On Saturday, February 4, I ran the 2023 Mesa Marathon in Arizona. This was my second time running this race, and it was a great event for me: near-perfect weather, an excellent course and great support throughout. My main goal with the 2023 Mesa Marathon was to beat my time from last year (3:15:19). As a stretch goal, I really wanted to hit 3:10:00.
Fortunately, I managed to bit both of my goals, hanging in at the end to finish in 3:10:12. That made Mesa my second-fastest marathon ever, and qualifies me for Boston 2024 with almost 15 minutes of cushion.
Race Results
Here are the details for the race:
Watching the Competition
One of the things I tend to do during any race is jockey for position with the runners around me. As an example, throughout the course I kept my eye on David Lawrence, a runner I know from the Facebook group Boston Buddies. David is a few years older than me, but we’re close enough in age that I really wanted to beat him. I started ahead of him and maintained my lead until about mile 19, when he passed me. I was able to overtake David around mile 25, when he stopped to walk for a bit, and I ended up finishing about a minute and a half ahead of him. It’s great to have friendly rivalries with runners you know (even if you don’t know them well).
Another runner I kept tabs on managed to stay ahead of me the entire way. I didn’t know his name at the time, but he was instantly recognizable by his gold shorts and matching hat. This runner was much younger than me, and he looked super strong throughout the race. He pulled way ahead at the start, but I crept closer and closer to him as we neared the end of the race. I did my best to try to “reel him in,” and by the end of the race, I’d managed to close the gap to less than a minute.
When I crossed the finish line in Mesa, I really only had three thoughts in my head:
- Yay, I’m done!
- Yay, I hit my goal time!
- Yay, it feels so great to stop running!
My mind was so preoccupied with these thoughts, I almost didn’t notice the young man on the ground just beyond the timing mat. It was Gold Shorts Guy. He was flat on his back, being attended to by paramedics. At the time, I didn’t give this too much thought. It’s not uncommon to see people’s legs and bodies give out at the end of a marathon. I’ve seen it happen at both small and large races, including the New York Marathon the previous November. The normal causes are dehydration, poor fueling or just plain fatigue. After all, 26.2 miles is a long way to run. The standard treatment is fluids, electrolytes, ice and rest.
I collected my medal, hung out with other runners in the recovery area, then went to a house party with some of the other Boston Buddies. As far as I knew, the race was in the rear view mirror.
Mesa Marathon Gallery
Here’s a gallery of photos from the 2023 Mesa Marathon, courtesy of the race photographers:
Pierre’s Story
It wasn’t until two weeks after the race that I discovered that the young man in the gold shorts died that morning. His name was Pierre Lipton, and he was a well-respected media figure. According to news reports, Pierre was transported directly to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead. He was 26 years old, less than half my age. Though he crossed the finish line almost a minute ahead of me, our official times are just seven seconds apart (3:10:05 versus 3:10:12). We both ran the race at an average pace of 7:15 per mile.
It’s sobering to realize that I was celebrating my BQ run while this bright young man was dying nearby — after we ran a nearly identical race together.
When I found out about the tragic ending to Pierre’s race, I looked him up on Strava. Sure enough, the Mesa Marathon was the final activity on his account. I was suprised to see, though, that his “run” that day totalled 31.86 miles, with 3:20:59 of moving time. Also strange was the fact that the “elapsed time” on the event was 24 hours.
Here’s what I think happened. Pierre, like many runners (including me), had his GPS watch set to auto-pause. When he collapsed just on the other side of the finish line, his watch paused the activity, but started it again when he was loaded into the ambulance. The final 5.6 miles of the activity happened at a pace that could only be explained by an ambulance speeding toward a hospital. Based on the GPS, we know he was taken to Banner Desert Medical Center at the corner of Southern Ave. and Dobson. When his watch stopped moving, the GPS tracker stopped recording. But it wasn’t until 6:30 the next morning—24 hours after the start of the race—that his watch figured the race was finished and automatically uploaded the activity to Strava. By the point, his watch and phone were likely in a box somewhere, because he’d died many hours before.
Makes you stop and think, doesn’t it? It’s one thing for your Garmin to track a training run or even a race. But it’s another thing when your watch tracks the final minutes of your life, then finalizes your workout long after your heart has beaten it’s last.
Pierre’s girlfriend, Eleanor Pereboom, posted a sad, poignant tribute to him:
Godspeed, Pierre.