The Wicked Running Register May 2012 • Priceless
EST. JAN 2010
A Trilogy of Marathons Ends at Providence Patrick Smith
Three marathons in 20 days wasn’t the plan, but somehow ended in storybook fashion ... In Rhode Island? It’s 4:45am on May 6th and I’m up and driving to the Cox Providence Marathon. My car dash says its 48-degrees, the skies are night black and there is the biggest full moon of the year on the horizon to the southwest to follow … until the clouds suck it in 20 minutes later. The day is projected to be partly cloudy with temps in the 50s at race start and 60s to finish. All good vibes. If Boston, 20 days earlier, could have been 30 degrees cooler I would not be taking this drive, alone, keeping it quiet incase it all fell apart. Boston started out so grand, living the good life on the air conditioned charter bus from Salem with my Wicked Running mates all about and chatting up a storm with excitement for the day to come. Shari Hewson with her bag of bags in bags leaving everyone in stitches, Dawn Cobak in her pink PJs, Melissa Jaynes, MJ, covered in MJs, Jason Carraro calm as can be like he’s done this a dozen times (it was his second), and many others made for a merry time. Too bad the temp outside was 70 at 6am and would stretch to near 90 and not a
cloud in sight. Wow did Mother Nature hit hard that day. Seven days after the Boston Burner, and well off a BQ time or even an enjoyable time, I was still in pain and looking to Mike “Magic hands” Toomey to set me straight. The Big Sur California Marathon was just 6 days away (13 days between races) and running any distance still hurt. Heck my favorite activity, cycling, hurt. As I continued my solitary drive to what I was hoping would be a Boston Qualifying finish, thoughts went back to Marathon No. 2, Big Sur 7 days earlier. If I hadn’t gone to Mike for some serious muscle/tendon release, if I hadn’t actually learned something from Boston, if I hadn’t raced Big Sur with Tim Clarke and Dan Cooper to keep me running smart, I wouldn’t have picked my arse up this morning to go for race No. 3.
year, but also guaranteed to have high winds and possible fog around Hurricane Point at mile 10 (a heartbreak hill with gusto, a 2-mile long accent with a 700 elevation gain), and instead of loud crowds throughout, Big Sur had bands and drums of all kinds from start to finish, for an open air MP3 experience. The scenery along the coastline course of US Cal Rt 1 was brilliant (when not in the fog). I learned to keep my feet beneath me (shorter stride) on the opening downhill, something I didn’t do at Boston that killed my quads and IT, to start conservative and enjoy the first 20 while in the great company of Wicked’s Tim C and Dan C, and found I had a little in the tank to up the pace for the final 6 for a 3:41 finish ... hmmm only 12 minutes off the BQ. After a quick picture with Tim and Dan, I’m having beers and snacks with Dean Karnazes Continued, next page
Big Sur was so similar, yet so different from Boston. Both were point-to-point, both required you to be bused to the start (although Big Sur had a 3:30am bus start), both had a 5+ mile downhill start, both had hills in the middle, and were connected by the Boston 2 Big Sur Challenge that I was participating in, but that’s where it ended. Big Sur Big Sur Smiles! L to R: Tim Clarke, Patrick is 4,000 runners vs 27,000 Smith, Denise Murphy, Kathey Moskal, Dan and was almost guaranteed Cooper and Steph Cooper. to be in the 50-60s every