Dan Hanneken

2018 REVEL Mt Lemmon Marathon
Published: Nov. 4, 2018, 6:56 a.m.
  1. Overall Rating

    5/5 Stars

  2. Describe your race day.

    I was surprised that the bus ride from parking to the start line was about an hour. Given the number of hours I put into training however I suppose this is a small price to pay. I am from Missouri and I found the landscape on Mt. Lemmon to be stunning.

  3. Did you PR?

    I did PR by over 20 minutes, and 60% of that improvement I would attribute to the fast course. I have been training hard since my last marathon 14 months ago so was going to be somewhat faster either way.
    I qualified for Boston with over eight minutes to spare. After cancelling two other races in the past six months due to injury, Mt. Lemmon was a last minute "I am healthy lets do it" race. It paid off.

  4. How would you describe the course?

    Miles 1, 3, and 4 are tough at over 8,000 ft. I overheard a course veteran suggesting not to worry, plenty of time to make up the difference. I ran an 8:44 on the first mile, and was over 9:30 on 3 and four and finished with a 7:53 overall pace...and thats with two slow miles at the end due to cramping. I train on hills, lots of hills. Most of this course felt like recovery running. Great course.

  5. Tell us about your training.

    As someone training to qualify for Boston, I subscribed to a Jack Daniels type strategy. I ran about 200 miles a month for over a year (except when injured) and mixed up long slow runs, tempo runs, and intervals. One suggestion I found helpful was to shorten stride when running down hill.

  6. What advice would you give future runners?

    One thing I would have done differently is I would have backed off on some of the middle later miles when the grade down made it easy to run 20-30 seconds under target pace. The last two miles are flat which feel like your are running uphill after all the downhill. While I cramped on the last two miles, I also was running on fumes and determination.

  7. What fun things did you do in the area before or after the race?

    I flew into Tucson at 10pm the night before and flew out at 1pm after the race. It sure looks like a wonderful place to visit though. I traveled from Columbia, MO.

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