Missoula Marathon
Missoula, Montana
Sunday, July 13, 2008

Sunday, July 13, 2008 was a wonderful day for a Marathon in Missoula, Montana. The temperature varied from 58 to 75 while I did the race with little wind and sunny skies. The course is almost flat except along Big Flat Road which contained a challenging hill of about 1 mile in length and some small less challenging hills for another mile before a some what steep descent of about three-fourths of a mile. The course followed country roads for the first 15 miles then went along shaded city roads for the rest of the race. There were water-PowerAde stations every two miles and plenty of enthusiastic volunteers. The roads were open but the traffic was sparse. The course was designed to eliminate conflicts with traffic and had police directing at the few intersections that had any traffic. This was the second year for the event. I did it both years and it was a good race last year and an even better race this year. I had a wonderful time each year.

When you travel, you never know who you might run into. Many events bring famous runners and writers and you expect to meet them. My last two races were different. I met two Olympic Gold medalist from the 1972 Munich Olympics. In Kona I met Frank Shorter who is usually an invited celebrity; however, in Kona he is a local resident who decided to run the half marathon as a regular runner. He finished just under 2 hours. In Missoula I picked up a local paper and saw Mark Spitz in the sports section. He won seven swimming gold medals in Munich. The paper said he was going to make an appearance at a local electronics store which turned out to be next door to my motel. I could not miss out on an opportunity to see Mark again. I originally met Mark in 1972 at the Big Ten Swimming Championships in Columbus, Ohio in the spring before the Olympics. I was a race official and he was swimming for Indiana under Doc Councilman. When I saw Mark Saturday, July 12, at the electronics store, I told him I still have the Life Magazine featuring him at the Olympics and explained that I had met him in 1972 in Columbus. He talked with me for a little while about his swimming days under Doc and autographed a picture of himself for me.