Dick Beardsley Half

Kristy and I headed east early Saturday morning to the Dick Beardsley Half Marathon in Detroit Lakes. Being I'm still in recovery from Lean Horse and not running much yet, I was looking forward to being on the sidelines with Kristy cheering on friends.


We got there about an hour before the start to catch some of the excitement and wish our running friends well. If you read this blog and are not a runner, be careful if you ever attend a running event like this one. The energy is overwhelming. I was so cranked up before the start, I felt like running it in my blue jeans. Thankfully my friend Jon, who was running and hoping to PR at this event, handed me his camera to take some photo's as today was his bride's first ever half marathon. Erin and Jon have been training hard for a while now and today was hopefully going to be payday. As it turned out, it was as Jon did set a personal best and took 30 minutes off his DB 1/2 marathon time from last year and Erin finished 1 minute better than her goal time.

We watched the start and were able to catch the runners at 4 or 5 spots along the coarse. We'd see them and then hop in the car to leapfrog ahead. At the 3 mile mark we were coming up from behind and passing the last runners. About a quarter mile ahead of the them the city crew were already picking up traffic cones. Kind of disrespectful to the last couple dozen runners, we remarked to each other, if not a safety issue. We ended up stopping at the 6.5 mile mark, got out of the van and stood on the corner to cheer the runners on and wait for our friends. There were cones on the corner were we were standing and after about 5 minutes, here comes the city crew to pick them up. At this point, in my estimate, less than half of the runners had come by, I remarked to the young man picking up the cones that it seemed a bit premature. He said he was just doing as he was told. I asked who had told him to pick them up and he just said, "The city." Kristy and I kind of barked at the more mature guy driving the truck and he came out to chat with us, saw how busy the corner was and told the young men to put the cones back. Surprise. Somebody can reason. I just can't imagine what the hurry was picking up the cones.

This little issue pales in comparison to the stories I've heard of the disgruntled postal carrier but maybe points to just a little disorganization of the event. (check out Steve Wagner's Addicted To Running Blog) This event brings a lot of people and money to DL and they need to show the runners a bit more respect much less do more to keep them safe.

All in all it was a super day at the races. Beautiful fall weather in the beautiful Detroit Lakes area is hard to beat. The neatest part of all is to see the satisfaction in the tired and beaten bodies of the runners who, at one point during the event, all questioned why they are doing this only to have a renewed enthusiasm after crossing the finish line. Most of them are already looking for another one.