Watch video from Sunday's marathon in MissoulaBefore the sun cleared the eastern mountains, they had dispersed into little knots and streams of bright-colored polyester. They passed the crop sprinklers and surprised ponies without a sound, the antithesis of the noisy throngs waiting for them at the finish line in downtown Missoula.
All together, 1,306 athletes took part in the 26.2-mile marathon and the 13.1-mile half marathon on Sunday. While the fastest long runners finished in less than three hours, most took between four and five hours to master the course. The final contestant crossed the line after roughly seven hours and 15 minutes.
Running partners Roni Lett and Rachael Morawski were double-checking their iPods in the starting area, making sure their playlists were cued up. Their favorite artists included the Eagles, Neko Case, Fleetwood Mac and the White Stripes.
“She gets excited when she hears Billy Idol running up the hills,” Morawski said of Lett. “I usually run the first hour and a half without music. I like to see the scenery and talk to friends. It's in the middle where you need music. It rejuvenates you.”
A few feet away, James Lee, of Boston, looked like a samurai in running shoes. Like many runners, he wore a black garbage bag over his torso to keep warm in the chill. Its shoulders flared out like Japanese armor.
“I can just tear it off when I'm ready to run,” he said. “This will be my 74th marathon. I hope to run in all 50 states. So far, I've got 32 states and 26 countries.”
Lee started running marathons in 1999. A restaurant owner, he said he weighed more than 200 pounds when he took up roadwork. Now he's down to 163.
Like the dawn, the 6 a.m. starting time crept up on everyone. Suddenly, the race announcer was calling “30 seconds to start.” On cue, nearly a dozen people scrambled out of the parking lot restrooms.
“It's the running of the Porta-Potties,” someone yelled as the late runners scrambled for position. By 6:03, most of the pack was across the railroad tracks on Frenchtown's east side and off.
The first 10 miles passed through the bucolic but lonely farms and subdivisions of Mullan Road. At the Kona Ranch Road intersection, 10 green-shirted volunteers waited for their charges to arrive.
“In our instructions, they told us to watch for people in distress,” volunteer Scott Rouse said. “But if you've ever been to any running event, they all look like they're in distress.”
“We don't ask if they're hurting,” added Nathan Howard. “I can see how that might not be very motivational: ‘You look like crap - you should leave.' ”
Howard had mobilized many members of the Capt. John Mullan Neighborhood homeowners' association to help out or cheer on. Throughout the course, residents lined streets to watch and encourage the racers.
Mike Dawson was on his bike to cheer on his wife, Laurel, at the Kona Ranch Road checkpoint.
“I couldn't talk her out of it,” he said. “She's an animal.”
The Dawsons are also in the middle of a bike tour of the Lewis and Clark trail from Portland, Ore., to St. Louis. They'd started July 2, and made it to Missoula by Friday so Laurel could have a day to rest up before switching transportation modes.
“We're all self-contained with the bikes for camping,” Mike said. “But we're treating ourselves to a motel for a couple of nights to do this.”
All half- and full marathon runners wore Velcro straps with computer chips around their ankles. The devices automatically triggered a timer when each runner crossed a sensor at the starting line. Another sensor at the finish recorded the total time and beamed the result to a computer, allowing for precise race rankings.
“We wanted to add more residential areas this year,” said race director Jennifer Straughan. “That gets us more cheering, more sprinklers for people to run through, and more aid stations. At first we thought we should run along the bike paths, but they're out of the way. They couldn't do what we wanted to do. So we relied on the people of Missoula to help us, and they did.”
Help came from some other unofficial quarters as well. Last year, a few members of the national Marathon Maniacs running club participated, and loved the experience. Straughan said they spread the word to their friends, bringing nearly 40 folks from far away to Missoula.
Mother Nature helped, too, and not just by providing a pretty day. Most big-city marathons take place in the spring or fall, when the humidity on the coasts and Great Plains is down. It's hard to find a marathon in comfortable conditions in the middle of summer.
“We did an analysis of the conditions last year,” said finish line medical leader Dr. Eric Kress. “It was 95 degrees, but only 17 percent humidity. The Chicago Marathon last year had 80 degrees and 80 percent humidity, and it was way more dangerous. In low humidity, you can evaporate and cool off much better. So the worst day in Montana to run a race was still pretty safe.”
Just to be sure, ham radio operators from the Hellgate Amateur Radio Club staked out 11 communications points along the route. Long stretches between Frenchtown and Missoula have spotty cell phone coverage, so the radios filled the gaps.
Medical tent attendance was sparse for the first four hours of the marathon. Down in Caras Park, a team of physical therapists and massage therapists had set up tables to rub down cramping muscles. Although the line for care was long, most runners appeared bright-eyed and sure-footed while waiting.
Ironically, the pleasant conditions may have contributed to slightly slower times this year. Men's winner Elliot Bassett of Missoula crossed the Higgins Avenue bridge with an unofficial time of 2 hours, 44 minutes. He was nearly five minutes ahead of the pack at the 10-mile point and kept that distance for the rest of the route.
“If I was chasing someone, I could have squeezed out another 40 seconds,” Bassett said.
Women's winner Jamie Schuster, a Kalispell teacher, came in at 3 hours, 15 minutes.
“It wasn't a PR (personal record) for me, but I'm not disappointed,” she said. “It's been three years since I've run one, so this was tough. But in the morning, the sun wasn't out yet and it was really pretty. It was beautiful. I loved the course.”
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