Bass Pro Backstory

I planned to run the Bass Pro Marathon when I scheduled my fall 2021 season.  I love running two marathons off of one training cycle, and it was a great fit as a B race 5 weeks after my A race in Milwaukee.  Bass Pro starts less than 20 minutes from my house and generally has perfect weather.  I've run the full 3 times before (the half also 3 times), and each time I have loved participating in my hometown race.  If I don't race it, I spectate it, because it's always fun to be involved!

After the warm, humid day that was Milwaukee, I started thinking that I could try to PR at Bass Pro, or at least run in the high-2:40s.  The course isn't fantastic, but it is also not bad (mediocre would be a good adjective here).  When I ran my current PR on a great course I had an 18 mph headwind to contend with for most of the second half of the race, so I thought maybe I could squeak by if the weather was perfect and I found someone to pace with.  Bass Pro is also small, so running solo is quite likely!

Then I went on a mission to try to get my friends Andrew and Colin to run the marathon.  They both didn't get the opportunity to show their fall 2021 marathon fitness due to warm races, at Chicago and Prairie Fire.  Andrew was interested but unsure if he could make it work, and Colin was already entered in the Bass Pro half and wanted to stick with that distance (he also has a big half PR in him at the moment!).

A couple of weeks after my "I'm going to knock Bass Pro out of the park" crusade, I started feeling like I didn't want to do that after all.  That's a rare feeling for me so left me concerned, and I figured if I didn't want to run it, I shouldn't.  I hadn't registered yet so it was truly nothing lost if I didn't.  However, I soon realized I had another option: to run it without going for a time in the 2:40s, also including pacing with one of my running buddies, Casey.

God's plan must have been to lead me to this, because once I decided that's what I was doing, I grew very excited about the race!  It's really fun to run your hometown marathon!  Andrew also decided 2 days before the marathon that he didn't want to run it.  Had I been gunning for a PR, that would have really thrown me, but in the current scenario it was fine.

So, current status = happy with the plan, but if all of those other things hadn't happened I wouldn't have been.  I hope to marathon PR-chase again soon, but tomorrow is not the day for that.  Tomorrow I'll chase that runners high and podium spot, but mostly just enjoy the magic that is the Springfield running community!