Race Recap: Starved Rock Country Marathon

Marathon-a-Month Challenge: Month 9

Not every destination race has to require plane travel! For this race, I drove a little over 2 hours to Ottawa, Illinois for the Starved Rock Country Marathon. Though it was an early morning, I opted to drive to the race morning-of economizing my time and my travel fund for other races.

The heat of mid-morning meant that, after the first half of the race, things got quite a bit warmer, and quite a bit slower as a result. Having just run Illinois Marathon 2 weeks prior, this race wasn't intended to be a fast one, but the heat and the hills on-course made it feel even slower. Much of the course was open road without shade ensuring all runners were coated in a thin layer of salty electrolyte residue by the finish. On-course Gatorade was helpful, but many runners were walking due to cramping by the race finish when temperatures reached the mid-80s.

The third Illinois marathon in a row, I started thinking about how each race is unique and what sets them apart. Starved Rock Country Marathon had similarities to Rend Lake Marathon like:

• Both are recreational areas
• Take place adjacent to a natural body of water
• They have hiking trails nearby
• Small town support
• Minimal course and mile markers
• Looped courses

By contrast, the Illinois Marathon is huge with an entire weekend of festivities including a race expo. A small/medium sized race in comparison to the Indianapolis Monumental Marathon, for example, the Illinois Marathon has nearly every benefit of a larger race, but scaled to a smaller community and with a very personal touch to everything. Having all of these options so close to home is means that runners can choose the type of racing they prefer and/or there are many types of races to support with your racing budget.

All-in-all, Starved Rock Country Marathon was a good option for an affordable and close-by race.

XOXO,

T