2024 Brunswick Marathon Race Report

A whole lot of firsts, and Dan is fairly flabbergasted; his fabulous friends have fomented a fiesta of fun. Best he can tell, around 24 runners start the 2024 Brunswick Marathon and Half-Marathon. This is sometimes referred to as the "BM" but you won't find any potty humor here. Nope, this is absolutely the wrong place for that sort of thing. Except, of course, to mention that this BM was the biggest, most solid, and most satisfying BM ever.

This is the first year that the course was entirely on an all-purpose trail. It includes the 1-mile loop around Brunswick Lake, the new 2-mile connector trail to Plum Creek Park, the half-mile loop there, and back. Altogether, this comes to 6.55 miles, a quarter-marathon. Simply do it twice for a half and four times for a full. Only one very small, teensy-weensy little problem: There's a 100-yardish area in the woods where the trail isn't completed. That part is muddy.

Did we mention that the mud is of the shoe-sucking variety? That it became known as the Mud-pit of Death? It is good news for the trail-runners in the group; not so much for the rest of us. Since the temperatures are in the fifties (and we almost had to cancel due to nice weather), said mud is anything but frozen as it had been during the training runs.

Dan runs much of the first half of the race with Shannon Barnes and Kim Tanner. They learn to *try* to stay on the green snake-like thing on the side of the trail through that Mud-pit of Death. The thing may hold mulch or something, but it's a godsend for keeping our shoes on. You just gotta keep your balance and walk slowly.

Kim and Dan complete the second loop as the clock strikes (about) 2:12. Dan thought he'd been running faster than that, but he hadn't been watching his pace. The slow walks through the mud and the pit stops at the car have something to do with the overall time. Interestingly, a gunshot is heard near Brunswick Lake. Kim mentions that a man had been standing near an animal (perhaps a deer) that was on the ground. As they come back around, the police had arrived, and are investigating. It's possible that it was Animal Control or something like that, but gunshots are not often heard around Brunswick Lake.

The third and fourth circuits are fairly fun but uneventful. Dan runs mostly with Matt Palmer and Mark Sukie. It turns out that everyone else has wisely finished up. Matt and Dan finish in 4:29; Mark follows a minute later. This sub-four-thirty feels like a sub-four to Dan, and he's fairly happy with it. And since this is the first full marathon on this particular course, it's a new course record.

Not a bad way to end 2024. Now, what will 2025 bring? Maybe more running.