State # 15: Cotton Land Marathon (LA) November 12, 2017

The Cotton Land marathon was not a race that was on my "must-do" list. I first learned about it when a friend posted that there was a 24 hour sale on registration for only $17! I did some quick research on the race and discovered that it was in West Monroe, LA the hometown of the Robertson family of Duck Dynasty fame. It was also the only marathon in Northeastern LA, the closest part of the state to where I live. I attempted to register, but had some issues with the registration site and didn't make the 24-hour cutoff. A couple of weeks later they had a black Friday sale for $27 and I made it in for that one. I think the big sales increased their visibility and their registrations. The best information I've been able to find is that they only had 37 finishers for the full in 2016, but 80 for 2017.

As I continued to learn more about the race (reasonably flat and an average temperature range that looked decent) I decided that it would be a good chance to go for a new PR. I got a friend that I had met through my local running group to coach me. It ended up being a tough summer of training. It was hot, although not quite as bad as the previous summer. I trained hard with a goal time of 3:45. It looked a bit out of reach when I first started, but as race day drew near I was knocking out some 8:30 race pace miles over some decent distances. I wasn't completely sure I could hold the pace for 26.2, but it at least seemed possible. I had 3 fall marathons leading up to the race, all of which turned out to be pretty hot days.

When race weekend arrived I was at least as excited about the road trip as I was about the race. I would be passing through the delta area of Mississippi (known for early blues music) and ending up in Duck Dynasty country. Friday was a beautiful day to drive and when I made it into MS I sat on a bench at the welcome center to eat my lunch.

As I made my way South through Mississippi, I saw cotton still in the field. I also saw lots of delta blues sites and a few Oh Brother, Where Art Thou filming locations. Once I made it to Vicksburg, I stopped for the night and got some sleep before heading into Louisiana the next morning.

Upon my arrival in West Monroe, I began to scope out the course and got a shake out run on a portion of it. About that time, I started having a problem with my car. It seemed like one of the rear drum brakes was dragging, but it turned out to be a bad wheel bearing. I drove around town a bit getting a blueberry muffin at Miss Kay's and going to the packet pickup, and then managed to get my car fixed.

After that, I got lunch at the Duck Diner, saw the Duck Commander headquarters, and checked into my hotel for the evening.

At the hotel I laid out my clothes for the race. I had been planning a kind of Jase Robertson costume with camo shorts, a black shirt, and my beard that I had been growing out since the end of August. That night I decided to go with the race shirt that I got from my very first marathon. I had been wearing it the year before when I ran a PR at Marshall, so I thought maybe it would be good luck.

Race morning I arrived early at Kiroli park (start and finish location) and met some of the other runners (maniacs and 50 staters). The race ended up starting a bit late as we waited on our celebrity race starter. It was Willie Robertson, who by tradition, started the race by blowing a duck call. I had lined up with the 3:45 pace group. It was a good thing that I wasn't leading the group, because it didn't take all that long for things to start going south for me. The weather was about 10 degrees warmer than I had been anticipating and it made a huge difference. The course was a double out and and back, but with a few changes that made things a bit complicated if you hadn't studied the map or watched the video on their Facebook page.

The first 10k was a pretty direct route from Kiroli park down to Lazarre Park. We hit the first turn around where there was an aid stop with a gel. I got a little bogged down getting my gel and fell back from my pace group. Not wanting to burn too much energy trying to catch back up to the group, I took my time and gradually made my way back catching up to them around mile 8. However, by about mile 10 I was starting to fall behind again. I already knew at the turn around that it wasn't going to be my day, but since I pace so many races I don't get that many opportunities to just go for it and take a chance. Not the best thinking for a race strategy, but sometimes you just need to risk it. 

A little beyond mile 11 we made the second turn around to head back out again. By mile 13 the 3:45 pace group was pretty much out of sight and any thoughts of a new PR were gone. Making my way back onto the main section of the course, I started my second out and back. I would run this part of the course 4 times, which meant it would get a bit boring by the time I finished. A bright spot of this part of the course was the "One Mile of Love" public art project. Elementary students submitted designs that were brought to life as a mural on the Trenton street levee.

We ran a straight shot back out to Lazarre park. About mile 17 I needed to start taking some walk breaks as the fatigue continued to accumulate. This is also where the course modifications on the second time out got a little complicated. The second time going through Lazarre we had to go all the way to the back of the park before turning around and when we left the park we had to make a left instead of a right and add mileage going around a school. Before I made it back past the park I was passed by the 4 hour pacer.

When I came back through this dip underpass the 4th time I was feeling pretty much done and that was only about mile 20. I was tired, had a side stitch that wouldn't go away and had various other aches and pains. I stopped by an aid station that had some "adult" beverages, and had nearly resolved to walking the rest of the race. I kept trudging on, occasionally brining my pace up to a trot. 

Finally in the last quarter of a mile or so I pulled myself together enough to run it in to the end. My only motivation at this point was to try to finish less than an hour longer than my original goal time. And, that's excactly what I did--4:44:28! There wasn't much of a finish line party, so I didn't hang out for very long. I had a long way to go to get beck home!

This race would be towards the bottom of my list to recommend. It was definitely a low budget, no-frills race. I got LA checked off of my list as inexpensively as I could, and that's about all I can say about it. The road trip was fun, but because of family issues my wife didn't even get to go along. I surprised her with his and hers Uncle Si sweet tea cups when I got home!

Overall, 2017 was a good marathoning year for me. I ran 11 races, 7 of which were new states, which put me at 15 states completed. Still a long way to go, but I added nearly as many new states as I had run since I started doing marathons in 2014!