In order to spice things up here I asked Anderson runner Brian Rayl to write a review of the Lewis & Clark Marathon in St. Charles, MO. If you would like to submit a review e-mail me and we’ll see what we can work out. Enjoy!

Five Central Indiana Runners traveled west to the Lewis and Clark Marathon September 16th in St Charles MO. Wray Jean Cornwell,Carolyn McKinney, Ann Morris and myself competed in the marathon and Sherry Robertson and Kathy Wehrley ran the half marathon. Ideal weather and a cool temp at start time made for an enjoyable race. Sherry placed 4th in AG with a 1:34:57 PR, Ann placed 4th in AG with a 3:52:57 BQ. Kathy finished with a 2:09:59, Carolyn at 4:03:04 Wray Jean at 5:06:47 and I finished in 3:40:30 PR.

The marathon and half marathon racers start out together on paved roads and cross over the Missouri River before heading into Historic St Charles at which time the half marathon finishes and the marathoners continue on the Katy Trail. The Katy Trail is an old abandon railroad bed lined with crushed stoned. The marathon course continues out to the 19.5 mile mark before turning around and heading into the finish. Overall I would describe the course as flat with the only significant hill crossing over the Missouri River.

There was plenty of water/sports drink on the course and also a couple of stations that had Gu. The out and back we could hit the same water stations twice. Some individuals had brought out pretzels and orange slices for the competitors.There was food and refreshments at the finish area but it did seem like it was starting to run out.

Ultramarathonman Dean Karnazas who also ran the marathon was on hand to sign books and or bib numbers and also for photos.

The only negatives were the finish chute was a little crowded as some runners basically stopped just after the finish banner, also early in the course around 3 – 5 miles some runners cut across the course at the port-o-let facilities.

Overall I enjoyed the event, my family went out with me and I was able to see them along the course and this made for a fun training run for me. Now it time to focus on the Chicago marathon on Oct. 7.

I also included a little comment from the Lewis and Clark website

The 6th Annual Lewis & Clark Marathon and Half-Marathon was the biggest and best one yet! 4,400 runners and walkers completed either the full or half marathon on a new course that began at the Verizon Wireless Amphitheater in Maryland Heights and finished under the Lewis & Clark Statue in historic St. Charles’ Frontier Park.

Technorati tags: race review, marathon, half Marathon