Tyler Cleveland’s photo of me crossing the finish line, with my brother cheering in the background.
Tyler Cleveland’s photo of me celebrating with his dad, Rick.
June 5, 2026 — The Bear Lake Idaho Marathon
My 50th marathon state!
The race started at 6:30. I woke up before 4 and wasn’t going to get any more sleep. I drove to the start line, about 30 minutes away, and tried to sleep there before race number pickup opened at 6. I had arrived too late on Thursday to pick up my number then, but there was little stress because the field was small, meaning there wouldn’t be a line. While walking to a porta potty, I stepped through a gap in a cattle grid, and my size 14 foot didn’t immediately want to make it back up to the surface. Fortunately, I didn’t sprain anything, and I managed to extricate myself.
It was supposed to be about 40 degrees at the start, so I wore a long-sleeve shirt. Choosing the right clothes for a marathon typically is a compromise between feeling good at the start, when the weather is cool and you haven’t warmed up from running, and feeling good at the finish, when the weather is warmer and you’ve been generating heat from running. A few minutes into the race I was wishing I had chosen short sleeves, but the temperature didn’t heat up too much and things turned out OK.
I had been warned that the course was hilly, and I knew it was at 6000 feet elevation, so I was expecting this to be the most challenging road race of my 26 marathons. My goal for my road races on this trip was to finish in less than 4 hours, which is a 9 minute, 9-second pace per mile. I started too fast and was running in the 8:30s. I eased off the pace in time, though, and enjoyed the gorgeous views of Bear Lake on my right. The travel marketers call it the Caribbean of the Rockies because of its turquoise color.
The Bear Lake Idaho Marathon is part of a three-marathons-in-three-days series, so a lot of the other runners were on their second race in two days. People collecting states come from all over. I met a guy from Iowa and a couple from New Jersey (she was running the full marathon, and he was running the half), along with some guys from Utah. Talking briefly with other runners is not unusual in a marathon; I wanted to be running a pace where that was possible, because if I’m working so hard I can’t talk I’m not going to be able to sustain the pace for 26 miles.
As it turned out, I couldn’t sustain my pace for 26 miles, anyway. A couple of the hills at the end were too much for me, and I walked them. But I reached the finish line in 3:56:30, placing 11th overall and fastest among runners 50 and over. Best of all, my brother and the Clevelands were there to celebrate with me.
I was very happy but also very much in a hurry. Check out time at the hotel was 11, and I left quickly to grab a much-needed shower and check out. The Clevelands were kind enough to stay behind to pick up my medal for winning the 60-69-year-old men age group. For lunch, my brother and I each enjoyed a huckleberry milkshake, a regional specialty I’d fallen in love with on an earlier visit to eastern Idaho. Get one yourself from Papa’s Chocolates, across the street from the LDS Temple in Montpelier, and tell them I sent you.
We drove back to Logan, dropped off the car, and took off for Jackson, Wyoming. Temperatures were high, meaning the plane performed poorly. The concept of “density altitude” is important for pilots; that’s essentially the altitude that the engine thinks it is at, based on conditions. Our anemic climbout was followed by some bumps as we wound through the mountains.
At Jackson, another challenge awaited us in the form of a strong, gusty crosswind. The recorded weather at Jackson (technically, the “automatic terminal information service,” or ATIS) warns that planes that don’t touch down in the first third of the runway risk overrunning it. When landing with gusts, pilots carry a bit of extra speed. I carried a bit too much, and we floated in what’s known as ground effect, the added lift created by the wings being close to the ground, using up runway. I was ready to go around (abort the landing by adding power and taking off) but managed to save the landing, which wasn’t elegant but was safe. The Clevelands, my brother and I then had the pleasure of staying at the house of good friend and former colleague Michael Solomon. I got a very good night’s sleep.