It's March 2nd, and instead of folding laundry I've decided to try and challenge myself to remember a marathon I ran back in October. Because at 47 (almost 48) I hear it's good to challenge your brain. I ran the Crazy Horse Marathon in Hill City South Dakota. The race takes place in the Black Hills which is a beautiful part of the state, and also where Mt. Rushmore is located. The last time I was there was when I was 16 during a road trip with my dad. For some reason, I remember having to walk up hill really far to see the spectacle, but this trip, I just drove up to a parking garage and walked a comparatively short distance to see the four faces.
While Hill City is beautiful, the restaruant scene does leave a little to be desired. However, the craft beer scene as solid as the granite rock of Mt. Rushmore. The night before the race I sampled one of the beers at a local brewery, Miner Brewing Company. Unfortunately as I write this post, it looks like it's no longer open, but if you are in the area, I'm sure you can find many others just as delicious. The weather was cool and sunny....perfect for carb loading. I wanted to try more, but since I had this pesky marathon to run the next day, it was one and done.
So now it's race day. The race started at the site of the Crazy Horse Memorial. It was clear and cold and the buses schleping us to the start line left very early. Thankfully, we were allowed to wait out the start clock in the warmth of the Crazy Horse Memorial Museum. Warmth and real bathrooms made this one of the best race starts. a real bathroom versus a port-a-potty scores lots of points. We need to talk about this memorial. The end result is supposed to be Crazy Horse riding a horse, pointing into the distance. So far, we have a profile and a finger, which has taken a remarkable amount of time. The first blast on this rock was 1948. His face was complete in 1997. I'm not sure when this thing will be done, but I can only imagine it will be amazing, and a very long time from now.
Back to the race. A nice twist on the race start included traditional Native American drum music to kick things off. Incorporating this Native American tradition was a condition on the memorial allowing the marathon to start there. I thought it was pretty cool.
Much of the course was run on the Mickelson Trail which covers over 100 miles. Thankfully, I wasn't running the entire trail. Not a lot of crowd support, but the scenery made up for it.
Slow and steady, I finished #45. Two fun things awaited me at the finish line.
1. A pretty cool medal.
2. The largest Smoky the Bear Statue in the world.
And hopefully his message of preventing forest fires is heard by all in close range because Smoky would go up in flames in a blink of an eye.
I did not partake of my usual post-race oysters, since, well, it's South Dakoat. Instead, I treated myself to a soak at the Moccasin Springs in Hot Springs, South Dakota. I feel like all my races should take place in driving vacinity to cities called Hot Springs (had this pleasure as well in Arkansas). I think the funnest part of the hot springs was the drive. I went from the mountains of the black hills to the plains where the buffalo roam and antelope play. Literally, there were wild buffalo, antelope and a ton of cute prarie dogs popping their heads up in the tall grass.
The mineral springs were also very nice and had mulitple pools of varying temperatures to choose from. It was pretty crowded in the warmest pools becuase it was chilly out, but being there solo, I was able to squeeze in pretty much wherever I wanted.
I was planning on visiting the Badlands the day after the race, but ended up shortening my trip in South Dakota a day early to beat the approach of Hurricane Milton which was headed to my home. I did squeeze in one more brewery in Rapids City, the Last Mile Brewery. Again, solid showing from South Dakota in the craft beer game. Also, the patrons and the bartenders were exceptionally friendly.
That wrapped up my races for 2024. There were a lot of things that made training challenging last year, and so far, life in 2025 hasn't made it much easier, but I will keep pushing to get these done as long as I can, albeit slow and often painful. Idaho and New Hampshire are on deck for 2025!
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