Erie Marathon at Presque Isle Race Report

This past weekend I travelled up to Erie, PA for the Erie Marathon at Presque Isle. I really can’t say anything bad about Erie or about the race. My goal heading into the weekend at a bare minimum was rather simple; qualify for the 2013 Boston Marathon.

As I posted in my post on Friday evening, the desire to run Boston again next year came about when I visited Wellesley over the summer. Driving along the marathon course made me want to run again. The only problem was that I didn’t have a qualifying race recent enough for next year’s race. The registration period for the Boston Marathon began last week and continued this week with their new rolling process admitting the fastest runners first. To be on the safe side, in case the race fills this week, I knew I had to run a race before this week to qualify. A quick search led me to the Erie Marathon and I soon signed up. 

Erie Marathon at Presque Isle Preview

It's Friday evening, I'm lying in a hotel room in Erie, PA ready for what will be my 4th marathon on Sunday morning. The decision to run a marathon in mid-September came suddenly about 9 weeks ago when I visited Wellesley, MA for the first time since the Boston Marathon back in April. Driving parts of the marathon course gave me the urge to run Boston again next year but there was just one problem, I don't have a Boston qualifying time in a race recent enough to count for next year's event! That meant I needed to run another marathon (well) in order to get into the 2013 Boston Marathon. I was, and still am, planning to make a concerted effort to break my PR of 2:51:03 at the Kiawah Island Marathon on December 8th, but there's a very good chance that Boston registration will close before then. The two-week registration period began last Monday and is essentially a rolling process for those who have qualified by more than x-minutes faster than their qualifying standard for the first week before being open to all qualified runners in the second week. If the field has not been filled by the end of the second week, then registration remains open on a first come, first served basis until the race is filled. To be on the safe side I chose this weekend as the last realistic chance I had to qualify and be guaranteed to get into Boston provided I run under my qualifying standard of 3:05:00.

So that leaves me here, in a hotel room in Erie, 9 weeks later.

Recap of Recent Races

It's been a long time since my last race report back in May. I've tried to keep my results page up-to-date since then but I just haven't had the chance to write up any race reports. Here's a summary of my results in the main races since I took 3rd in the Shamrock Duathlon:

May 28th - Jim Fixx Memorial Day 5 Miler - 31:58 - 12th place, 2nd AG

This race was hot. I wanted to use it to get back into running fast over longer distances before Rev3 the following week but it turned into a sufferfest after about a mile and a half. As I had done towards the end of the Shamrock Duathlon, I almost threw up - but this time I was only a mile into the race. My best guess is that I was slightly under the weather for both races and simply couldn't handle being pushed to the limit.

June 2nd - Rev3 Quassy Olympic - DNF (crashed on bike)

The Rev3 Quassy Olympic race was supposed to be a longer race to get in some racing before hitting the local sprint circuit hard over the summer. I came out of the water with a reasonable swim for me around 28:20. Rain had intermittently been soaking the course throughout the morning but I came out of transition confident and ready to fly on the bike. Less than a mile into the bike, before I had even got my feet into my shoes, my race was over. I hit the deck at the first turn and sliced open my left knee. I wanted to continue, especially having never DNF'd a race before, but a second look at the gash in my knee left no doubt as to what the smart decision was. I was transported back to the medical tent where the volunteers were extremely nice. One doctor even managed to put the 3 necessary stitches in my knee under the tent in the cold. Later that afternoon I snapped the picture to the right. I was fortunate to only require 3 stitches but it would still take me out of being able to run for a little while.