Sabershooter's Memento Mori

Blue Ridge Half Marathon 2012

30 April 2012 Herschel W. Mickles

If all goes well I hope to complete the Delaware Marathon in May which would make the 12th state in which I have completed a 26.2-mile race. I like to complete a warm-up race in the weeks leading up to a full marathon. Perfect timing and location made the Blue Ridge Half Marathon the logical choice as a training race. As the name implies, the event is held in the Blue Ridge Mountains, specifically in and around Roanoke, Virginia.

They offer a full marathon that goes out onto the Blue Ridge Parkway, but for now I like to save 26.2-mile events for states that I have not yet completed. Besides that, with two mountain ascents this particular race is also known as the toughest road race in the United States. The half marathon course takes you up Mill Mountain, while the full marathon also throws Roanoke Mountain into the mix and rounds it out with plenty of rolling hills.

I have gotten in some decent miles this season with a few solid long runs. I had an 18-mile training run the weekend before the Blue Ridge Half Marathon, so I felt prepared for a good day on the 13.1-mile course. The race starts in downtown Roanoke then quickly moves to the climb up Mill Mountain. By the 2nd mile I was unexpectedly running out of air. It is a rare occurrence for me to do any heavy breathing during a marathon, but this climb really had me huffing it.

Mardi Gras Full Marathon 2011 – Hey Big Man, Let Me Hold a Dollar!

22 February 2011 Herschel W. Mickles

I recently completed the Mardi Gras Marathon; making Louisiana the 10th state where I have ran a full 26.2 mile race. I traveled to New Orleans for the sole purpose of enjoying the marathon and marking Louisiana off my list. It was an unavoidable journey. I had a great time, but frankly I have no plans of returning any time soon.

Over the years I have read many stories about New Orleans that made the thought of going there of my own free will seem highly unlikely. In fact, if I assembled a list of all the places that I never want to go, NOLA would fall somewhere between a cholera-infested town on the Horn of Africa and Hell in the middle of an ice cream shortage. After my trip, I’m not sure there is a discernible difference between the three.

Rock-N-Roll Half Marathon 2009

09 September 2009 Herschel W. Mickles

Since I happened to be at Virginia Beach at the right time, I decided to complete the Rock-N-Roll Half Marathon. It was the second time I have participated in this event, but the course has changed from when I ran it in 2005. The old course took advantage of the entire boardwalk, but now runners only get to see a small portion of the beach just before crossing the finish line. I prefer the old course. Even though the long straightaway was brutal because the finish could be seen from over a mile a way, you still had the unique experience of running alongside the ocean.

It is difficult to believe that I have been running races for four years now. Eight full marathons, twelve half-marathons, and thousands of training miles in between have greatly enhanced my inner-strength, and I like to pretend that I am only slightly more eccentric than when I started.

Roanoke Canal Half Marathon 2010 - Inaugural

05 May 2010 Herschel W. Mickles

This race was promoted as being a trail race without the trail. A mixture of gravel and paved paths was to give the runners a smooth, road-like experience unlike the rigorous terrain of traditional trail races. I had never run a trail race; unless you count the all-night 40km land navigation challenge I did as a young cavalryman, but that involved a lot of high-crawling. I have no idea how this race stacked up compared to other trail runs, but I do have experience with road races, and this most certainly was not comparable to one of those by any means.

Days of rain capped by an overnight gully-washer made the course a muddy mess. Some portions were so slippery that even a slow walk could quickly put you on your third point of contact. I came very close to falling on several occasions and I saw many of the runners around me hit the ground. I think it would have been a very scenic course, had my eyes not been focused on the muddy ground as I attempted to avoid certain calamity. The path was so narrow and treacherous that it made passing other participants frustrating and quite risky. Once or twice per mile there would be a small bridge spanning one of the countless ravines along the river. Besides offering a safe opportunity to get past other runners, it was also a chance to shake off some of the three inches of mud clinging to our shoes.

As we made our way out along the river, a familiar song reached my ears. What a welcome sound to hear a chorus of spring peepers heralding the season of rebirth; even more so this time than in recent years. My one and only outdoor training location has been covered by a glossy layer of frozen snow for the first two months of the year, and I couldn’t be happier to see winter start to lose its grip. Finally, this frigid snow-encrusted winter has come to an end.

Had it not been so wet I think this race would have been a very pleasant experience, but given the ridiculous amount of mud it was quite miserable. I can safely say that this was my first and last trail race. I’ll gladly stick to my joint-jarring asphalt and concrete.

Hatfield & McCoy Marathon for Maniacs

22 June 2009 Herschel W. Mickles

Proverbs 21:19 tells us, “It is better to dwell in the wilderness, than with a contentious and angry woman.” In the last report we bore witness to that fact, but it did not sit well with some readers. I can whimsically recount the experience of being sprayed by a skunk, but that does not mean I hate the skunk, blame the skunk, or wish for the skunk to die. At my age, the blood still runs hot on many topics, but women no longer make the list. To the contrary, references were soaked with listless indifference; the type of indifference known only to seasoned men who have become immune to the childish fretting of fishwives.

More Articles...