First ECM Marathon
Hear from ECM Ambassador - Bill Cayley
2022-2023 Eau Claire Marathon Ambassador
My first marathon was a memory I’ll never forget, but it was also a long way from Eau Claire and a course I’m unlikely to run again. By the time I ran my first Eau Claire marathon, it was marathon #8 in my overall tally, but I’ll never forget the thrill that year of running the marathon distance in my hometown. Some parts of the course were routes I ran almost weekly, some parts I’d only ever seen once before, but thrill of crossing a marathon finish line “at home” was something both new and unforgettable - and made even moreso when my daughter jumped in for the final few yards and ran along with me. It seemed only a few years later that she had grown into a runner in her own right, and crossed the finish line with my wife and me not as a fence-jumping spectator but as a racer herself!
I’ve now been able to run at least one of the Eau Claire Marathon races (full, relay, half, or virtual half) every year since 2012, and each year the challenge of another distance race is overlaid on recollections of previous runs on the course.
The new route (since 2021) starting from downtown and looping past Half-moon lake and Lakeshore school brings memories of cold lonely winter training runs along the wooded trail past the lake, which is so much better when run with a pack of racers full of early-mile enthusiasm! Running past Owen Park along the Chippewa towards the High Bridge, I recall the walks our family took on the same trail early in the Covid pandemic, when we decided to turn Sundays by ourselves into times for family adventure.
The North Crossing bridge is certainly the biggest of the many Eau Claire Bridges the race crosses, and with the Smile station and a large water stop certainly a high-energy point of the race. These days, it’s hard for me to drive across the North Crossing bridge on a routine errand without recalling the excitement of running the bridge, the energy of the water stop, and the cold winter day my family was at the end of the high bridge running the water (and donut!) stop for one of the early season marathon build-up training runs.
Soon after the full marathon course leaves the high bridge, runners reach the first of the three relay exchanges, which also have their own unique energy. Whether along Riverview drive, behind the airport, or at Western avenue, each station reminds me of the years we have run the relay as a family team.
Unlikely the northern stretches of the race, the East Hill and lower UWEC campus are parts of town I run routinely throughout the year, but every routine training run also brings memories of Eau Claire Marathons from years past… the year a volunteer thought my dash off-course to the Boyd Park restroom was because I missed the course, the year an enthusiastic Blugold jumped out to cheer me on along the Blugold mile and just about scared me out of my wits, and the hot years I was SO thankful for the water sprays in lower campus.
As any runner knows, though, the most emotional part of a marathon is reaching the finish line. The combination of fatigue, accomplishment, crowd energy, and satisfaction is unbeatably emotional, and it was even more for me in 2022 when my daughter was with me again at the finish. In 2012 she jumped in to run the final yards, and in 2022 she was the race volunteer who gave me my medal!
The Eau Claire Marathon course is full of support, full of scenery, and full of memories…
What memories will you make when you #runec in 2023?