As I had been considering, I ran the Quad Cities Marathon as a "long distance" training run for Chicago. The Quad cities are four cities on the Illinois-Iowa boarder and consist of Rock Island, Moline, Davenport, & Bettendorf. It billed itself as 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 "5 cities, 4 races, 3 bridges, 2 states, and 1 Mighty Mississippi River". So, they had a few different events going on at the same time. Based on the bib number I got as a last minute registrant, I think the total number of marathon runners was probably around 700. The T-shirt I got was a basic long sleeve cotton shirt with the detailed course directions printed on it. Not a picture of the route, but the actual verbiage saying turn right at such and such, go for 2 miles, etc. I heard that people that had signed up earlier had received technical long sleeve shirts. I seem to recall seeing people wearing those, so I think that was probably true. If so, early registration gets you a $10 discount and a better shirt.

There was free parking at the local "stadium" called "The Mark of the Quad Cities". The start/finish line was actually very conveniently located right in front of this stadium. There were probably a total of 20 port-a-johns at the starting area. I don't think this was enough, as race time neared I could see that there were long lines waiting to use them. The weather was perfect for a marathon. Don't remember the actual temperature, but it started out cloudy & I remember the temperature was such that I couldn't decide if I should go with a long sleeve or short sleeve over my tech shirt. Went the long sleeve, but should have gone with the shirt sleeve or none at all. One nice thing that I noticed was that right in the middle of the start area they had bottled water in ice filled tubs. This was a good idea as people could get a bottle for the road. The mayors of three of the cities started the race off.

The start felt slow and speed was dictated by the crowd - small as it was. This became very noticeable when we went over the first bridge. We were limited to one lane and it was not possible to safely pass as it was too crowded. The first mile marker I spotted was the 3 mile marker. Looking at my watch I saw that I was actually less than 8 minute miles for the first three miles. This was surprising, since I had the feeling that I was going slower. The crowds were good for a small town event like this. The people that did show up to cheer the runners on gave you the impression like they really wanted you to know they were cheering for you. Hard to explain, but it seemed more personal than what you get at the big events. The course did have some slight hill sections, but nothing significant.

The after race area was better in several ways than most I have seen at other races. It was not very large, but it somehow seemed right. People must have been leaving at just the right rate to balance out the runners that were finishing. There was just the right amount of people to give it a good feel, but not so many that it felt too crowded. The weather was also perfect at this point for just sitting in the sun. Part of the registration fee provided you with BIB tickets for 1 slice of pizza and 3 beers. I got the slice of pizza plus various other items - bagels, fruit, etc. There seemed to be a good number of runners that were from the Chicago area. Enjoyed this race & may do it again.

Lite Horse

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