Medford, Wisconsin is truly a quaint little town in a beautiful part of north central Wisconsin. The Medford Chamber of Commerce boasts that "...the old fashioned values of pride, hard work, and selflessness that have found a permanent home..." and I would have to agree. Every person I met in Medford seemed like a genuinely nice person who was just happy to be helpful. Pretty neat.
I was lucky enough to have a friend that was also interested in running the Pine Line Marathon. Kurt picked me up at the airport on Friday afternoon and we headed for Medford, about a 3 hour drive from Madison. We arrived in Medford and headed straight for the curling club where there was a spaghetti dinner. The food was excellent and as we found the entire time we were in Medford, everyone was so nice. After dinner we headed to the American Inn for a good nights sleep.
The marathon began in the parking area of the Medford City Park. The Pine Line railway started there and ran exactly 26.2 miles north. Although it is not advertised, it seems pretty obvious that the idea of the Pine Line Marathon must have come from the fact that the Pine Line just happened to be 26.2 miles. Originally the marathon was run from one end of the trail to the other, but for logistic and insurance reasons it has been an out and back for some time now.
The Pine Line Trail is truly flat. And I mean there are zero hills. None. Nadda. Zip. Amazingly flat. Twenty five plus miles of the run are on nice soft dirt and gravel mixture.The remaining bit is on asphalt. It felt great to run on such a forgiving surface and I can't imagine anyone not loving it.
Kurt and I ran together until the turn around for the half marathon. It worked out really nice and kept us both relaxed and on pace. Kurt ended up with a personal best half marathon and ran a negative second half split. He had a really great run and said he had gas left in the tank at the finish line. Way to go Kurt!
I felt great and ran especially well for 16 miles. The miles from 9 to 13 just melted away almost without notice...exactly the feeling you want in a marathon. At around 16 miles I started to feel some light cramping and fatigue in my quads. It was worrisome at the time, but I continued to run well.
Click here for Part II
(To be continued tomorrow. I need some sleep tonight)
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