Wickham Park Marathon and 50 Mile Fun Run
Melbourne FL, May 25, 1997

50 Mile, No Finishers

Marathon
1  Bill Menard, 45 M, Venice FL          5:21 !
2  LaVon Kennell, 28 M, Sarasota FL      5:24
3  John Holmes, 54 M, Pinellas Park FL   5:25
4  Andrew Colee, 50 M, Valparaiso FL     6:12
5  Matt Mahoney, 41 M, Melbourne FL      8:02
8 Starters

For the second year in a row, the garish 3-foot weather station
(reading 122 F in the noonday sun) that I attempted to foist
upon the winner of the 50 mile fun run must go back into storage.
Although the assembled runners all started with good intentions
of finishing this monster, by an amazing coincidence they all
remembered other places they had to be after the marathon.

Meanwhile, Bill Menard, the 2-time Badwater winner who just last
week had trained for this event at the Marathon des Sables in
Morocco, running 150 miles over the Saharan sand dunes carrying a
one week supply of food and clothing on his back, smashed the 7:33
marathon course record by over two hours.

Officially, conditions were good for the record number of finishers
(vs. 2 of 9 last year).  Sunny, 86 F, 67% humidity, and dry, sandy
trails.  I had also used better course markings this year.  In
addition to arrows drawn in flour on the ground, I had marked
15 of the 100 or so critical turns with signs.  Still, this didn't
stop Gary Hoover (who runs better than he reads maps.  Last fall he
ran 1040 miles from Florida to Ohio in 26 days) from exploring
many of the scenic and wonderous places in and around the park that
most of us had never seen during his 4 loops of 1-5 miles.  His
wife Vicky (who along with Gary has attempted Badwater) arrived
later and accompanied him on one of his longer loops.

I had hoped (and I wasn't the only one) to finish the 50, but an
8 hour marathon split did not bode well.  After 41 miles in 11:50,
I had run out of time.

Splits, 3.75 mile loops 1-7, 3.4 mile loops 8-14 [1]
               3.75 7.50 11.2 15.0 18.7 22.5 26.2 29.6 33.0  36.4  39.8
Bill Menard    0:38 1:23 2:09 2:54 3:44 4:31 5:21
Lavon Kennell  0:40 1:25 2:18 2:55 3:45 4:33 5:24
John Holmes    0:38 1:24 2:10 2:53 3:43 4:30 5:25
Andrew Colee   0:39 1:29 2:21 3:17 4:13 5:15 6:12
Matt Mahoney   0:39 1:29 2:41 3:38 4:32 5:40 8:02 8:59 10:07 11:09 11:50 [2]
Kim Sidey      0:39 1:24 2:10 2:55 (36 M, Aiken SC)
Gary Hoover    1:01 1:45 2:51 5:22 [3] (59 M, Barefoot Bay FL)
Vicky Hoover   1:45 [3] (55 F, Barefoot Bay FL)

Notes:
[1] On laps 8-14 you can take either loop but you get no extra
credit if you take the longer one.  Anyone who has seen the
"advanced" trails will probably choose the longer route.

[2] Did some last minute course marking on the "hard" loop
on lap 3.  This means that the marathon (7 laps) was actually
25.9 miles.  The "official" marathon was therefore 8:59 on
lap 8.

[3] Took the "scenic" route.