From Jan- April 1975, my weeks were filled with lots of high quality miles as I prepared for the NAIA Marathon in Arkadelphia, Arkansas. Despite some great workouts, my indoor track season at UW-Stevens Point was a disaster. My endurance was great, but without the benefit of some high intensity intervals, I just could not run a respectable 2- mile indoors.
As my level of frustration increased, John Duwell (one of my teammates)found out about a marathon at the University of Northern Iowa over spring break. He was driving down to visit his grandmother, and suggested I ride along and we could run the marathon on the way back home. Why not?
We drove a couple of hours and showed up minutes before the start- I think there were about 33 of us total. I recall running with John the first 6 miles just getting the kinks out, then catching the leaders at about 8. By 10 (58 minutes) I was starting to roll and just took off. The guys in the lead vehicle kept giving me one mile splits, which were consistent 5:20s. I hit 20 miles in 1 hr 51 (53 minutes for the 2nd 10 miles), then cruised in to run a huge PR. It was then that I knew I my training was on the right track. (there is no second page to these results- only 12 finished!)
Remember, this was 1975- no electolyte drinks or gels. It was 45 degrees so I never even took a drink!
Belated congratulations on the win.
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