Marathon #47: St. Jude Memphis Marathon, December 2017

Fun at the start! Zelda ran part of the course!

When my corral (#4) moved to the starting line with one minute to go and they started playing AC/DC's Thunderstruck I knew it was going to be a great race. The level of energy in this race was unexpected. Memphis truly supports this race and for a good reason: St. Judes Children's Research Hospital. This marathon is their largest single-day fundraiser, since a lot of the runners committed to fund raising in addition to their entry fees. Even though there were only about 2300 full marathoners, we started with the half marathoners at over 10,000 in number! The wave starts of the corrals really helped with the initial congestion, but it was still CRAZY those first few miles through downtown with all the turns and streets lined with spectators and NOISE! You name it it was out there; bands, boom boxes (Eye of the Tiger heard twice), cow bells, including one giant Swiss bell, bagpipes, and even belly dancers moving to blaring Indian music!

Initially I had a hard time settling into a pace with all the chaos and distractions, including running down (actually up) Beale street, which was really cool, then down along the Mississippi river past the gigantic Bass Pro pyramid, and again, up and onto the St Jude Hospital grounds. Nothing could have prepared me for that experience. We ran through a gauntlet of cheering spectators, which included staff and patients of St Judes hospital. When I saw the children I started crying. They let us know that this is what this race is all about. So no matter my aggravations with the madness, this was worth it. The water stops were still crazy at mile 10 and I was growing tired of having so many people around me. When the half marathoners split off to the other side of the road I was suddenly all my myself! Running a steady pace got a whole lot easier after that. I put on the music and ran those "middle miles" on auto-pilot for awhile.

Some claim this course is hilly, but I didn't think the hills were that bad. We had a few short steep hills, but mostly long inclines here and there, which were usually followed by some nice down hills. We ran through some nice neighborhoods and the Memphis Zoo. I really enjoyed this part of the marathon. Even though we were in full sun we ran on some really nice tree lined roads for shade.

When I got to mile 20 I walked the water stop and boy did my legs feel tired. Mostly my quads. I'm not sure if this is because of the Cape Cod marathon 5 weeks ago (DUH), but it was not good. I knew things were going to go south, just wasn't sure when! So I told myself to get to mile 22 and walk the stop, which I did, then the plan was to get to mile 24 and walk that stop....at this point the course had returned to downtown and I have to say the last 5K is about as ugly and desolate as it gets. As we were approaching mile 24 runners were coming back at us on the other side of the road, but I couldn't see where they were coming from. I kept looking for a short out and back, but there wasn't one! This is where the mind went bonkers for me: "Where the hell are they coming from? Why am I turning right, away from them? Where the hell are we going? "It was the lowest point of the race for sure. That's when I found myself walking. I was getting warm (full sun no shade), but mostly my legs were pretty much done. It was a walk-run effort from there until the finish. I hate those kind of finishes, but in some way the misery shared as we all shuffled along in silence with one another was comforting.

Finally, after turns turns and more turns we entered AutoZone park to the finish line! Once inside the park they processed me really efficiently, and I managed to get a finish line photo with Elvis! I saw Toby up in the stands, so I made my way up the stairs somehow to find out he ran a freaking 3:10 marathon! AMAZING! He said we had to look for Mark to finish, which was a shock to me. I had seen him as he passed me near mile 8, so I had no idea he was behind me. He had a chest cold though, which made for a rough day for him, but he finished not too far behind me. Toby snuck Zelda into the marathon food and beer garden where we hung out for a bit before heading out to more adventures of Memphis.

Happy Finishers

In summary, a really well organized race! Even though the water stops were crazy they had enough for everyone and had more than enough total stops on the course. The wave start was great! The finish area set up, etc was great. Really, the only negative is the medal. Unfortunately they mistakenly placed the lanyard too far down the back of the medal, making it top heavy, so instead of lying flat it leans out, almost horizontal. To make matters worse the top is a round child's head, which when leaning out looks like a phallic symbol. OOPS.

Exposing my medal

Toby ended up being the 3rd Grandmasters finisher with his 3:10!
Mark ran a 4:17. I ran a 4:14, 7th in my age group. Ok enough.

We had a lot of fun in Memphis! We ventured down to Beale Street and watched a Christmas parade while enjoying a few beers, then over to the famous Peabody Hotel, then later had BBQ at Corky's, and on Sunday took a tour of Graceland before heading home. Highly recommend Graceland!