Eau Claire Marathon 05/02/2010
As we drove to western Wisconsin we saw some very beautiful country and I knew that I was in for a very picturesque run. Based on the course map I knew that I was also in for a hilly run. This was also the first time that my family joined me on the road and I wasn’t just driving to the race running and coming home.

This race has a good blend of country, woods and small town feel. The race is very well attended to by the volunteers. A lot of the spectators moved from stop to stop so you saw them quite frequently. I heckled the girl who held up the “I just ate a donut”

Ran with Amanda from St. Paul. She’s an Ultra marathoner not used to running on the road, she’s not listed in the final results, so I hope she didn’t DNF.

The second half of the race was mostly city, very clean but completely into the wind. Not a strong wind, but annoying. I let Amanda draft behind me, no reason for both of us to struggle, and there were no big guys for me to draft behind.

The person who designed this course must have been a friend of mine because from miles 21 to 22 there was a gentle incline then a good sized bump just before the end. What a jerk. Believe me it felt worse than it looks.

Overall, great water stops every two miles. Good support, fantastic volunteers (are you noticing a trend?). Good post race food, not Cellcom quality beer & brats, but good turkey sandwiches none the less.

Also the people of Eau Claire are very nice. No matter where we stopped we met great people. And our waiter on Saturday night was from Allouez, super guy.

Bad news. In my goodie bag was a flier for a new marathon in Wisconsin for 2011 the Sandbox_Indoor_Trail_Marathon . This is billed as an indoor trail marathon on an indoor motocross course. The marathon is guaranteed to be less than 100 laps. I’m putting this one off until 2013, I hope it just goes away.