of this race was me passing some people who passed me then having them pass me back and then just this game of back and forth between a bunch of us. It seemed a few other people were beginning to feel the effects of the humidity as well. It was indeed nice to have the Atlantic Ocean to our side at one point but for the most part I was staring 10 feet ahead of me at the pavement and just trying to do left, right, repeat.

I had one young lady slide by with about a mile to go and this one really hurt because she had been so far behind me earlier. My goal for today had been to run 1:44 but after hitting the halfway point right on pace it was clear that I had lost about a minute per mile for the second-half.

I saw if I really pushed it that I could run a 1:49:xx but decided really what was the difference. I accepted that I am not where I want to be and am hopefully at the beginning of the final of three comebacks in three years.  This is the floor.  I can still reach the ceiling. I crossed the mat and went down the same winding walkway that we had started and finished in 11th place overall with a time of 1:50:36.

I'm truly hoping these extremely slow times are finally going to be put in the rearview mirror. Well, not totally because I know my final state half marathon in Wyoming starts and finishes at 8700 feet above sea level with a 500 foot climb the entire way back. I'm only hoping that somehow in the next two weeks I can get enough fitness in me to not make this my slowest half marathon ever. Even if it is, however, the states will have been finished and this will have been my 15th half marathon since late July of last year.

I truly think I should be the poster boy for my knee surgeon's practice.

One more to go.