Coeur d'Alene Idaho Marathon

Coeur d’Alene Idaho has a marathon with a 33-year tradition. It’s a good marathon - I recommend it. My own race could have been better, but only six minutes slower than Abilene in April and I’m not unhappy with it. 43rd marathon, 27th state, second of two in my age group. I don’t like finishing last, but the other guy beat me fair and square.

The weather in Coeur d’Alene was almost perfect for a race, with cloudy skies and temperatures rising slowly from 50 to 57. A little less wind would have made it even better, and in fact I wore a singlet under a throwaway shirt which I never threw away because it felt good in that wind.

My right foot hurt. The outside of the foot seems slightly injured at the ankle, probably from running trails so much. I guess I can no longer brag that the Brooks Launch shoes have kept me injury-free, though I probably should use shoes with more ankle support for trail running. The middle toe on the right foot really raised a ruckus too - not uncommon but more painful than usual - made me yelp a couple of times. I had no other pains during the run. Afterward both calves cramped severely, each just once, one at a time, and I could do little but wait for the pain to subside. I had taken five salt packets during the race - maybe I needed more? For sure I should have done more stretching immediately after the race to try to prevent that post-race cramping.

The Coeur d’Alene Marathon route seems rather helter-skelter - we never did find a map good enough to guide us through it before the race, though the volunteers made navigation easy on race morning. A good part of the course is on roads and trails right along the shore of Lake Coeur d’Alene, affording a spectacular view, with mountains looming behind the enormous blue lake. It’s a bit hilly, not the best for a PR or a Boston qualifier, but certainly not the hilliest course I’ve run, not even as hilly as the trails that I run regularly near home. It was 100% paved, the road shared with cars (coned off) in a few places, but that was never a problem.

It seemed that the marathon was a little short on aid stations. I took either a Clif Shot gel or a salt packet at every aid station except the first one, and ended up using only five of each. The busses for the race course tour, the day before the race, were hopelessly oversubscribed. And the web site was out of date, displaying last year’s location for the packet pickup. Otherwise the race seemed to be organized well. The course is open for 7 1/2 hours, enough for all but the slowest runners. 403 souls ran the full marathon, 1228 the half, and 52 the early-start marathon (5:30 start versus 7:00 am).

My splits: 9:41, 9:43, 9:23, 9:49, 9:06, 10:18, 21:07 (2 mi), 10:03, 10:10, 10:46, 12:49 (uphill), 9:28 (back down), 25:03 (2 mi & potty stop), 13:02, 10:28, 24:16 (2 mi), 11:26, 11:15, 11:21, 12:16, 11:59, 11:54, 13:39 (1.22 mi), total 4:50:02, pace 11:04.

We drove to this marathon, from Minnesota to Idaho and back, especially enjoying the drive back. In a single day on I-90 and I-94 we saw:

• Antelope, bison, mule deer, magpies, and many other creatures that we don’t see in Minnesota;
  
• Snow-capped Montana mountains on one side of the highway, or both sides, for hundreds of miles, hour after hour, constantly changing and always fresh;
  
• A full rainbow directly ahead of us, though we never drove in much rain that day;
  
• The North Dakota badlands in the Theodore Roosevelt National Park (Medora, ND), including
  • Scenery more colorful than the South Dakota badlands,
    
  • A prairie-dog village right at the edge of the road, and
    
  • The North Dakota Painted Canyon;
• A spectacular, unforgettable after-dark light show which we watched for 100 miles, as a thunderstorm crossed our path ahead of us in Minnesota; and finally
  
• The three-quarter moon rising like a huge, orange, lopsided welcome sign right in front of us as we approached the Twin Cities at midnight.

It was a magical day. And to our surprise, traffic on I-90 and I-94 was light this Memorial Day weekend. I’m so glad we didn’t fly this time.