Monster Mash Marathon and Half Marathon Recap
Several members competed in the Monster Mash Marathon and Half in Dover. Ray Christensen has a recap.
2014 is the 4th annual Monster Mash Marathon and Half. The first mile is a lap around the Dover Downs NASCAR track, starting at 7am while the sun is rising. Although some MarathonGuide runner comments include recommendations for the scenery, I knew that it would be the most boring course I’d ever run. Even Dave McCorquodale (many small marathons among his 100+) had found it extremely mundane in 2013.
The bulk of the course is on long, straight stretches of road with cornfields on either side. With just 189 marathon finishers, and 289 for the Half, even the first 6.5 shared miles had lonely patches. To demonstrate how ambivalent I was about selecting Monster Mash, I already had a 20 mile training run in before I decided on it. The timing was right for one week after helping out at Delaware Distance Classic 15K.
This was my 25th marathon overall and very first in Delaware. A few weeks earlier, while running in White Clay Park alongside Adam Shilling, I was overjoyed to hear that he was planning on the same race, with similar goal time of 3:30. So hopefully it would not be just me and some cows out there! My training was decent, with not much speed work and just hitting 44- mile weeks twice, but I did get in four 20-plus runs. I had a shot.
Race day weather was good. On the drive to Dover, “Footloose” came on the radio, so a smile came to my face. (I have to state that since there were no witnesses in my car and it was dark anyway, so I wouldn’t have seen it myself in the mirror.) The upside of a tiny race is that you can park a couple hundred feet from the registration tent, check in at 6am, have easy access to restrooms and easily find your friends. Adam arrived 10 minutes later and I ended up seeing another half-dozen PCVRC members who were running the half.
That first “Monster Mile” was spectacular. Easily one of the coolest miles I’ve ever run! Unfortunately it got me off to a fast pace that I’d be unable to moderate until nearly mile 6. The track is banked even low on the straight portions, which turned out to be an omen with lots of the course having enough of a camber to be noticeable. Once we left the Speedway and its parking lots I finally got to visit historic Dover for the very first time. Very pretty tree-lined streets, nice houses, government buildings downtown for 2 miles and then suddenly we’re in the middle of nowhere. I’d have to say that 20 miles worth of the course has cornfields on one side and grassland on the other. The only difference is which side of the road that either is on! More than any other race, I was sorry to see the Half runners split from us.
Adam had smartly started at the right pace, and I found him catching up to me just after I turned around on a 2 mile “out and back” portion nearing the half way point. We ran together (in our matching PCVRC singlets) for a couple miles, agreeing that we’d been lucky that the sun had not come out until we had just turned from running directly towards it. Unfortunately, we also agreed that the moderate headwind we now felt was going to remain a nuisance for much of the 2nd half. Adam maintained pace as I started to drop back at mile 15.5 with some tightness in my upper legs.
It was now pretty sunny. Still not hot, due to the breeze, and in the low 60’s. More cornfields. And more. Then there were a couple fields that had already been cut down – that was a nice change of pace! Speaking of pace, mine was slowing. Here’s a “glass half-full” moment: At least in a small race, there are fewer people to pass you. I realized that I was getting dehydrated since the Gatorade and water at the tables never seemed to be enough. There were enough water crews (always high school kids), but I caught one of the tables a bad time. I needed water since I’d just done a gel. The 3 kids only had Gatorade, while 2 guys were bringing a few more gallons over. Not thinking clearly, I didn’t grab a Gatorade until it was too late and spilled it. So, no water, no Gatorade and I could only think of reaching the next table. When I arrived, I yelled out for one of each. Got the Gatorade and gulped it down. For water, I had been handed an empty cup. That kind of threw me into a panic, but now I’d have my excuse for a sub par run 😉
Mile 20 was in front of a house that was surrounded by cornfields. Legs tight and stride was probably pretty ugly. I had been passed by Keith Straw (pink tutu man) at around 17. Avoided some caterpillars who were crossing the road. I hate cornfields. I hate this little breeze. I hate the girls who pass me (not really).
At mile 25, I finally see the racetrack in the distance. I don’t want to look at my watch, so I’ve got no idea of time. Overpass over Rt. 1 (probably the biggest little hill on the course) and the downside at least gives me a push past mile 26. The finish is directly in front of Miles the Monster, where they are announcing the Half awards, so I sneak across the line and frown when I see 3:38:24. However, I did break my record for time to finish a water bottle after a race, which proved that I was dehydrated enough to hurt my performance.
(Photo Credit: David Baca)
In his first marathon since having screws removed from his broken leg injury, Adam had maintained pace nicely to finish in under 3:25! Awards for nearly every club member who ran the Half!
Very cool medal, with a Halloween monster in it that spins. I’m usually more hungry after a race (only got down my usual 2 gels), but drinking a smoothie and eating a good roast beef sandwich made me feel better. As people started to leave, I wandered back inside the speedway to watch the start of a breast cancer awareness 1 mile jog around the track.
A few photos at http://runmarathonman.com/monster-mash-dover14.php
From Mark:
I wanted to add two points I missed in last week’s newsletter.
Amy Temple, who competed in her first 15k last week, is a proud C25k graduate and has been coming for over a year! So not only did she graduate she continues to inspire others! (Not to leave out Maya Andreeva, Samantha Neubert and Kathy Belardo for doing the same!)
The Delaware Distance Classic 5k was the graduating race for this autumn’s C25k class! Awesome job everyone!
A five-lady team represented PCVRC at the Evansburg 10-Miler and placed several on the podium! See the race results for details!
Many thanks to Paula Jermyn for organizing the latest event in the Speaker Series! Can’t wait to see what’s next.
Race Results, Reviews and Accomplishments:
Lots of results this week!
Sharon Miner competed in the National Nurses Half-Marathon, finishing in 3:06:28! She says “I generally just say I finished; state #15 of my half2run goal (half marathon in half the states). It was my slowest, with desert and elevation a challenge. Nonetheless, a beautiful course, well organized and followed by an awesome vacation of hiking in Zion, Bryce and North Rim Grand Canyon National parks.”
Kim Eppehimer finished 3rd in her age group at the Caffe Gelato 10-Miler! She finished in 1:13:41.3, a 7:22-per-mile pace!
Lisa Jalot, Claire Neilan, Meggan Hain, Anne Hessel, Lori Culnane and Lorri Fencer represented PCVRC at the Evansburg Challenge 10-Miler! Lisa Jalot came in 2nd in her age group and so did Anne Hessel! Great job ladies!
National Nurses Half Marathon
(October 11th – Las Vegas, NV)
Sharon Miner 3:08:26
4th Monster Mash Half-Marathon
(October 18th – Dover, DE)
Andy Jakubowitch 1:19:59.8 (3rd Overall)
Kristen Stump 1:37:30.4 (1st AG)
Mike Piorkowski 1:39:57.5 (1st AG)
David Baca 1:45:59.5 (3rd AG)
Kelly Jones 1:49:14.7
4th Monster Mash Marathon
(October 18th – Dover, DE)
Adam Shilling 3:24:56.7
Ray Christensen 3:38:24.5
John Schultz 7:11:42.1 (Bib Number 1)
Evansburg Challenge 10-Miler
(October 19th – Collegeville, PA)
Lisa Jalot 1:16:55
Claire Neilan 1:28:33
Meggan Hain 1:31:33
Lori Culnane 1:34:30
Lorri Fencer 1:37:32
Anne Hessel 1:46:51
Caffe Gelato 10-Miler
(October 19th – Newark, DE)
Mike DiGennaro 55:37.8 (1st Overall)
Matt Cutrona 1:05:48.9 (2nd AG)
Mike Brown 1:08:27.8 (2nd AG)
Ryan German 1:09:17.1 (3rd AG)
Kim Eppehimer 1:13:41.3 (3rd AG)
Betty Olmstead 2:29:25.3 (1st AG)
PCVRC @ USATF Club Cross-Country National Championships
Attention club member we are finalizing the team rosters for what will likely be the best running event on the East Coast this fall. We still have a few openings for both men and women to participate in this event. Please check your calendar for 12/13/14 and consider joining us for the day @ Lehigh University. Women race a 6k while men complete a 10k. We will finalizing the roster and completing registration at the end of October. Interested? Contact Tom Steenkamer or Rich Szymanski for more information.
Races/results for the Grand Prix Circuit can be found at
http://www.mausatf.org/htmlldr/grandprix.htm
Races/results for the Off-Road Series can be found at
http://www.mausatf.org/htmlldr/offroad.htm