I ran my first marathon in 2014 when I was 20 years old. It was the Minocqua No Frills Marathon and ran from Nokomis to Minocqua, Wisconsin on August 31, 2014. At the time, I was a student at Michigan Tech University in Houghton, Michigan and this was the closest race. I didn’t have a smartphone or smartwatch then, so there is no GPS track of my run. However, my official time was 3:08:30, and I finished in 4th place out of 120 runners.

Part of the allure of this race was the low price, only $25 back then! It even included free camping at the city park the night before the marathon. I didn’t have a car back then, so the day before the race, I rode my bike 8 miles to the airport to get a rental car. I put my bike in the back, along with my tent and sleeping bag and set off for the three hour drive south to Nokomis.

Originally, I had planned to set up my tent when I arrived, but it was long past dark by the time I got there. So instead, I decided to just sleep in the car with my sleeping bag. As I was getting situated, I accidentally tapped the brake. A few minutes later, I heard a knock on the window. A police officer taking a break at the fire department next door said he saw the brake lights come on and wanted to check on me, since nobody there recognized the car. I said I was there for the marathon and showed him the the registration form. To my relief, he told me everything was fine. Relieved that I wasn’t going to be arrested, I tried to sleep for the next few hours.

The race started at 7:00 am but because it was a point-to-point race, I had to park at the finish line. Not wanting to be late, I woke up (not that I had actually slept much) at 5:00 and drove from the start line park to the finish line park in Minocqua. While driving, I kept thinking, wow, I am going to have to run this distance. I arrived in Minocqua, parked, and got on the shuttle bus, a typical yellow school bus. While on the bus, I talked a bit (mostly listened) to some other runners. A few of them had just run another marathon the day before, another guy said he was trying to run a marathon in every state. One guy said he flew in from Atlanta and rented a car in Chicago and still ended up paying less than most races he ran. Everyone I talked to was very encouraging and I was excited to start.

After getting off the bus, I turned in my registration form and $25 to the race director, about 20 minutes before the start. No expo with annoying salespeople trying to get you to buy stuff you don’t need! I saw people warming up, but didn’t know what to do so just did some light stretching. I figured I could warm for the first mile then run the last 25.2. According to findmymarathon.com, it was 54°F, with 100% humidity (I remember it being very foggy). They played the national anthem and within a few minutes we were on our way!

The first few miles of the race were in the city park, around some baseball fields. Next, we followed some unpaved country roads, until we finally reached the Bearskin Trail. The course was overall pretty flat, there was just one small hill around the 18 mile mark, probably around 20 ft of incline over 500 ft horizontal. I remember there being a few places where some small branches had fallen on the trail. I tried to kick them out of the way of the runners behind me, but in my typical clumsiness, just kicked them up into the air and back onto the trail behind me. Otherwise the trail was very pretty, traversing an old railroad line crossing through woods, wetlands, and over some lakes. Very typical of Northwoods Wisconsin. There were a few places where the trail crossed a local road or highway, and I was glad to see race volunteers stopping traffic for us runners. Every few miles there were aid stations with volunteers handing out cups of water. I remember one spot, I even got some delicious homemade cookies!

After the first few miles, I had stayed within the top 5 places. I had read about “hitting the wall” where you suddenly lose energy or motivation to keep running. The articles I read said it would happen around mile 18, but I was fine. Up until mile 25, then my legs really started to hurt. I think I was in 2nd place then but with only 1 mile to go, I had 2 people pass me as I really slowed down and they sped up. I crossed the finish line in 4th place at 10:08 AM, or 3:08:30 after starting. Looking back, I can see the fastest runner finished in 3:05:45, followed by 3:07:52, and 3:08:00. Maybe I could have run a few seconds per mile faster to finish before them, but for this being my first marathon, I can’t complain!

At the end, I was exhausted and excited to get free bananas, water (in a reusable bottle!), and Gatorade! I overheard one of the runners who beat me telling the race directors that he wished there was more crowd support in the second half of the race. While true, there weren’t many spectators, it was a pretty scenic run. Although the race was advertised as “No-Frills” I did get a finisher’s medal. There was even a place in town where they engraved my name, place, and finishing time for free!

During my drive back to Michigan, my roommate offered to pick me up from the airport. That was great because I was really sore. I thought I was fine until I had to walk down the 15 steps into our basement apartment, I almost fell over! Within a few days I felt ok though and was able to walk normally, just in time for classes to start.

The Minocqua No-Frills Marathon was a great experience, and I have been training/running ever since!