It was a chilly morning, with a possibility of rain in the forecast. Reminded of the conditions at the Red Rock Canyon Marathon where I was severely under-dressed, I over-dressed a bit this time with my tights, a hooded shirt over my long-sleeve running shirt, and the cap over my beanie hat.
Starting out at the WVU Coliseum and running the first mile along Patteson Avenue, with beautiful campus buildings on either side of the road, I hit the first mile after the curve onto Van Voorhis in the Evansdale section of town with an 8:23 and that felt about right. And then the turns began.
The next two miles (7:57, 7:53) were through the residential Suncrest neighborhood, with modest but lovely houses and startlingly narrow streets. I took a left onto Laurel, continued on Elmhurst, went straight on Parkview, turned right on Rotary, left on Cambridge, left on Kenmore, right on Parkview, left on Mulberry, then left on University to leave that neighborhood and head into Star City.
Turning right on Broadway and right on Fairfield, I headed into another neighborhood, making a left on Junior, right on Aspen, and left on Collins Ferry Road for the fifth mile (8:06).
A right onto Greendale, a left on Woodland, and a right on Eastern started me up an ascent of about 250 feet over the next five miles. I still felt good, chugging along while listening to the Phish show from 30 years ago to the day, but now the work was going to start. The forecasted rain had been little more than a drizzle thus far, and occasionally, it seemed like the sun might peek through, but alas, it stayed away. And that was a good thing, because I was warming up, and the sun might have been too much with the way I was dressed.
Left on Aspen, right on Dogwood, left on Killarney, right on Van Voorhis - I had already flipped through several pages of my turn-by-turn notes by now and only just hit the sixth mile (8:10) - and I was back at the same intersection I was in the second mile, this time turning left to head east on Chestnut Ridge Road, away from the crazy zig-zag loop of the first 10K of the course and finally, blessedly, along one road (State Route 705) for the next couple of miles or so.
Those miles were uphill on a major roadway (8:20, 8:50), but at least I could put the notes away for a while and enjoy the Phish show. And even then, a main road in West Virginia on a Sunday...not exactly the worst thing in the world when you are used to running in busy suburban New Jersey.
A right turn onto U.S. Route 119 (Mileground Road) took me into mile 9 (8:36) and a right fork onto College Avenue (with no sign - good thing I did my research ahead of time!) took me down a long, steep downhill back to the college campus for my third and final sub-8 mile of the course (7:43). A left turn on University Avenue followed by a left on Willey and a right on High Street took me into the downtown.
A left onto Pleasant brought me out of the downtown, over Deckers Creek and into the South Park section of town. A right on Cobun Avenue and a quick left onto Grand Street sent me up a hill into mile 11 (8:24) and I continued through this pleasant residential neighborhood with rights on Wilson Avenue and Allison Street. A left turn onto the brick road of Wagner, which was closed off to non-local traffic, had me marveling at how the homes here were not large but absolutely beautiful.
A left onto Dorsey Avenue past a cemetery led me to a sharp left turn with an extremely sharp (but short) uphill on Waitman Street and a right on Simpson Street to the mile 12 mark (8:44). I took a right on Euclid Avenue, a left on Ash Street, a right on Wilson Avenue (making a weird sort-of out-and-back, sort-of loop in that mile), and a left on Kingwood Avenue to finally get a downhill again. Of particular note while winding through this part of the neighborhood were the Biden/Harris, Black Lives Matter and Gay Pride flags at the houses - evidence of a blue-leaning college town in a mostly red state.
The constant turning finally abated again after a left on Cobun, a quick right on S. Walnut Street and a right on Brockway Avenue, which featured lots of rental houses, presumably for students at the college. After mile 13 (8:24), there was a quick, steep uphill, sharp left turn onto Rogers Avenue, then a left onto Valley Crossing and a sharp left turn onto the Decker's Creek Trail.
The trail was a pleasant change of scenery, off the road, and through some park land that featured murals, community gardens, a playground, a skate park, the 14th mile mark (8:23), and thankfully, a break from any hills.
A left off the trail onto Decker's Creek Boulevard and a quick right put me back on a busy road, though. Staying on Earl Core Road through mile 15 (8:10), I felt like I was in a pretty good groove, having kept the pace mostly steady.
Taking a right on Eljadid Street, which curved into Carnegie Street, I crossed the creek and got on the trail again, making a right to head back in the direction from which I had come - but not for long. After hitting the 16 mile mark (8:14, still in that groove), I made a left on Green Bag Road, where I could put my directions in my pocket again, as I would be on this road for almost three miles. This road was mostly businesses, industrial-type areas, and some residential townhome communities. There was not much traffic, but it was 45-mph traffic.
During those three miles, I started to get that late-teen-mileage fatigue. I had finished the first set of that Phish show, so now I was listening to my buddy's band, the Kimballs, to keep my spirits up. Miles 17 through 19 were definitely slower (8:28, 9:20 up a hill, and 8:31), but all I needed to do was try to maintain for the rest of the course. With each mile, I kept calculating what my slowest pace could be for the remainder of the route to still finish in less than four hours. With a 2:38:57 cumulative time thus far, I had 1:21:02 to do 7.2 miles, which meant I could do 11-minute miles and still get the sub-4.
A right turn on M-Tec Drive, a left on Mississippi Avenue, and a right on East Parkway, took me around White Park, which had sports fields, trails, a tennis court, and an indoor hockey rink where kids were congregating for a game. A left around the park on Hite Street took me uphill and toward the neighborhood where I had been eight miles earlier, with a left on Dorsey near that cemetery. But a left on Barrickman and a quick left on Madigan Avenue at the 20-mile mark (9:23) took me in a loop to a left on Mississippi and back to the park.
Gloria found me in this area and it was nice to see her pull up alongside me to chat for a while. There was no traffic on these residential side roads, so she stayed next to me and talked me through the low 20s which are usually the toughest miles. With a 9:12 for mile 21, it was a right on M-Tec and a right to continue along Green Bag, where I had to say goodbye to Gloria, knowing it would only be five more miles until I could see my wonderful wife again.
The 22nd mile was uphill again but I knew I had enough time to take it slowly (9:35), considering I really had no choice at this point but to do so anyway. Things leveled off for a while as I turned right on busy Don Knotts Boulevard for the home stretch into Morgantown proper and one last sub-9 mile (8:32). The fatigue was really setting in with the 24th mile (9:31), turning into ache, but not quite hitting the wall. The road reminded me of parts of U.S. Highway 46 or State Route 10 in New Jersey, with car dealerships and small shopping plazas, as it eventually turned into University Avenue.
A left at a busy fork put me on Beechurst Avenue, where many of the buildings were WVU campus facilities, letting me know that I was on the home stretch. At one point, I got worried because I was in the 25th mile (9:00) and I could not see the coliseum (finish line) yet. But that was likely due to the fact that I had one more hill to climb - a 250-foot incline that felt like a freaking mountain by then. I put Yes' "Fly From Here" suite in my headphones and got to work, chugging up the shoulder of this four-lane highway like the Little Engine That Increasingly Could Not.
It was a good thing that it only lasted that 26th mile (10:28) because there was no way I could have survived much more of that. And I could not help but think that if it was a warm, sunny September day, it would have slammed me into the wall and forced me to walk it.
Finally, cresting the hill, the coliseum was in sight, and I turned into the parking lot for the final fraction of a mile as the music climaxed in my ears and Gloria cheered me into the finish, just as it started to rain. My finish time was 3:45:17 and with my speedy days now long behind me, that is good enough for me.
A road trip with my wife to West Virginia and a scenic sub-4 marathon - that makes for a good weekend in these middle-aged days.
