Wisconsin - A Marathon in Every State

I had big ambitions for my 2020 marathon plans, and none of them panned out. My 13th state and first marathon of 2020 was going to be New Mexico. A few days before I was set to fly into Albuquerque, I got an e-mail stating the Bataan Memorial Death March was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic concerns.

With businesses closing left and right, and rising concerns leading up to my flight, I made the difficult but necessary decision to accept the airport’s refund and stay home until everything blew over. Looking back, I’m glad I made that decision given the heavy weight and uncertainty 2020 brought. I could write an entire book about that year alone.

I didn’t realize it would be a whopping 687 days between my last marathon in Indiana and my next one (but who’s counting?). Initially, I also didn’t anticipate my 13th state being the Eau Claire Marathon in Wisconsin, but if 2020 taught me anything —  it’s that nothing in life is certain. Even the very concept of normalcy can drastically change in an instant.

Despite my changed plans, I was excited to hit the ground running again with my marathon goal after what felt like an eternity since my last competition. Even though only Lake Michigan separating my home state of Michigan from the Badger State, I haven’t had much experience there outside of Kenosha. I never even heard of Eau Claire prior to signing up for the marathon, and before I watched YouTube ‘best things to do there’ videos, I couldn't even pronounce it right (Oh-Clair, not E-Clair). I had little to no expectations of the city before traveling there, so I was excited to soak in an entirely new area.

I decided to solo venture to Wisconsin and found it the most cost-effective to make the eight-hour drive rather than flying. At the time it was the longest drive I’d attempt by myself after a marathon, but that was a problem for future Eric. Traveling solo also gave me the flexibility to stay and eat wherever I wanted, and ultimately do whatever I felt like. There’s a special feeling of freedom that comes out of trips of that nature — which is why I’ve grown to love solo traveling.

Since I wasn’t exactly trying to impress or accommodate anyone else, I cut trip costs where I saw the opportunity since all of my marathons up until that point were self-funded (and 99% still are). This led to my first destination in Eau Claire: the AmeriVu Inn hotel, which is about the quality you’d expect from a hotel named AmeriVu (I swear I remember the name being AmeriVALUE). However, it had a bed and a shower, so it was perfect for me.

After making the drive and settling into my room, I began doing my typical research of locally recommended restaurants on Yelp. Once I saw Northern Tap House had one of my favorite breweries, Drekker on tap (which at the time I couldn’t get back in Michigan), I was sold.

Being the fantasy football addict that I am, I was also excited to see they had the Panthers and Texans game on literally every screen. I sat right at the bar and ordered an Ectogasm to drink, along with a Mac and Cheese pizza. It was perfect. Even though Christian McCaffery tweaked his hamstring and hindered my fantasy team that week, it still couldn’t bring my mood down for how great this trip was starting. Even though I’d never even heard of this restaurant until a few hours ago, the patrons and staff made me feel like a regular with that lovable Midwest charm you certainly don’t find everywhere.

The next day I wanted to squeeze in a run to shake off the rust from that long drive, and stumbled upon a peaceful park a few miles away from my hotel. Not having high expectations for running trails whenever I’m in a new place, I was very pleasantly surprised by this park. The wooded trails seemed to wind on forever, rolling hills and open fields were reminiscent of the High School cross country courses I ran. I didn’t expect to find this unexpected wave of nostalgia in Eau Claire, and as cliche as it sounds — it felt like I was exactly where I needed to be.

The following day, my first priority was good breakfast, and the running route came secondary. At the Nucleus Cafe, I found good breakfast in the form of lemon ricotta hotcakes. I also found the Chippewa River Trail, a great paved path, to satisfy my running needs. The trail was incredibly similar to the River Trail that I utilize nearly daily in Michigan, so I was hit with another wave of nostalgia and a sense of belonging. It seemed like all my decisions were working perfectly.

After my run I wanted to grab a coffee, and found a hot spot called The Goat Coffee House that was just calling to me. With a name like that, how could I refuse? The line extended out the door and wrapped around, so I knew it had to be good. While waiting in line I struck up a conversation with a gorgeous woman standing behind me who looked to be about my age. She made a comment that this was her favorite coffee spot, and given that she was born and raised in the area, I didn’t question her judgment.

The topic came up about the Eau Claire marathon, which is the reason I was there. Her face instantly lit up as she talked about doing the half in the past, and how her apartment was near the route and she planned on cheering the runners on as they passed. We had an instant connection about running and talked like we were just old friends who happened to cross paths again. When it was our turn to order, she bought my coffee without hesitation. I was blown away by her genuine kindness.

The connection felt so meaningful I wanted to stay in touch in some capacity, so I asked for her Instagram handle.

I left that coffee shop feeling like a million bucks, excited to see what else Eau Claire had in store for me. Since the marathon was the next day, I didn’t want to do anything too crazy. I grabbed my race packet at Phoenix Park and soaked in the surrounding sights and community. The main thing I had left on my agenda was to grab a drink that night to calm my nerves before the marathon, and to celebrate the slight return to normalcy that came with competing again. I decided to message my new friend to see if she was interested in joining me, to which she was more than happy to.

As I was picking up takeout Thai noodles, they had the news on in the background. To my amazement, I saw my new friend’s face on the T.V. since she’s a reporter. Why this attractive, kind, interesting and apparently local celebrity was so willing to have a drink with me I’ll never know, but I couldn’t be more excited for the opportunity.

We met at Growler Guys, and I wanted to return the favor for buying my coffee earlier that day — with buying her a drink. We started talking like old friends, and had a great conversation about running, how underrated the horror movie Lights Out is, and how strange the past year has been with COVID. She told me she used to love onions, but after she got COVID onions don’t taste the same to her anymore and she doesn’t enjoy them. That just made me feel really sad for how unfortunate it was. She asked if I’ve ever read the book, “Instructions to the Cook,” to which I’d never heard of it. She told me she felt like it’s something I’d really enjoy, and offered to give me her copy. This woman just continued to surprise me with how genuine and kind she was.

We parted ways and she wished me luck in the marathon and gave me a big hug.

The next morning I couldn’t have been more excited to finally do another marathon and knock another state out. I don’t consider myself a morning person, but every race day morning, I’m always eager to get up. I did my pre-race rituals and started making the drive to Eau Claire’s downtown district for the start of the race.

I knew going into the Eau Claire marathon would have its difficulties. First of all, it was 687 days since my last marathon. Secondly, I had to work around the challenges of having my gear taken care of while I was out running for a few hours. Typically races offer an option to check gear, but due to limited resources, post-COVID restrictions and other various factors, the Eau Claire marathon didn’t offer that. And since I came to this new town as a wandering solo traveler, I couldn’t just hand my bag over to someone else in my party. So I did what anyone else in my situation would do, and made friends with a local volunteer who I trusted enough to watch my stuff. Talk about Midwest hospitality.

I calmed my nerves by making friendly conversation with the other runners at the starting line. We were all in the same boat of being a little rusty, given the pause caused from the pandemic. The Eau Claire Marathon normally happens in May, but this year it got pushed back to September from the pandemic so we were all just taking things in stride.

There was a news crew floating around, and they came over to the group I was talking to, and asked if we were willing to shout a certain phrase into the camera for a news segment. For the life of me I can’t remember what we said outside of “good morning,” and I couldn’t tell you what the news station was, so I’m sure there’s a clip of me shouting into the camera floating somewhere on the internet.

Even though I was questioning my physical ability for this marathon, I was just excited to be back out competing again. When the race kicked off at 9 a.m., I just let my adrenaline and excitement carry me through the first few miles like I always do. I was soaking in the scenery, just letting the entire experience happen organically. I never really looked that hard at course maps before doing a marathon, so every turn really came as a surprise to me, especially when I’m in an entirely new city.

I kept up with the lead pack for the first few miles, and was running next to a guy who appeared to be a local celebrity. It seemed like around every corner, there was someone who recognized him and called him by name to cheer him on. We made small talk with each other, and it turned out he was going to college in the area where he was on the cross country and track team. He was pretty new into the marathoning world, and I was naive enough to think I could keep up with him. He started gapping me after a mile or so after we talked.

The rust started to show for me around mile 10, as I could feel myself running slower and slower, even though it felt like I was working twice as hard now. Funny enough, I didn’t really care too much personally, but my biggest concern seemed to be embarrassing myself in front of my new friend I just met at the coffee shop the day before. Surely, she would be watching, so I just had to make sure I wasn’t walking when I passed by her. I remember her saying her apartment was a few miles away from the finish line along the route, so I just had to make sure I finished with some dignity.

The middle part of the marathon was a pretty pathetic mix of walking and jogging very slowly. Clearly I was a bit more rusty than I realized, but I did my best to make the most of it. Around mile 15 I grabbed an energy gel packet from a volunteer. Energy gels are very hit-or-miss for me, so I often avoid them. But at this point, I was desperate to try and get some energy back and not embarrass myself in front of my new friend.

The flavor of the gel was honey, which instantly made me thirsty. I normally love honey, but this just wasn’t ‘hitting the spot’ for me like I thought it would. I tried spitting out the gel, but didn’t consider how hard it is to spit out honey (especially while exhausted.) Rather than land on the sidewalk, the bulk of it stayed on the right side of my beard and on my right arm. Without thinking, I tried wiping it off, but it just made my left hand all sticky too. Great.

Tired, sweaty and sticky, I pushed on. The race seemed to drag on forever but after I hit mile 20, I made a point to walk as little as possible, thinking my new friend could be waiting around any corner. Around mile 24, I heard a voice shout out my Instagram handle. It was her! Thankfully I wasn’t walking at that moment, but I also wasn’t running very fast either. I was hoping she wouldn’t think much of it.

The course winded over some gorgeous bridges, and I could hear the cheering getting louder, so I knew I was getting close to the finish. The buildings began to look more familiar, so I knew I was near Phoenix Park where the race started. I finished the marathon in 3:30:13, which wasn’t anything to write home about, but also wasn’t a complete trainwreck. Given everything that happened between Indianapolis in 2019 and now, I was thankful for it.

After finishing I wandered over to the beer tent for my post-race reward. I was surprised when the woman asked for my ID, which I didn’t have on me. Since I gave my things to a stranger before the race, it was a coin flip if I even had any of my belongings to begin with. However, the woman simply looked up my age on my race registration and confirmed my age that way.

As I drank my post-race reward and reminisced about what a hidden gem of a city Eau Claire was, I started talking to some of the race volunteers who I met along the course. One of the individuals guided runners on his bicycle along the route. I told him about my marathon goal, and how Wisconsin was lucky number 13 for states. He seemed to genuinely be interested in my marathon goal, and had an infectious love for the city of Eau Claire. 

While we were talking, I became distracted by all the bees that kept getting close to me. It was at this point I realized I still had honey all over me.

Wandering around the streets of Eau Claire sweaty and sticky, I swung by my new friend’s apartment to retrieve that book she recommended. We talked briefly and hugged once more, and didn’t seem phased at all by my near-death appearance. I’ve since mailed her a book recommendation of my own, and she continues to get yearly Christmas cards from Joel and me to this date.

It then became time for future Eric to deal with the consequences of having to drive eight-hours back home to Michigan, which in large part, went uneventfully. I listened to podcasts and my usual pop-punk jams, but at a certain point it started getting really hard to see. Obviously visibility is hindered when the sun goes down and it gets dark, but this was different. It was at this point I realized that my headlights burned out, and I had to drive through most of Michigan with my brights on.

I haven’t been back to Eau Claire since 2021, but I still look back fondly on it and wish to return there again soon. Apparently the town of Elmwood, roughly an hour away, hosts an annual U.F.O. festival, so that gives me another reason to venture back to the area. Eau Claire was a very pleasant surprise, and the perfect marathon experience to have after all of the world events that transpired the past 687 days.