Saturday, July 11, 2009

Missoula Marathon

Sunday is the 3rd Annual Missoula Marathon. In it's short life it has become the Marathon in Montana that may create the most buzz. This will be my first time at the event (I'll be doing finish line announcing); and, I'm really curious to see how it comes off. They have over 2,000 runners in the marathon (600+), half (over 1,000) and relay.

There is a full day expo today, Runners Edge has a 6-month training program with over 100 participants, and the close down the Higgins Street bridge as part of the finish area. Seems like the community has really embraced the event.

Will be interesting to see if the Montana Marathon in Billings can match the level of excitement no that it has been merged with the Governor's Cup. No reason why we can't have 2 high quality, high excitement events here in the Big Sky.

Back to the MM - there has been some speculation that we could see the first sub-2:30 marathon in Montana in many years (man, it may be since the late '80's since anyone has gone that fast in Montana). Jimmy Grant is entered and Keifer Hahn has been suggesting that he was going to toe the line. And, I've heard 2:30 thrown out there by both of them. And, who knows who else may be ready to uncork a quick one.

The two biggest problems are time of start (6:00 a.m. is pretty early to be ready to run super fast) and possible heat. Even with the early start, the sun should be up and starting to warm things up pretty quickly.

Not sure about the half marathon. Casey Jermyn had been planning to run; but it now appears as though he is passing. Should be a wide open race.

Will let you know details first of the week on how it turned out.

The Muddy Buzzard.

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