had picked up a bit during the night and by 9:00 p.m. there were 5,000 spectators in the Garden. Rowell had moved right along with Hazael and finished the day only a lap out of second place. The longest performance of the day was turned in by the durable Fitzgerald. He moved into fourth place, only 10 miles behind Rowell, after completing 109 miles for the day.

The standings at the end of the day were Hughes, 342 miles; Hazael, 341.125 miles; Rowell, 341 miles; Fitzgerald, 331.625 miles; Noremac, 330 miles; Hart, 325 miles; Herty, 309 miles, and Vint, 282 miles. Panchot dropped out before Day 3 ended.

The fourth day was a day filled with drama. Hazael collapsed from exhaustion at 2:00 a.m. His knee, never completely healed from the last race, swelled badly, and he was forced to take frequent rests during the day. Hughes was also “done in,” and took long breaks from his agony on the track. Rowell began to develop symptoms similar to those he suffered in March.

All three moved slower and slower. Only Fitzgerald ran and walked with relative ease. At 3:50 a.m. he passed Hazael. Between 6:00 and 7:00 0’ clock in the morning, Fitzgerald fought Rowell for second place and was successful. At 9:25 a.M. he ran into the lead as he passed the faltering Hughes. In nine hours Fitgerald had taken only 17 minutes of rest and had made up 11 miles on the leader.

Rowell retired from the race for good at 7:15 p.m. Hazael quit at 10:15 p.m. and Vint soon after. Hughes stayed in the race, but he was just trying to survive to cover the minimum distance of 525 miles to share in the gate money.

Rowell was said to be “suffering to such an extent from nervous prostration as to render his further continuance in the race useless.” The true cause for his collapse would not be made public for almost a year. When he returned to England, Rowell was examined by Sir William Gull, the private physician to Queen Victoria. He diagnosed Rowell’s problem as an enlargement of the spleen brought on by a case of malaria he had contracted while training for the race.

The next two days were anticlimactic. The five remaining pedestrians merely went through the motions. The attendance was miserable. Even on the last night no more than a quarter of the Garden was filled. The pedestrians were as worn outas the spectators were. “The appearance of Fitzgerald, Noremac, and Hughes was wretched in the extreme,” wrote the New York Times. “Fitzgerald, with a bad stoop, limped around the track, as if he were treading upon a bed of live coals.”

On the last evening, “an air of gloom, due to the lack of public enthusiasm and empty benches, characterized the closing hours.” Hart, seeing the hopelessness of making any money for his exertion, left the track after finishing 500 miles. Fitzgerald, covering amere 55.5 miles the last day, easily took first place with 577 miles. Noremac was second with 567.25 miles, Herty was third with

541.125 miles, and Hughes, pale and his swollen legs bandaged, finished fourth with 525 miles.

The gross receipts for the week were only $26,373. This was $20,000 less than the receipts from the February/March race and barely a third of the money taken in during the fifth Astley Belt Race. With the rent of $10,000 for the week, the other expenses, and Duryea’s 15 percent cut, it is unlikely that Herty or Hughes won enough to pay their $500 entry fee and approximately another $500 in expenses. No formal accounting was given, as had been done for the other races, but one can estimate that Fitzgerald’s winnings were somewhere around $5,000 to $6,000, Noremac’s about $1,500 to $2,000, Herty’s about $750 to $1,000, and Hughes’s about $500.

Reprinted with permission of Ed Dodd. The illustrations on pages 97, 98,99, and 102, were created for this revised edition of The Great Six-Day Races.

The Great Six-Day Races will continue in the next issue with Chapter 11: Rowell Returns

A prescription for running success

“This really is a great book. | was inspired 1997 © Paper © 464 pp

to get out and train after each time | Item PMAR0530 © ISBN 0-88011-530-0 picked it up.” $22.95 ($33.95 Canadian)

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Combines cutting edge research, sound training principles, and proven program strategies to improve performance in events ranging from the

Governor’s Cup Ghost Town Marathon

Montana’s Long-Running, Colorful, and Only Marathon Struggles for an Identity Amidst a Smorgasbord of Races.

O N SATURDAY of Governor’s Cup weekend in Helena, Montana, road racers have a smorgasbord of races to choose from: the famed 5K (with roughly 4,000 runners, one of the largest in the country), the 10K,a20K, amarathon relay, a marathon corporate cup, and the Governor’s Cup Ghost Town Marathon, one of the most scenic (and most under-run) marathons in the world.

The marathon runs from the “ghost town” of Marysville in the mountains above the city of Helena to the mass finish line downtown on Park Avenue just behind Last Chance Gulch and boasts fewer than 200 runners, half of whom seem to be using the race just so they can check off Montana in their quest to run marathons in all 50 states and D.C. It’s Montana’s only marathon.

It’s unfortunate that the starting field for the marathon is so small because the course is 90 percent downhill, scenic, well-organized, and drips with history. The course (see page 112 for more details) isn’t exactly easy, although

much of it is. If the course has one drawback, it’s that it is located at altitude: the marathon begins in Marysville (the liveliest ghost town we’ ve ever visited) at 5,200 feet and finishes in Helena at 4,157 feet (the unliveliest city we’ve ever seen on a perfectly lovely Sunday).

Let’s explain those two statements up front. Marysville is listed as one of Montana’s famed ghost towns, the remnants of the gold-mining boom and bust. In the 1880s and 1890s, Marysville was bursting at the seams with a population of 50,000. The former city has one of those strike-itrich histories so common to Western mining history. “Irish Tommy” Cruse was a down-on-his-luck prospector who used to sleep on the drug store counter in Helena between hitting up locals for grubstake so he could head back into the mountains in search of gold.

Persistence paid off—big. Tommy struck gold, called his mine Drumlummon after his birthplace in Ireland, and the town of Marysville came into being. There are various legends about how the town got its name. The most romantic is that Tommy named it after the woman in Helena who had been grubstaking him.

Tommy reputedly wrenched $150,000 in gold out of the ground over six years. During the 1880s and 1890s, Drumlummon was Montana’s leading gold producer, to the tune of $50 million. Tommy eventually sold the mine for $1.5 million to an English syndicate, which proceeded to mismanage it into ruin.

THE UNDEAD

Today, Marysville is a burg of roughly 75 people and largely deserted and decrepit buildings. The Marysville House, a funky saloon/restaurant, is one of the liveliest places in Montana the night after the race, and nearly half of the marathoners return to the start to enjoy the good restaurant food. Some of them are even bribed by the waitress with free beers at the bar if they will give up their tables.

Incontrast, the charming little city of Helenais nearly deserted Saturday night after the races, and on Sunday it looks as though a neutron bomb had exploded nearby: all the buildings stand, but there isn’t a person to be seen anywhere. One local bookstore operator told us that since Helena is the state’s capital and employs thousands of area residents, they tend not tocome back to the city over the weekend.

This is unfortunate. If Last Chance Gulch, the walkabout heart of the city, were in any other locale, the place would be teeming with tourists and locals. Last Chance Gulch is the site where the settlement of Helena started. In the summer of 1864 four dispirited prospectors set up a rough camp at what is now Sixth Street and wandered off after supper to look for gold. Reginald Stanley went up the gulch, dug seven feet to bedrock, and pulled out four gold nuggets. Stanley

Governor’s Cup Ghost Town Marathon _ PO. Box 451 : Helena, MT. 59624

PHONE: 406/447-3414

_ RACE DIRECTOR: Susan Frazee YEAR ESTABLISHED: 1974 __ SANCTION: USATF CERTIFIED: USATF

START TIME 7:00 a.m.

RACE RECORD HOLDERS: Male: Jim Hatcher, East Helena, MT, 2:20:35 (1982) Female: Karen Sanford-Gall, Billings, MT, 2:53:29 (1991) _ Male Master: Dave Roberts, Helena, MI, 2:33:42 (1991) Female Master: Priscilla Flesch-Britic, oy MI, 3:12:44 (1992)

PRIZE MONEY: None

_7eN EVENTS: 20K, 10K, 5K, eee cup marathon relay, ator relay

NO. VOLUNTEERS: 150

MARATHON FINISHERS IN ‘97: 173

PROPORTION MALE/FEMALE IN MARATHON. 74% ee 26% female COURSE MARKING: every mile

NO. FIRST AID STATIONS: 13

NO. AID STATIONS: 13

FUTURE RACE DATES: O6JUN98 (25th), O5JUN99, Co

ENTRY COST FOR ‘1998 EDITION: $30

LODGING: For lodging information, contact the Helena Area Chamber of Commerce at 800/7—HELENA (out of state) or 406/442-4120 (within state).

called in his partners; they dug up more ground, found more gold, decided to call the strike Last Chance (since they were on the verge of chucking the whole gold-prospecting enterprise), spent the night firing their guns to ward off the attention of wolves and coyotes, and, as Stanley said, over the following days, “‘set to and dug holes, . . . took our time, and did it well and chose what we thought was the best ground.” Helenahad been nearly discovered 59 years earlier. Lewis and Clark passed several miles north of it on their expedition to the Pacific Coast.

SATURDAY’S RACES

Since the race is on Saturday, runners interested in Helena’s charming little marathon must switch gears and change their frame of reference by one day. Packet pick-up is on Friday. So is the outdoor expo, which is cleverly set up along both sides of the pedestrian walkway up Last Chance Gulch. Unfortunately, in 1997, a severe hailstorm rolls in on Friday afternoon and pounds the Helena area, stripping leaves and branches from trees, destroying the inventory of local nurseries, and dampening the outdoor fitness and health expo.

However, Saturday, dawns with perfect race weather: sunny skies and chilly air. Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Montana is the title sponsor of the race. Fortunately, the company has not insisted that their name be part of

the race’s official title or it would be too long to get on the attractive race T-shirts.

The 1997 edition of the races is the 24th annual. Although in a small city in a remote state, the race draws runners from 32 states and several foreign countries, including England, Canada, and Brazil.

Unlike some cities that tolerate rather than welcome road races, seeing them more as an inconvenience than as a boon to local businesses and the city’s reputation, Helena gets behind the Governor’s Cup Races. Store windows are plastered with race posters, and residents know the course by heart and turn out in droves to volunteer. And it would be difficult to find a city newspaper that gets behind its local race as spiritedly as does the Helena Independent Record.

Friday’s edition carries race news at the top of page one. A report on the 24th edition of the race appears on the top left while a feature story on Curtis Lintvedt occupies the top right. “When Curtis Lintvedt crosses the finish line of the Governor’s Cup Marathon wearing race number 50,” the article notes, “he will have completed a marathon in all 50 states and Washington, D.C., before his 50th birthday in July.”

As the only marathon in Montana, the Governor’s Cup Ghost Town Marathon is a must for the growing number of marathoners (roughly 150 at present) who set a goal of running a marathon in every state and D.C. (Curtis celebrated his accomplishGOVERNOR’S CUP GHOST TOWN MARATHON 109

ust See/Must Avoid

BE VERY major city in the world

features an array of attractions that make it unique and that enlighten and entertain visitors. And, because of its very size, every major city is saddled with areas it would rather have vanish in a puff of smoke. The followingisa brief consideration of both.

GO SEE IT

Last Chance Gulch. Snuggled between two hills in downtown Helenais Last Chance Gulch, where gold was discovered in 1864, and where much of the original town developed. The gulch has been turned into a walking mall, the surfaceis all brick, and both sides are ripe with historic buildings and shops. Keep an eye out for the numerous historic plaques, all of which offer interesting reading if you’re a history buff. The public library is also located

along the upper ee 7 Last Chance Gulch. Reeder’s Alley. Diagonally across

Park Avenue from the library Is

Reeder’s Alley, a carefully-restored segment of Helena’s past. Pioneer Cabin, at the base of Reeders Alley, isamust. Authentically restored, the cabin houses many 1864-era furnishings.

Original Governor’s Mansion, 304 N. Ewing. Built in 1888, the Victorian-style mansion was the home of nine Montana governors between 1913 and 1959. There are guided tours between April and

December.

Gates of the Mountains. North of — Helena, off I-15, this natural wonder along the spectacular Missouri River canyon must have been daunting, indeed, for the 1805 Lewis & Clark Expedition. Commercial boat tours are available. : : continued

Marysville. Northwest of town, off _

Route 279, Marysville is a must. It’ll bea “mu ‘marathon since the starting line isin the middle of town. Worth visiting before and especially after the marathon. Eat The shrimp |

crableg skillet i isa

ment by dining at The Marysville House on Saturday night.)

Most of the top of the front page of Saturday’s paper is taken up with news about the “STORM! Up To 6 Inches of Hail Wrecks Helena Yards and Gardens; Snowplows Are Called Out,” but right next to that headline is “A Flood of Runners Here Today.”

a it you’re running the

Marysville House.

hardy way to reward yourself for a well oF

Nothing. In Helena, some folks park their cars with the windows open,

and theonly harm that befalls them

is that the interiors get cold at night.

Sunday’s paper uses 80 percent of its front page to report on the Governor’s Cup Races: “5,801 Hit the Road.” It also tells of 101-year-old Herbert Kirk of Bozeman, who ran the 5K with his 70-year-old son. Inside, the paper carries a 24-page tabloid with complete results from all six races.

The SK (10:00 a.m.) and 10K (8:00 A.M.) courses are run through the downtown while the longer races run into town from the wide-open Big Sky country.

THE COURSE

The marathon, marathon relay, and corporate cup relay begin at 7:00 a.m. on the main street through Marysville. The first six miles are along a two-lane gravel road that follows the original horse and buggy trail from Marysville to civilization. After six miles, runners hit the asphalt Lincoln Road (flat) to the Silver City Bar, where they are diverted to atwo-mile turnaround loop ona dirtroad. They

are then sent down Birdseye Road, a rolling (but primarily downhill) country road that heads the runners toward Helena. There are a few short but steep rises out of little swales before runners reach the long, long downhill roll toward the valley in which Helena rests.

Before reaching the city, however, runners enter Fort Harrison, where

Silver City

Marysville

® Relay Station wl

Turn-Around Point

Aid Station

they take a mile-long gentle uphill run before turning and rolling onto the VA Hospital grounds, then around Spring Meadow Lake, and into town. The course is downhill or flat from the VA complex to the finish line, except for one uphill segment of Joslyn Avenue.

All races finish on Park Avenue, which parallels Last Chance Gulch, where arts and crafts and food booths

Meadow Dr.

Montana Ave.

G Green

Course Map