Today I ran the second annual Eau Claire Marathon in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. This was marathon number 15 for me and I set a new PR by 25 minutes. I averaged an 8:42 pace and finished with an official chip time of 3:47:49. Here were the splits:

7:58, 7:42, 7:53, 7:51, 7:56, 7:48, 8:01, 8:09, 8:13, 7:42, 8:09, 8:31, 8:30
8:35, 8:34, 9:01, 8:59, 9:08, 9:24, 8:50, 9:21, 9:22, 9:59, 9:54, 10:18, 10:09

That time was good enough to place 60th out of 230 marathon finishers. The half marathon had 1234 finishers, while the two mile run had 207. Full marathon results can be found here.

The course was interesting. There were some very beautiful sections, including a four mile stretch on a dirt trail through a forest and multiple river crossings. Some other stretches were just there to get you from point A to point B (which is fine and couldn’t really be avoided). The only thing I disliked was the nasty hill that ended right at mile 26 – pure evil.

The weather was a mixed bag. The temperature was good, but the sun was out the entire time. Winds picked up over the course of the morning and provided a challenge in many spots (although it was a cool breeze and helped offset the hot sunshine).

One last note – the course volunteers and Eau Claire police officers were all wonderful. Even though the field wasn’t very big, they really treated all the runners like royalty.