A Midwest Journey begins in Green Bay

By Vince Juliano

 

            Why the Green Bay Marathon, our friends would ask? A few months ago we had never heard of the marathon and it obviously wasn’t our first choice, but as we scrambled through multiple options during the spring, Green Bay became our preferred destination.

            My wife really wanted to run another marathon this year but lacked the desire to run a mega event like Boston. Vermont City would have been a likely option except that it fell a few days after the Albany Corporate Challenge, a race Emily was committed to defend. That left us surfing the web for a June Marathon that we could drive to (I have always hated flying even before 9/11), a flat course, and an early start to mitigate the intense rays of the June sun.

            The Green Bay Marathon offered it all. A 6:05am start on a course void of hills, with miles 18 through 25 on a bike path that ran along the Fox River. After a bit of research, we discovered that we could limit the drive to 14 hours by taking a car ferry across Lake Michigan from Ludington. This historic ferry ride (the oldest car ferry in the world began 100 years ago to transport lumberman during the commercial logging trade) left daily at 8am and would arrive just 40 miles south of Green Bay by Noon.

            Our travel went quite smoothly as we arrived at Ludington at 7:30 PM on Friday (we left at 5:30 am) and settled into a hotel room before departing for Green Bay via ferry early Saturday. College kids drive the cars onto the ferry and all pets must remain in the car during the 4-hour ferry ride. We had our first good laugh as Hamlet (our 80 lb. Lab) jumped onto the lap of the driver as he attempted to steer our van up the ferry ramp. This was the first of several stressful days for Hamlet as we boarded him at a local Pet Center for our weekend in Green Bay.

            Green Bay is a young marathon with 2002 being only the third edition. The course is a loop with the start and finish in front of the new KI convention center on the waterfront in downtown Green Bay. The KI convention center also hosted a retail expo, packet pickup, and a superb pasta dinner, as well as pre-race meeting for elite runners. Emily was included in this group meeting due to her sub 3-hour Marathon PR (Wineglass 2:59) which only added to her stress when she discovered that her PR was ranked 14th out of 15 in the elite women’s field. Further anxiety occurred during the labeling and numbering of the designated elite water bottles. When asked if she was a runner who needed a special sport drink at a certain location on the course, Emily replied that she was happy with the water and sport drink provided at the regular water stations. While the meeting was designed to help the elite runners, I found certain aspects to be quite humorous. None more so than the discussion of inclines and declines on the hill less course. This discussion was the ultimate exercise in hair splitting and a similar analogy would be a lengthy debate on how to tackle the 1st mile incline on the local Delmar Dash Course. While the course analysis may have been unnecessary, the race was very well organized with ample support from the Green Bay community. This is certainly due to the fact that experienced runners organize the race. The director, Gloria West describes herself as a former elite runner, although a marginal one. The top local female runner, Carol Le Gate (a 2004 Olympic qualifier) also provided valuable input on how to improve the marathon as a member of the race committee.

 

 

            The race started promptly at 6:05am on Sunday as participants in the half marathon joined the marathon runners at the start. Approximately 3000 runners crossed the 1-mile long Don Tileman Bridge over the Fox River before runners doing the half marathon turned around near the 7-mile mark for the return to downtown Green Bay.

            The course crossed back over the Fox River on another bridge south of the city during the 10th mile. It was at this point that I told Emily I would first greet her as I rode my bike the length of the Fox River Trail to this logical viewpoint.

            The night before the marathon we discussed the distinct possibility of unfavorable weather. Emily suggested that she would change her race strategy if the hot, hazy, and humid conditions predicted were realized. For local Green Bay runners, the choices consisted of staying in bed, going swimming, or switching their race to the shorter half marathon distance. None of these choices seemed appealing to Emily who had trained for 3 months with a goal of running a 6:40 pace that would hopefully end with a 2:55 or 2:56 marathon finish. When we awoke to a 70 degree temperature at 5am, oppressive humidity (70 dew point), a cloudless sky, and predicted temperatures in the mid 80’s at the finish, Emily scrapped her plan of running for her planned time, and decided to run the first 10 miles at 7 minute pace and go from there. This decision in retrospect, turned out to be a correct one not only for Emily but also for the entire marathon field. For as I witnessed, runners who stayed with their original time goals, who ran brave during the early stages of the race, ultimately were brought to their knees on a sweltering summer morning in Green Bay.

            This included the first 4 Kenyan runners who flew by the 10 mile mark together in stride, with a 300 meter lead over the fifth place runner, Andrey Kunetsov, a 44 year old elite runner from Russia with a 2:12 marathon PR. Two of the four Kenyan runners had faster PR’s but their ambitious early pace sealed their ultimate fate. Just before the 18-mile mark, after one Kenyan runner had already dropped out with heat cramps, a second Kenyan collapsed due to severe dehydration. I happened to be waiting there since it was just before the start of the Fox River Bike Trail portion of the course. He remained motionless for minutes (it seemed like hours) until a medical team poured water over his head and helped him into the ambulance. Fortunately it was later reported that he would be OK. One by one, the Kenyon runners faded as Kunetsov won the race going away during the final mile. He was later quoted as saying that the Kenyon runners went out too fast. “Today it was too hot. Not possible to run fast today. I know myself, and if I run with them, I kill myself I think.”

            The women’s winner was also from Russia, though she now lives and trains in Florida. Tatiana Titova credited her training climate for helping her with the heat. The 36 year old had a 2:31 marathon PR, and had won last year’s Green Bay Marathon in 2:35 under warm conditions. This year she could only better 2:47 by 5 seconds. Still, it was good enough for her second straight victory as her nearest competitor was a Polish master’s runner who finished in 2:49:26.  Denuta Bartosek also complained of the heat and was well off her PR of 2:31. Local Green Bay runner Carol Le Gate perhaps ran the smartest race as she started conservatively and finished strongly in finishing third. Her time of 2:52:50 was nearly 6 minutes off her 2002 Boston Marathon time of 2:47 but her 3rd place was her highest finish in her 3 local marathon tries.

 

 

            Emily’s conservative start allowed her to run an even pace throughout the race as she ran 3:03 or 6:59 minute pace for the entire race. At the 11-mile mark she was in 16th place in the women’s field and moved up to 10th by the entrance to the Fox River Trail at 18 miles. She passed her final female competitor at mile 25, and finished a solid 7th place women and 39th overall. From the 11-mile mark forward, Emily estimated that she moved up about three-dozen places and no one passed her.

                There is an old saying that time only counts when you are in prison but most marathon runners would disagree. From Boston qualifying standards to personal bests, runners do pay a lot of attention to the ticks of their watches. Some days dictate that one would be best served by turning off the watch, not to run for time…but to run to survive!

            We picked up our disgruntled Hamlet the following day and spent a week in the Upper Michigan Peninsula visiting the Porcupine Wilderness State Park, Copper Harbor, and Pictured Rocks National Park. We did quite a bit of hiking (walking not running) and Hamlet went swimming several times each day in the chilly waters of Lake Superior.

            Due to the extreme weather conditions this year, and above normal heat for all 3 running of the Green Bay Marathon, race organizers are looking into options that would allow the race to be moved forward a few weeks to early June. Also under consideration, is a change in the course to allow for a dramatic finish in Lambeau Field, home of the legendary Green Bay Packers.

            The Green Bay community appears committed to improving their image as a place for other world-class events, besides football. If they can get a break from the weather, I believe the Green Bay Marathon will continue to grow and provide an attractive late spring marathon option.