Bernie Brosnan's Field Notes from the Martian Marathon in Detroit Michigan
March 2002

I am proud to announce that I finished the Martian Marathon (which of course is and always will be the goal). I did not however achieve my time goal of going sub-4. In fact, I missed it by a long shot. I finished in 4:39 (and change). I am not dwelling too much on the finish time though, just the finish.

The weather was about crap, the only thing that was missing was the rain/snow. At least we did not get that. The wind was 20-30mph out of the west, so you can imagine what it was like in the Hines Drive "wind tunnel."

Undaunted, Bill Terski an I set off together. We made it to the 1/2 turnaround in really good time with the wind at our backs. I continued on and made a new friend named Rob. We kept each other at a good pace until about mile 18.

At 18 my left knee began to hurt a little. I have never had knee pain before and it was more than a little unsettling. By mile 19 my left quad- was cramping (perhaps from compensating for the knee pain). Rob was nice enough to slow the pace down for me but at mile 20 I sent him on his way. I didn't want to be responsible for ruining his race. At the mile 21 aid station I stopped and had 1 1/2 bananas (potassium) hoping that would help to ease the cramping. By mile 22 I was at a run/walk. At 23 the cramping had stopped but the damage was done. I would have to run/walk the rest of the way. I was glad to see Roman just after 24. He went the rest of the distance with me.

I learned several things on the course. First, I can go the distance. Second, I am going to have to better prepare my self mentally for the Ironman in September. And third, the marathon is an achievement all on its own, not just the last part of the Ironman (a trap I fell into). Oh yeah, March is a stupid time to have a marathon.

Talk to you later,
Bernie

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