What else to do 4 weeks after your marathon than run another marathon?!

I planned to run the Bass Pro Marathon as my 2016 B marathon even before I picked my A marathon!  I ran, and won, this marathon in 2015 and 2010, and both times I thoroughly enjoyed the race and running familiar streets.  I love the hometown feel, and there is a lot to be said for sleeping in your own bed the night before a marathon!

This race ended up lining up nicely with Prairie Fire, because being 4 weeks apart I knew I could use Prairie Fire as my longest long run for Bass Pro, I would have long enough to recover between the races, and also I would get a second chance at a sub-3:00 marathon if Prairie Fire didn't go well.  I think that I'll probably run Bass Pro every year I can from here on, but likely never as my A race because it's not a wonderful race for a good time.  The organization is A+++, but being a smaller race you are likely going to be running a lot of the race alone if you're running under probably 3:20ish, and even more so the faster you run.  The course is about as flat as you can get in the Ozarks, but still has around 550 ft of elevation gain, and also a million turns (a friend told me he counted 70-some from the course map!).  I lose rhythm turning so much, and also it's tricky to run all of those tangents so you inevitably pick up extra distance.  The final 2 miles of the race also has a lot of incline, so in those miles where it's already a struggle to stay on pace, you have to fight the elevation as well (even when I ran it as a training run in 2015 or when I've run the half I haven't been able to close with a fantastic final 2 miles; when I raced it in 2010 stayed on pace to the end, but I would have definitely had a better negative split sans inclines).

Since I got my sub-3:00 at Prairie Fire, I considered dropping to the half at Bass Pro, which was also a thought all along.  However, the more I thought about it, the more I wanted to run the full.  Although I would like to go for a half PR, the half course is also not amazing and I just had so much fun running this marathon both times I did it that I really want to do it again.  Plus, Prairie Fire wasn't painful enough to scare me away from another 26.2 within a month, so forward I go!

When I signed up for 2016 (with the early registration/first 100 entrants super discount, wahoo!), I also hoped I might have a change to win the race again.  However, our local Olympic Trials qualifier is also running this year, so I don't have a chance for the win.  She is fast, sweet, and humble, and I'm fine with finishing behind her; however, my main disappointment is that I won't have the lead female cyclist with me during the race like I have in the past!  I sure liked those cyclists along during those lonely miles.  But I guess after running about 20 miles alone at Prairie Fire, I know that I can do it again if I have to.  I know a couple of men who should be close to my pace so am going to try to coordinate when them, though.

My biggest excitement about this race is that my coach told me that he worked out the "magic" to get me recovered from Prairie Fire and hopefully hold my peak to try for another sub-3:00 at this one.  After last week's training went really well for me, he said he thinks I will be ready!  It may be greedy to go for this, and with Prairie Fire on my legs it could go really poorly --- but taking no chances means wasting your dreams, right?  So I am planning to give it a go, provided that the weather cooperates and I'm feeling it once I get out conservatively on race day.  I'm not worried about it, because this one is a bonus, but I am ready to have 26.2 miles of fun on November 6!

Finishing stretch photos - must get a similar shot this year