Ten minutes after breathing, “Never again!” after last year’s Madison Marathon, I realized that I was already plotting my return for 2008. Six hundred sixteen miles later, I found myself standing on the start line on Capitol Square once again. I was both more and less confident this time; I was better trained and conditioned, but I also knew how bad it could get.

Much like last year, the first 10 miles were pretty easy going (mile 2 and mile 8), with only bumps instead of hills. Once we got into downtown, between miles 10 and 11, we hit some nasty hills on Gorham St. Fatigue actually seemed to set in earlier this year, but I pushed through it. At mile 13, I wasn’t smiling anymore.

The weather had forecast thunderstorms, but we got pretty lucky. The temperature stayed pretty comfortable, the rain stayed away, and the sky was overcast. Still, the sweat was pouring out of everyone. You’ll see an older guy in some of the pictures with no shirt on. By mile 12, he smelled like sour milk. I kept getting stuck behind him.

Around mile 15, some guy was passing out little bottles of water. Some runners grabbed one, squirted themselves down, and chucked it. I actually carried mine for about two miles, taking a blast now and then. This stretch, along Monroe Street, was what killed me last year. It’s a long, slow, climb up a hill. I’ve been doing a lot of hill training this spring, and I guess it paid off - I made it up and over the hill without stopping. Victory! In fact, my first walk was an extended water station walk at about 16.5 miles.

My second challenge was the upcoming Arboretum. It’s a hilly three miles through the forest without much in the way of crowd support. My quads cramped up on me in this section last year and made the whole chunk a nightmare. Joy was able to make it to the entrance, right about mile 18, to cheer me on before I vanished until mile 21.

My quads came close a few times, but I cursed them out and that seemed to help. You’d be surprised at how many runners are cursing at or having conversations with body parts when no one is around. “Don’t you fucking dare cramp!” “Keep moving you bitch ass ankle!” “I hate you, I hate you, and when this is over I’m going to cut you off if you don’t knock this crap off right now!” And my favorite, “Fuck you, arm.”

We did have a few spectators in the middle of the Arboretum. As I came to the top of a hill, trying to walk out a quad cramp that was starting, a lady said, “come on, Ed, you’re going downhill!”

“I know,” I said, “I’ve got a cramp,” trying to point at my leg to explain why I wasn’t running.

She looked puzzled. “No, I mean, you’re literally going to go down a hill now!”

Oh.

Joy caught me on my way out, right about mile 21, and I tossed my sunglasses to her. One of the goals I had set for myself was to try and reach 7 miles per hour for at least the first three hours. At 21, my time was 3:04, so I was pretty close. I had five miles to go in the next 56 minutes if I wanted to break four hours. Could I do it, though? On a good day, where I hadn’t done 21 miles first, no problem.

Around 23.5 miles, Joy caught me at our last meeting point before the end. I was really starting to feel beat down, but I knew I didn’t have that much left. I was still pushing for sub-4, but it was looking to be really close.

Finally, I saw the last hill. Maybe a half mile remained. I had to walk it though; the incline was more than I could handle at that point. But once I was at the top, I gave it everything I had. I used that hill to gain speed and just kept pushing it. I saw Joy as I rounded the final corner to the finish line. I raised my arms in victory as I crossed, hoping that this year, I wouldn’t have a totally lame finisher pic. I checked my watch.

Damn. 4:02. So close. But hey, a 13-minute improvement over last year. And while I won’t be breaking any times at the Grand Island Marathon in July, I might have a shot during Akron this September. I really wasn’t all that concerned. It was bagel time.

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